COLUMBUS, Miss. -  The W baseball enjoyed a winning weekend in its home – and St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SLIAC) – opening games by taking all three games versus Blackburn College at CCA Field. The Owls (8-5, 3-0 SLIAC) won a pair of tight contests in Friday's doubleheader (6-5 & 5-3), before administering a comeback spanking to the Beavers (4-4, 0-3 SLIAC) in Saturday's series finale, 14-7.
 
The biggest story of game one, as it turned out, was the weather. And credit Owls play-by-play man Jasper Poag with the old "announcer's jinx". In his early inning banter, Poag commented on it being a "perfect day for baseball', 76 degrees and a slight breeze, which any self-respecting fan knows not to do because it will surely tempt the "baseball god's." Just over an hour later – in the bottom of the fifth, The W down 5-3, and with virtually no warning – it was as if Mother Nature, herself, had turned her garden hose on CCA Field, resulting in a one hour-forty-minute delay after the short, but steady, deluge.
 
When play resumed, Blackburn starter Royce Congi went back out to pitch after the delay. With one out and one on, Zach Johnson was hit by a pitch as play resumed. A passed ball on a strikeout allowed Jay Marbutt and Johnson to both advance into scoring position. A fielding error at short permitted Marbutt to score and Johnson took third, before Jack Sledge tied the game at 5-5 with an RBI single that plated Johnson.
 
That score stood until the bottom of the eighth. Sophomore Swayze Rikard led off the home half with a double to center and moved up to third on a ground out. Marbutt then lifted a deep fly ball to right, which allowed Rikard to easily score what would be the deciding run, 6-5.
 
Johnson finished the game going 2-for-3 – including homering for the fourth-consecutive game with a two-run blast in the third – and scoring three runs. Sledge also had a multi-hit game, going 2-for-4.
 
Owls senior right-hander Chris Ellis (2-1) picked up the win with 4.0 innings of scoreless relief, striking out three and walking two, while allowing two hits to the Beavers. Starter Campbell McCluney went 5.0 innings before the rain delay, registering five "Ks" and two walks.
 
In the second game of the Friday twinbill, BC took a 1-0 lead into the sixth inning, when an Owl eruption produced four runs. With one out, back-to-back singles by Marbutt (2-4) and Johnson (2-5), followed by Baron Brack (1-3) reaching on a fielding error, loaded the bases for Chase Marshall (1-2). Marshall slapped an RBI single that scored Marbutt and Johnson and, when the Beavers' centerfielder booted the ball, Brack scored, as well. A Sledge (2-4) RBI single made it 4-1.
 
Blackburn got one back in the seventh, only to have The W extend its lead to three runs on Marbutt's RBI single in the eighth.
 
Robby Canten (1-1) was the winner with 4.1 innings of relief of starter Josh Mackey (4.0 innings), as each had four strikeouts.
 
Will Cater got out of a bases-loaded jam in the ninth to earn his first save of the year, but it had more to do with his glove. Clinging to a 5-3 lead with one down and the bases full of Beavers, Carter bounced his pitch to Joshua Moreno. When the ball got past catcher Michael O'Neil, BC's Diego Perez tried to come home. But O'Neil pounced on the ball, wheeled, and put it right on the mark to Carter covering home and who applied the tag on Perez for the second out. Moreno then grounded out to end the game.
 
Sunday's series finale saw MUW score double-digit runs in a game for the third time this season. The Owls led 3-1 after three frames, thanks to a sacrifice fly by Matthew Windham in the first, followed by an RBI single from Marshall and a run scoring double by Sledge in the third.
 
The Beavers would come out and push cross six unanswered runs over the next two innings to lead, 7-3. But The W got off the deck in the bottom of the fifth when Marshall slugged a two-run home run to left for his second round-tripper of the season, cutting the deficit in half, 7-5.
 
Now it was MUW's turn to reel off some runs, starting with the sixth. It was 'death by a thousand cuts" to the Beavers, as the Owls manufactured six runs by virtue of q sacrifice fly, a balk, a wild pitch, a walk and a two-run single. MUW added three insurance runs in the eighth on a trio of RBI singles for the 14-7 final score.
 
Marshall was 3-for-5 with four RBI and three runs scored. Marbutt was 2-for-4 and Windham 2-for-5 to lead the 11-hit attack.
 
In all, the teams combined for 12 pitchers used; seven by BC and five by the Owls. Walker Smith (1-0), The W's second reliever of the game, threw the fifth and sixth innings to get the victory, striking out three with zero walks.