Valley ends season strong

The final day of the baseball season was a good one for Missouri Valley College's Jay Walkup.

The junior from Tacoma, Wash., had four hits and drove in six runs, while also picking up a win on the mound, during the Vikings' Heart of America Conference doubleheader sweep of visiting MidAmerica Nazarene.

The rest of Walkup's teammates also enjoyed their turns at the plate, Valley winning by margins of 10-4 and 13-1 -- the first time this season scoring in double digits in both games of a twinbill.

Walkup homered in the first game, knocking in four runs. The Vikings put up four crooked numbers in six turns on offense, breaking the contest open by scoring five unanswered runs after the Pioneers (19-28, 11-23 HAAC) had closed to within two runs in the top of the fourth inning.

That was more due to defensive lapses than the hurling of senior southpaw Jeff Syrop, who allowed only two earned runs while throwing a complete game. He didn't issue any walks and struck out seven.

Senior Nate Combs had two hits and a pair of RBIs for Valley, while junior Mark Leacox and sophomore George Ban each scored three runs.

Combs would go yard with a two-run shot, his team-high fourth homer of the season, in the nightcap. The Vikings scored five runs in the second inning and eight in the third, the game ending after five frames.

Walkup made it to within an out of finishing, yielding only one hit -- a single by junior Bryan Bennett, who scored MNU's lone run in the fifth.

Ban went three for three and knocked in a pair of runs. Also plating two runs were Leacox and seniors Ricardo LeClaire and Cody Hanneken.

Valley (16-32, 15-23) was knocked out of contention for the six-team HAAC Tournament over the weekend by losing three of four home games to Lindenwood -- swept on Saturday, 5-1 and 6-3, before winning the early game Sunday, 4-3, and dropping the getaway contest, 5-4.