By MATT PIKE
The St. Joseph Mustangs fell behind early to the Carroll Merchants, and despite narrowing the gap several times were never able to overcome, falling 7-5 to the team from Iowa on Friday night at Phil Welch Stadium.
The Merchants took a 2-0 lead in the opening inning, first scoring on a sacrifice fly by Brock Moore, driving in Martin Smith, before later in the inning an RBI single from Shane Cowan brought Bradley Soto in to score. The Mustangs did cut the lead to one in the bottom half of the inning, a sacrifice fly by Benton alum Chris Coy driving in Darius Freeman.
Carroll extended the lead in the second inning on a groundout by Smith, bringing home Jack Luthren. Again, St. Joseph narrowed the lead to one run in the bottom half of the inning on a sacrifice fly, this time by Northwest Missouri State’s Parker Griffith driving in Trevor McCollum to narrow the lead to 3-2.
It continued going back and forth in the third inning as the Merchants extended the lead again, a groundout by Kengri De Los Santo driving in Fernando Espinal. In the bottom of the inning, the Mustangs scored again courtesy of a sacrifice fly, Dom Felix flying out to left field and driving in Coy.
Carroll broke things open though through the sixth and seventh innings, first scoring two runs in the sixth as Smith reached first base on a fielders choice with Cowan and Nolan Oliver scoring. In the seventh, De Los Santo hit a solo home run with a full count to left field, his first hit of the season, for the Merchants to push the lead to 7-3.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, the Mustangs got another run on a sacrifice fly as Tyler Gundelfinger flew out to center field, bringing home Felix. In the ninth inning, Easton Phillipe scored the final run for St. Joseph on a wild pitch.
Northwest Missouri State pitcher Jaren Guck took the loss, pitching five innings and giving up four runs on five hits, striking out four and walking two. At the plate, Savannah alum Truman Bodenhausen was 2-for-4 with three stolen bases. Justin George was also 2-for-4 with a walk and a stolen base in the loss.
The Mustangs are now 19-4 on the season, 14-3 in the MINK League. They wrap up a four game home stand on Saturday taking on the Sedalia Bombers at Phil Welch Stadium. First pitch is at 7pm, gates open at 5:30.
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt.
