Wildcats Win Three Straight, Take Home Weekend Series against Culver-Stockton

BALDWIN CITY, Kan. - Hosting its final Heart series of the 2024 regular season, Baker won the first three games of its home weekend outing against Culver-Stockton, including a pair of one-run victories, to bounce back with a series win over C-SC and move to 15-13 in conference play.

BU held the visitors to just one run in each of the first two games of the series, winning those by scores of 7-1 and 2-1 before taking game three, 5-4 on Sunday. Culver-Stockton held off the four-game sweep by coming away with a 4-2 win in the final game of the weekend.

Game 1 - BU 7, C-SC 1
Starter Caden Pogue allowed just four hits in seven innings and the BU offense scored at least a run in four consecutive innings to earn a 7-1 victory in the series opener.

After Tanner Twillman scored on a wild pitch in the second, Brayden Vawter dropped a two-run single in the bottom of the third to make it a 3-0 lead for BU.

Twillman and Javier Aguirre each drove in a run on RBI singles before Jon Jenkins smashed a two-run bomb in the bottom of the fifth to punctuate Baker's game one victory.

Pogue pitched an efficient seven innings in his 11th start of the season, striking out three and having Culver's only run come across on a double-play ball in the top of the sixth.

Game 2 - BU 2, C-SC 1
All three runs of game two were scored in the first two innings as a two-run bottom of the second secured the day one sweep for Baker with a 2-1 win in Saturday's nightcap.

Culver-Stockton took the lead in the top of the first on a bases-loaded walk against game two starter Kole Starlin. After the one-run first, Starlin pitched four straight scoreless innings before turning it over to Evan Gottstein in the fifth, who pitched a perfect final two innings in relief.

Trailing by one in the bottom of the second, Jenkins followed up a Twillman leadoff single with his first triple of 2024 tying the game at 1-1. Later in the inning, Jaidon Bowers laced an RBI double to right center to score Jenkins and put Baker in front, 2-1.

Gottstein pitched 1-2-3 innings in the sixth and seventh to earn his first save of the spring.

Game 3 - BU 5, C-SC 4
On Sunday, Jenkins homered for the second straight day as Baker claimed the second straight one-run game of the series with a 5-4 win in game three.

In the bottom of the second, Jenkins smoked a three-run shot for his 10th home run of the season and second of the weekend to give BU an early 3-0 lead. Howerton added a sac fly RBI to make it a four-run second inning for BU.

C-SC used a three-run frame in the top of the fourth to make it a one-run ballgame with a two-run single and then a bases-loaded free pass.

Howerton recorded his second sac fly RBI of the game in the bottom of the fourth to tack on a decisive insurance run for Baker as the BU bullpen pitched the final 3.1 innings, allowing a C-SC solo home run in the fifth, but holding on to help the 'Cats take their first conference series since mid-March.

Game 4 - C-SC 4, BU 2
In a seventh-inning rally, Baker scored two runs with two outs and had the bases-loaded before its comeback bid came up short as Culver-Stockton avoided the sweep with a 4-2 win in the series finale.

C-SC scored exactly one run in four straight innings and held the BU offense to five hits and zero runs until the final frame.

Vawter's two-run home run in the seventh ignited a two-out rally for BU with Eli Young following with a double before back-to-back walks loaded the bases. Culver-Stockton was able to get a flyout to spoil the comeback and salvage a win out of the four-game series.

The seventh-inning rocket was Vawter's fifth of the season and the third home run of the series for BU after the pair of homers from Jenkins.

Up next, Baker will take a break from Heart action and play the first of three non-conference games next week with a midweek matchup against Kansas Christian set for Wednesday, April 17 at 6 p.m. in Baldwin City.

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