O'Fallon, Mo. – The McPherson College baseball team fell to 1-1 in the O'Fallon Bracket of the NAIA Opening Round Tournament, dropping their game on Tuesday to the top seeded Central Methodist University Eagles.
The day was marked with several delays as the game got pushed back twice because of rain in the O'Fallon area. The Bulldogs and Eagles finally took the field, at 4:00 pm, five hours after their original start time.
The Eagles showed why they were the top seed in the tournament, outscoring the Bulldogs 17-8. They jumped out to a 5-0 lead on the Bulldogs after two innings of play, but MC got three of those runs back in the top of the third, two of them coming on a homerun by Kyle Lux. Unfortunately they gave all three of those runs back in the next half inning. The Eagles led 10-3 heading into their half of the fifth inning when the game was delayed again because of rain. The hour long rain delay definitely hurt the Bulldogs more so than the Eagles.
After the delay, the Bulldogs went through two pitchers without recording an out and gave up five runs in the inning. Despite trailing 15-3, the Bulldogs continued to battle. They picked up a run in their half of the sixth and then three in the seventh and one more in the eighth. But the hole they dug in the first five innings was too great to overcome.
It was a tough day for the Bulldog pitchers. In all, they sent six arms to the mound. They combined for 17 runs on 16 hits, four strikeouts and 11 walks. Alex Escobar got the start, and was collared with the loss. His day lasted two and a third giving up 10 runs on 10 hits with a pair of strikeouts and walks.
At the plate, the Bulldogs scored their eight runs on 14 hits, six of those going for extra bases, led by Jake Pearson who went 3 for 5 with three singles and a run scored. Lux, Kris Perez, Jonah Shabry, and Tyler Wood all had multiple hits in the contest.
With the loss, the Bulldogs fall to 37-14 on the year. They are still alive in the tournament and will play in an elimination game at 1:30 pm Wednesday against the winner of Doane University and Benedictine Mesa University, who played the late game Tuesday evening.
