OZARK, Mo. – The Raven Baseball team scored five runs in the bottom of the fifth, adding another in the sixth while holding Culver-Stockton College scoreless over the final four innings of the game on Wednesday as Benedictine (27-27) advanced into bracket play of the 2018 Heart Baseball Championship at US Baseball Park with a 10-7 win.
Culver-Stockton (16-28) struck first with three runs in the third inning but the Ravens answered with a run in the first and three runs in the second to take their first lead.
Michael Kruse earned the start on the hill for the Ravens but was replaced by Alex Garcia in the top of the second. All three runs scored by the Wildcats against Kruse were unearned as he gave up two hits in his one inning of work. Garcia threw the remaining nine innings, holding the Wildcats to four runs off 10 hits with seven strikeouts to earn the win.
Offensively, the Ravens finished the game with 11 hits. Michael Slaten went 2 for 4 with a double, home run and three RBIs while Daryl Meyers went 2 for 5 with a double and three RBIs. Matthew Jarecki and Peter Hahn added a double each while Hahn finished with two hits and an RBI. Brendon Glock went 2 for 3 with an RBI while Austin Watamaniuk added an RBI to round out the Ravens efforts at the plate.
The Ravens were scheduled to play today at 4:30 against No. 2 seed Clarke University, but due to poor weather conditions and an unsettled forecast for the day, all of Thursday's games have been moved to Friday. The Ravens will now play Clarke at 1:15 p.m. as the two teams switch time slots with Evangel and MNU in order to allow the players from the Evangel team to participate in the school's graduation ceremony on Friday.
A win on Friday by Benedictine would advance them to game eight of the tournament on Saturday at 7:45 while a loss would move them into game six at 1:15 p.m. Saturday - based off the bracket released prior to the weather delay by the Heart. All games of the 2018 Heart Baseball Championship are being streamed through the Evangel Digital Network and are being produced by BRSN. Links will be posted on the Raven Baseball schedule page.
