Mustangs shatter school record in rout of Bobcats
Game 1
Game 1
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Mount Mercy | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 10 | 0 |
|
Peru State | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 0 |
Game 2
Game 2
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Mount Mercy | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 15 | 16 | 2 |
|
Peru State | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 16 | 15 | 0 |
Game 1
Game 1
| Final (10) | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Mount Mercy | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 7 | 11 | 0 |
|
Peru State | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 8 | 13 | 3 |
Game 2
Game 2
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Mount Mercy | 6 | 17 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 32 | 27 | 1 |
|
Peru State | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 9 | 2 |
PERU, Neb. -- The Mount Mercy baseball team capped off a split with Peru State by scoring a school-record 32 runs in game four of their Heart of America Athletic Conference series on Monday at Centennial Complex.
The Mustangs won the series opener and the series finale, while the two Bobcat wins in the middle were one-run victories in extra innings. Mount Mercy used a three-run sixth in game one to get a 5-2 win. Jeremy Figueroa and Joel Vaske combined for five hits and five runs batted in while Kyle Lehmann (6-2) struck out four and didn't walk a batter over seven innings.
Mount Mercy had the lead slip away three times in a 16-15 loss in nine innings in game two. Five Mustangs had multi-hit games. Figueroa went 3-for-5 with three runs scored. Ryan Knowlton was 4-for-6, scored four times, and drove in five runs. Evan Paulus finished 3-for-5, Riley Rundquist 2-for-5 with an RBI, and Kyle Moeder was 2-for-6 with three runs batted in.
Game three of the series on Monday was a heartbreaker for Mount Mercy, which took a 7-3 lead in the top of the 10th inning only to see Peru State plate five runs in the bottom half to win, 8-7. Paulus homered and drove in two runs, Matthew Murphy had two hits and an RBI, and Drake Frazier finished with two hits and two runs batted in.
The Mustangs rebounded in a huge way in the series finale, setting school records for runs (32), hits (27), and RBI (31) in a 32-6 rout. Mount Mercy scored in every inning, including an astonishing 17 runs on 14 hits in the second frame alone. That included a three-run homer by Rundquist, a two-run shot from Frazier, and a grand slam by Vaske.
In all, 15 of the 16 Mustangs that batted recorded at least one hit. Frazier finished 4-for-6 with six RBI, Rundquist was 2-for-3 with five runs batted in, then his replacement later on, Brandon Bickford, was 2-for-3 with four RBI. Murphy ended up 3-for-3 with three runs driven in while Justin Janssen was 2-for-4 with four RBI and three runs scored.
The previous school record for runs scored in a game was 25 against Southern Connecticut State in 1995, while the single-game hits (26) and RBI (22) happened against Hanover in 2004. Mount Mercy also tied the school record for doubles in a game (7), which also happend twice last season. They collected seven doubles against Benedictine Mesa and Clarke in 2022.
A busy week continues for the Mustangs, who host a single, nine-inning contest against Viterbo on Wednesday at 6:00 pm at the Robert W. Plaster Athletic Complex. Clarke, which owns a game-and-a-half lead over Mount Mercy in the Heart's North Division, visits Cedar Rapids for four games this weekend, including Senior Day on Sunday. First pitch is 1:00 pm on Saturday and Sunday at the PAC.