Park University's baseball program continued Heart of America Athletic Conference play with No. 20 Central Methodist University in Fayette, Mo. on Saturday and Sunday. The Eagles took each game of the series for the sweep, 16-0, 4-3, 12-5, 9-1.

The Pirates drop to 14-28 and 8-20 in the Heart, while the Eagles are trending upwards with seven wins in a row at 32-12 on the season and 22-4 in conference play.

GAME 1 BOX SCORE | 16-0

Yadiel Santana and Casey Mareschal posted the only two hits for Park in game one, as not much was able to be generated offensively.

The Eagles got ahead in the bottom of the first with a three-run inning on three hits, including a three-run home run.

Adam Stilts started in game one and lasted 3.2 innings before the bullpen came in to back him up. Logan Weaver, Seth Brecheen, and JD Wright each got time on the mound. Brecheen and Wright both pitched shutout innings with only one hit coming in the last two innings for the Eagles.

Before the sixth inning though, the Eagles scored in four-of-five innings including two four spots in the second and fifth innings, and five runs on four hits in the fourth to reach the 16-0 win.

GAME 2 BOX SCORE | 4-3

The Pirates were on pace with Central Methodist in game two with eight hits for Park, while the Eagles had nine hits and one error defensively.

Raul Garcia pitched an excellent game for Park with six innings on the mound and only allowed two earned runs, striking out five batters.

One run came in the bottom of the first for Central Methodist, but the Pirates fired a three-run inning in the top of the third to take the lead.

Back-to-back doubles to lead-off the inning by Yadiel Santana and Bryce Dye were instrumental and tied the game at 1-1. The next three Pirates reached, including an RBI single from Ricardo Hernandez, a walk from Zayne Morrow, and an infield error to load the bases. Kenneth Melendez was then hit by a pitch to give Park a 3-1 lead.

The game was in Park control despite one run coming in the next half inning by the Eagles to make it 3-2. Garcia threw three straight shutout innings from the fourth through the sixth.

Hunter Edwards came in to relieve Garcia and a leadoff walk was the window the Eagles needed. Four straight singles after the walk scored the two runs for the walk-off, 4-3.

GAME 3 BOX SCORE | 12-5

The Pirates had another lead in game three after another three-run third inning.

Five hits came through in the inning, including an RBI single from Alex Rodriguez and a two-out, two RBI single from Dye scored the third run to lead 3-2.

Guillermo Gelpi pitched five competitive innings and allowed four hits, four walks, and four runs came in to score. Gelpi also struck out five hitters.

The Pirates tied it up in the top of the sixth, which featured three singles to start the inning from Trent Turner, Armando Ramirez, and Melendez. The Eagles turned a double-play on Daniel Maldonado's grounder back to the pitcher, but not before Turner scored.

With the score tied 4-4, the Eagles broke the game open with an eight run bottom of the sixth brought on by seven hits and one error.

Michael Hoffman took over for Gelpi in the sixth and the first two runners got on base with a single and a walk. Jessie Scholtz came in to face one batter, who reached by an error. Two more pitchers came in for Park in the inning, including Bryce Perdieu and Adrian Colon-Aviles. The Eagles had six hits against Perdieu and a walk to score six more runs. Colon retired two of his three batters faced to close out the inning, putting Central Methodist up 12-4.

Dye hit a double in the top of the seventh to set up Hernandez for the RBI on the groundout to the shortstop. The Pirates tacked their final run of the game in the seventh before the game ended, 12-5.

The Pirates matched the Eagles with 11 hits and Maldonado joined Dye with a double in the game.

GAME 4 BOX SCORE | 9-1

Angel Lebron started game four and pitched five innings with three shutout innings during his outing.

A triple and double in the bottom of the first got the Eagles on the board, but the Pirates were quick to respond in the next half inning with a two-out pair of singles from Mareschal and Melendez to tie the game 1-1.

The Eagles tacked on two more runs to make it 3-1 in the bottom of the fourth, but a six run sixth inning was looming and the Eagles secured the sweep after a 9-1 victory.

Six runs came in to score on four hits for Central Methodist, and the Eagles had 10 hits on the game. Park had eight hits themselves with one double by Zayne Morrow within that total.

It's a tight race in the Heart South standings for fourth place, as the top four teams from each division of the Heart will advance to post-season play in Springfield, Mo. If there is a tie at the end of next weekend then first head-to-head competition will be considered then division record is the next criteria.

See the Heart standings heading into the final weekend of regular-season play.
 

School	Conference	Overall
Central Methodist (MO)	22-4	32-12
MidAmerica Nazarene	19-9	26-19
Baker (KS)	17-10	25-19
Benedictine (KS)	9-16	14-27
Missouri Valley	10-18	14-28
Evangel (MO)	8-20	23-23
Park	8-20	14-28

 
Park's final home series will be on Friday and Saturday, April 28-29 against Missouri Valley College at 1pm both days. Watch the live-action here.