The Omnibus

Issue date: 5/11/07 Section: Sports

Senior Skyler Powers hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the seventh to give SBU the lead in his last Bearcat at bat. The SBU baseball team slugged its way to a series victory over Washburn to end the season.

If there was ever a way to end a season, the Southwest Baptist baseball team did it.
After losing 16 of 19 games heading into the Washburn series, SBU pounded out 44 runs to win three of four against a solid Washburn Ichabod team.
SBU, who finished the season 18-31 overall and 11-24 in the MIAA and dropped the first game to WU (21-28 / 15-21), used the arm of junior James Ledford (3-7) to shutout the Ichabods 11-0 in game two. Ledford, who had struggled for most of the season, threw seven shutout innings, striking out seven batters and allowing only three hits. Freshman Evan Moore pitched the eighth inning before SBU invoked the spread rule with a five-run bottom of the fifth.
The real drama of the series came in the final game of the season. Senior Skyler Powers hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the seventh to put the Bearcats up 8-7 in the bottom of the seventh. The home-run came in Powers' last at-bat as a Bearcat.
The three straight wins tied the Bearcats longest winning streak of the season. The last time SBU had won three straight was March 27-30 when they took one from Missouri Southern and swept Truman State in a two-game series.
SBU finished the season with six players hitting above .300 for the season. Junior Brad Mountjoy led the pack with a .378 average (fifth in the MIAA) to go with his team-leading eight home runs, 68 hits and .606 slugging percentage.
The senior tandem of Powers, Spencer Wilkins and Kevin Miller provided the Bearcats with a combined .308 batting average, 26 doubles, 12 home runs and 77 RBI.
Pitching was something that hurt the Bearcats. The 7.04 earned run average was a product of their inability to throw strikes. As a team, SBU walked 153 batters, hit an additional 73 and threw 52 wild pitches. However, blaming it all on the pitching staff would be tough as the SBU defense was a result of 55 unearned runs. Ledford was the unfortunate benefactor of a team high 12 unearned runs and Eric Wallace was handed 10 unearned runs in just 21 innings of work.
In relation to the MIAA, SBU's team ERA was better than WU, MSSU and TSU. SBU also led the conference in home runs allowed (55) and were tied with MSSU for the second fewest wins (18) and batting average against (.316).
Still, SBU did provide a lot of positive things in MIAA competition. SBU hit .309 as a team, finished in the top half of the league in on-base percentage and junior Zane Montgomery finished fourth in the MIAA with 7.92 strikeouts per game. sophomore Bobby McMillin finished third in the MIAA with five saves.
The 2007 SBU Bearcats' 11 conference wins tied them with the 1999 edition for fourth most conference wins in school history.
SBU improved to 126-274-1 overall and 68-174 in the MIAA since 2000.

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