Wildcats’ Tournament Run Spoiled in 9-3 Setback to No. 4 Mount Mercy

OZARK, Mo. - After winning back-to-back games, No. 6 Baker had its conference tournament run come to an end, falling to No. 4 Mount Mercy, 9-3 on Sunday morning in an elimination game of the 2025 Heart Baseball Conference Tournament.

The Wildcats scored the game's first two runs to take a 2-0 lead, but the Mustangs, who were coming off a victory over No. 2 MidAmerica Nazarene, responded by scoring in six straight innings to storm back and knock BU out of the tournament.

Mount Mercy's starting pitcher Tyler Nagelbach went the full nine innings and held BU scoreless for a five-inning stretch, allowing the Mustangs lineup to start building their lead midway through the game.

Every Wildcat batter who was able to tag Nagelbach for a hit ended up with multiple knocks against the MMU righty with Jaidon Bowers, Kolden Howerton, Camden Karlin and Dylan Roush all posting multi-hit days. Roush finished with a team-high three hits and tallied his 11th stolen base of the season after swiping a bag in the top of the second.

For the third straight game, Baker was first to the scoreboard with back-to-back singles from Howerton and Bowers in the top of the second resulting in Bowers knocking in Howerton on a fly ball to left field to give BU a 1-0 lead.

Howerton came through with an RBI single in his next at-bat in the third to score Eli Young, who was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning, and make it a 2-0 advantage for the Wildcats.

The Mustangs offense steadily came alive over the next couple of innings with a run in the third and the fourth to tie the game at 2-2. They put up a two-run bottom of the fifth to take their first lead of the day and padded it with five runs in the next three innings to go up 9-2 heading into the top of the ninth.

With two outs in the ninth, Bowers, Roush and Karlin connected on three straight singles with Karlin plating Bowers to settle the final score at 9-3.

Baker closes out a 2025 Heart tournament run that saw them win multiple games for the second time in the past three years, picking up back-to-back victories over No. 8 Clarke and No. 5 Park. The Wildcats defeated the Pride, 5-4 on Friday before coming out on top of another one-run game with an 11-10 win over the Pirates on Saturday.

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