SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – The Vincennes University baseball team was back in action Friday afternoon at the 2025 Mid-West Athletic Conference Pool B tournament hosted by Lincoln Land Community College in Springfield, Ill.
The Trailblazers, facing elimination for the second straight game, battled against a tough Parkland College team and rode a pair of excellent pitching performances by sophomore JD Bowser (Mt. Carmel, Ill.) and freshman Jakob Hoyer (Georgetown, Ind.) to pick up the 3-1 victory over the Cobras.
Vincennes opened the scoring in the first after a leadoff single by sophomore Bradyn Douglas (Frankton, Ind.).
Douglas would move up on a stolen base before scoring the first run of the game on an RBI single by sophomore Nate Montgomery to put the Blazers up early 1-0.
Parkland would respond and get on the board in the third, evening the score at 1-1.
Vincennes would get the lead back in the fifth after a leadoff walk by sophomore Bryce Gross (Bridgeport, Ill.) and freshman Jevan Andrews (Hobart, Ind.) being hit by pitch.
Gross would put the Blazers back on top by scoring on a fielder’s choice put in play by Nate Montgomery, giving him two RBIs on the day.
Andrews would also come around to score later in the inning on a fielding error by the Cobras on a ball put in play by freshman Carter Gricius (Scottsburg, Ind.), giving Vincennes a 3-1 lead over Parkland.
The Trailblazers pitching took over from there as the Blazers closed out the final six innings on the mound without allowing a run as VU closed out the 3-1 victory over the Cobras, sending them to the MWAC Pool B Championship game tomorrow morning.
Sophomore JD Bowser got the start on the mound for the Trailblazers and pitched an excellent game on the mound, throwing six and one-third innings, allowing one run on five hits and striking out four.
Freshman Jakob Hoyer took over the game for Bowser, working his way out of a pair of bases loaded jams in his two and two-thirds innings of relief, allowing just a single hit in the outing.
“JD Bowser had an unbelievable six-plus innings and Hoyer coming in to get the last two and two-thirds innings,” VU Head Baseball Coach Chris Barney said. “You can’t credit the sophomore enough for stepping up in that situation. He had been in it last year and struggled and this year really did a great job for us. I’m extremely proud of him and extremely proud of all 31 guys that are here. They’ve done a great job all the way through.”
“We took advantage of a few mistakes that they had early, did some really good base running,” Barney added. “Now we’ve got to come back tomorrow and have that same energy and life.”
“We’ve got to do a better job of swinging it and putting balls in play,” Barney said. “They did a good job of adjusting to us. Their pitchers did a good job against us after the first kid struggled a bit in the first inning. We’ve got to swing the bat a little better. We’ve still got Douglas swinging it well and a few other guys that continue to move guys up and get us into scoring position. We’ve got to continue to do that and be successful.”
The Trailblazers will look to keep this momentum going as the Blazers now head into a rematch against their opening round opponent and host Lincoln Land Community College Saturday, May 10 in the MWAC/Region 24 Pool B Championship game.
