Bearcats complete Southern sweep
ANTHONY CRANE/THE FORUM
Northwest junior shortstop Wilmer Jimenez celebrates a home run Monday with junior John Connors (19) at Bearcat Field.
MARYVILLE, Mo. — Northwest Missouri State is off to its best start since the 2017 season at 16-6. The Bearcats added to their win total on Monday with a 4-3 win over Missouri Southern, earning the 3-game sweep.
“Last year was about setting a standard and an expectation and it doesn’t matter who is here and who is a part of our program,” Northwest head coach Tony Jandron said. “We lost 18 seniors last year and it was the same message last year as it is this year. We want to be atop this league, but it’s a tough league and a gauntlet.
“It’s something that we embrace and there is no reason that we can’t and it’s just a matter of setting our expectations.”
Northwest took another step in the right direction Monday afternoon at Bearcat Field. The Bearcats took the first two games of the series with the offense producing 17 runs and the pitching staff allowing just five total runs to a Lions offense that had scored 39 in their previous four games.
The Bearcats received another strong pitching performance in the series finale from Logan Brasel. The junior from Liberty North allowed just three baserunners through the first four innings.
Brasel ran into some trouble in the top of the fifth with the game still scoreless. After a leadoff double and a two-out walk, Will Doherty broke the tie with a single to center field, scoring two runs.
“I didn’t feel at my best, but the most important thing was to compete,” Brasel said. “I competed every inning and two runs isn’t the best, but I found a way to complete the outing.”
Monday continued the strong run Brasel has been on since allowing 11 runs in his first four appearances. Since then, the sophomore has allowed four earned runs in 18 innings.
“Logan gave us a very competitive start and really all of our starters gave us competitive starts this weekend,” Jandron said. “We’ve got quality arms that didn’t even see the field this weekend and that’s a good problem to have.”
The Bearcat bats were slow to get going against one of the conference’s top pitchers in Michael Mulhollon. But after five shutout innings, Northwest found all the offense they needed in the sixth inning.
The bottom of the sixth started with a ground out, but back-to-back walks to Leonardo May and Frank Gall put the Bearcats in position to tie the game at two. Mulhollon struck out Jeremiah Cabuyaban before John Connors tied the game with a double on a one-two pitch.
The double ended Mulhollan’s afternoon, giving way to Jackson Gamble. The gamble didn’t pay off for the Lions as Wilmer Jiminez deposited the ball well past the outfield wall on his first pitch.
“The good thing is we all know that we can rely on the next guy,” Gall said. “We’re just trying to pass the torch on to the next guy. We have trust in all nine guys, so it makes it really fun and easy to hit with this team.”
Now at 16-6 and winners in 11 of their last 13, Northwest now sits fourth in the MIAA with Pittsburg State, Central Missouri and Rogers State all having just one conference loss.
The Bearcats will go out-of-conference for a rematch with William Jewell in Liberty. Northwest took down the Cardinals 6-2 last Tuesday with two runs in the seventh and eighth inning.
Northwest will have some time off after that, not returning to the field until next Tuesday with a trip to Central Missouri. After a three-game series with Washburn, the Bearcats will return home for a matchup with Missouri Western on March 25.
“We’ll get William Jewell tomorrow and they gave us a bit of a headache last week,” Jandron said. “We’ll start there and then get a fresh week off with a great opportunity to get our bodies right here in the middle of our season. Then we get a good opponent next Tuesday in Central Missouri that’s going to be a challenge and we’re looking forward to that, but now we’re going to get our bodies right, attack it day-by-day and hopefully stack some good practices together.”
