OZARK, Mo. – No. 7 seeded William Penn University rallied for 5 runs in the bottom oof the fifth inning and then came up with some bid defensive plays to down No. 8 seeded Benedictine in the first game of the 2023 Heart Baseball Championship Series at Sky Bacon Stadium.

Benedictine pulled out to a 6-1 lead through three innings. Jack Harpole had an RBI double in the first that scored Creighton Cordova before Brylan Haas drove in Chase Pearson and Jack Minnis with a double in the second. Haas scored later in the inning after Theo Kummer reached on an error and then Ashton Neuman was hit by a pitch that scored Hunter Moffet to complete the inning.

Haas singled to score Pearson in the top of the third before the Statesmen scored 3 runs in their half of the inning.

William Penn rallied for a 5-run bottom of the fifth before Ben DeLaForest entered in relief and shut them down the rest of the game.

DeLaForest went 4 innings, giving up four hits while holding the Statesmen scoreless. He scattered 5 strikeouts over his outing. He took over for Lance Bolles, who earned the start, and Matthew Gephardt. Bolles threw into the fifth inning, giving up 5 earned runs off 7 hits before Gephardt gave up an earned run off a hit in the fifth before DeLaForest took over.

Haas went 4 for 4 at the plate with 2 runs scored and 3 RBI. Kummer went 2 for 5 while Harpole and Jack Minnis went 2 for 4.

With the loss, the Ravens move to the Consolation Bracket of the Championship Series where they will take on the loser of game two between MNU and Baker at 10 a.m. Friday back at Sky Bacon Stadium.