BOLIVAR, Mo -- The SBU baseball Bearcats swept the first two games of conference play, beating the Washburn Ichabods 3-2 in the first game and 6-5 in the second. 

In game one, the Bearcats (4-5, 2-0) defeated Washburn (4-5, 0-2) in extra innings on a single off the bat of Kyle Tormanen in the eighth inning.  Justin Crumpley scored the game winning run after singling up the middle to start the inning.

Kyle Guemmer earned the victory after pitching two scoreless innings in relief, striking out three.  Greg Seay started the first game going six innings, giving up two earned runs on only three hits.  Head coach Sam Berg said, “We had good starting pitching today, which kept us in the games.” 

Brendon Cox and Tormanen both went 2-for-4 in the first game, with three RBI’s between them, Cox with two and Tormanen with the game winning RBI.

SBU beat Washburn 6-5 in the second game.  Good starting pitching was the key to victory in the second game as well.  Ray Kelly (1-1) was the winning pitcher going five strong innings giving up four earned runs on seven hits, striking out one.  Guemmer came up big in the second game earning the save. 

C.J. Samuels had a big game going 2-for-3 with two RBI.  Wise, Barnhart, Crumpley and Tormanen each contributed by driving in a run each.  Wise and Barnhart scored two runs apiece as well.

Berg commented after the game, “We got off to a good start in conference play today.  The fact that we scheduled some tough non-conference games really helped because the guys were used to some close games.”

Saturday’s (February 28)  games are cancelled due to cold weather conditions.  SBU is in action next week hosting Arkansas Tech on Tuesday, March 3, start time is 1:00.

SBU 3, WU 2 (8 innings)
SBU 6, WU 5