OZARK, Mo. – The Raven Baseball team scattered seven runs off 12 hits over nine innings on Sunday morning to remain alive in the 2017 Heart Baseball Tournament while starting pitcher Alex Garcia recorded a complete-game shutout en route to a 7-0 win over Grand View University (29-23).
Benedictine (35-21) chased Grand View starter Sam Wadsworth after five innings as he gave up all seven runs with only three earned .
Logan Finley got the scoring started for the Ravens in the top of the first when he connected on a single to score Matthew Jarecki. Benedictine then added two more runs in the top of the second after Logan Elliott and Jacob Kirmer started the inning with back-to-back singles. Elliott scored on a Daryl Myers single and then Michael Kruse - courtesy running for Kirmer - scored on a fielder's choice put in play by off the bat of Michael Slaten.
While the Ravens were getting going at the plate, Garcia was cruising on the mound. He held the Vikings hitless through two innings and threw 22 consecutive strikes before throwing his first ball.
Benedictine padded their lead with a pair of runs in the fourth and fifth innings. Myers scored on a double from Slaten and then Rocky DeSantis singled in Slaten for the two runs in the fourth. After a pair of errors to lead off the fifth, Jacob Kirmer hit a sacrifice fly to score Reid Fritzke before Jarecki singled in Austin Watamaniuk.
That was all the offensive support that Garcia would need as he continued to limit Grand View at the plate. The Vikings were only able to reach second base four times over nine innings and never had a runner reach third against Garcia. He finished with three strikeouts off 109 pitches as he induced six flyouts and 10 groundouts over nine innings of work for his fourth complete game of the season and first career shutout as a Raven.
The Ravens finished with two hits for extra bases as Watamaniuk added a double to Slaten's. Jarecki, Myers, Finley and Watamaniuk each recorded two hits with RBIs coming of the bats of Jarecki, Myers, Slaten, DeSantis, Finley and Kirmer.
Benedictine advances to their third elimination game tonight at 7 p.m. against the winner of the elimination game between Culver-Stockton College and Central Methodist that started at 1 p.m.
