Central Missouri Knocks Out St. Mary’s, 5-2

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (UCM Media Relations) – The matchup of top five teams went Central Missouri's way on Saturday night in the NCAA-II South Central Regional as the No. 4 Mules eliminated third-ranked St. Mary's University 5-2, earning a trip to the championship game on Sunday.

The combination of right-hander Kurtis Schuyler and lefty Travis Unthank kept the Rattlers off the board in every inning but one, earning the win and save, respectively.

Central Missouri (48-8) provided all the offense it would need in the third and fifth innings. The Mules had runners at first and third for Bret Schwartz with no outs in the third, and the junior shortstop delivered with an RBI single through the right side. After players moved to second and third on a balk, senior center fielder Tyler Ruch hit a sacrifice fly to deep left, making it 2-0.

The Mules loaded the bases in the fifth with two outs, and this time it was senior outfielder Jon Wegener with the big hit, smacking one up the middle to score two runs, but a throwing error by the center fielder allowed him to move to third, and another run to score, making it 5-0.

Schuyler tossed five innings of shutout baseball, but ran into trouble in the sixth after the bases were loaded with no outs. He surrendered a hit to the next Rattler (47-10) to make it 5-1, but Unthank came in to minimize the damage, allowing only a hit to make it 5-2, followed by two strikeouts and a shallow fly out to center field to keep it there.

Unthank finished the game, throwing four innings and striking out seven with only two hits. Schuyler struck out four and allowed two runs with seven hits and no walks.

Central Missouri was out-hit 9-6 in the game, and no player recorded multiple safe knocks. The Mules committed no errors on defense, while STMU had three in the contest.

UCM advances to play Incarnate Word at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday in the South Central Region Championship Game. The Cardinals must beat the Mules twice to claim the title.