Offensive explosion, strong pitching lead Mustangs to pair of wins

JOPLIN, Mo. – The Mustangs fell behind in their first game of the 2024 season, but pulled out a pair of victories Sunday afternoon in Joplin, Missouri. Morningside defeated Grand View 17-4 and Columbia 4-0. 

Jacob O'Dell opened the season off with a lead-off home run to give the Mustangs a 1-0 lead against Grand View. Grand View responded with three runs in the bottom of the second to take a 3-1 lead.

It was all Mustangs from there. A Giacomo Crosetti double brought home Eddie Brancato in the third and the fourth inning went scoreless. The Mustangs broke the game open in the fifth with 10 runs in the inning.

It started with a Crosetti single to score O'Dell. Aidan Bishop singled and Luke Froehlich tripled to make it 6-3 Morningside. After two more Mustang runs came across and the bases loaded for Jayson Willers, the preseason all-American hit a grand slam to make it 14-3 and Froehlich added a two-run blast to cap the scoring in the inning.

Dylan Ades added an RBI-double and Luke Blackmon hit a two-run homer in the seventh.

O'Dell, Brancato, Crosetti, and Froehlich tallied two hits each. Froehlich was the only Mustang with multiple extra-base hits, recording a triple and a home run, driving in four runs. Willers had one hit, a home run, bringing in four runs. Brancato scored three times.

Kai Purdy-Burton pitched five innings, striking out three in the win. Will Brandner added two innings pitched, striking out two. 

In game two, the scoring was more spread out for Morningside and the pitching was more efficient.

Morningside scored in the first inning again in game two as Crosetti doubled in Brancato. Brancato scored again in the third on a wild pitch. Cade Nolan singled home Ryan Kiolbassa in the fourth and hit a sacrifice fly to score Froehlich in the sixth.

Froehlich tallied two hits and Nolan had two RBI for the Mustangs. Brancato and Crosetti had doubles and Froehlich recorded his second triple in as many games.

Morningside used two pitchers in game two as Conner Maston and Josh Pratt gave up one hit each and no runs combined. Maston struck out five in three innings and Pratt added two strikeouts over four innings.

Morningside faces Columbia for a traditional doubleheader Monday.