Summoned from the bullpen, Holy Cross relief pitcher Oliver Brown of Anchorage shut down Penn State and picked up the win as the Crusaders won 11-5 in Cary, North Carolina. Brown pitched three innings and struck out five of the 15 batters he faced, ending the fourth, fifth and sixth innings with Ks. The freshman right-hander earned his first winning decision in his third appearance on the young NCAA Division I season. Brown (South) entered the game in the fourth inning with the bases loaded and two outs. He got out of the jam on four pitches, ending with a swinging strikeout. He got out of a two-on, one-out jam in the fifth inning with back-to-back strikeouts. He gave up a run in the sixth but ended the inning with another K. Brown set season highs with innings and strikeouts, and has lowered his ERA from 16.20 to 6.35 after a disastrous debut. He also got his first base hit last month against VMI, smacking a pinch-hit double in the ninth inning of a 12-3 win.

If there was an award for stick-to-itiveness Jaren Childs of Anchorage would win. The Corban University senior right-handed pitcher has turned around his college career after a rocky start as an underclassman, blossoming into a reliable reliever. Last season he earned his first save and last week he got his first win. Childs (Service) worked three scoreless innings in a 6-1 win over Bushnell in Springfield, Oregon. The game was tied 1-1 through eight when Corban scored five runs in the top of the ninth. In the bottom half Childs worked around a leadoff walk to get the final three outs on flyouts. He is now 1-4 in 24 appearances for the NAIA school. Here is an indication of Childs’ growth – he gave up four bombs in six innings as a freshman; since then he’s allowed only two homers in 38.1 innings while slicing his career ERA in half.

It took three years and 261 at-bats, but Anchorage’s Balas Buckmaster finally smacked his second career home run. The first homer came back in 2020 in his first game at Pierce College. The second dinger came last week for Dickinson State, a solo blast in the sixth inning that provided the Blue Hawks with a 5-4 win over Midland in Parkville, Missouri. Buckmaster went yard off Jayden Gibson with two outs, breaking a 4-4 tie. He finished 2-for-2 with a sac fly. That was just the first game of the day. In the nightcap against Graceland, Buckmaster (East) went 3-for-3 with a career-high four RBIs to highlight a 14-3 win. The starting shortstop had six RBIs on the day, giving him seven in a three-game stretch. He is now hitting .667 with eight RBIs in seven games. Buckmaster came to NAIA Dickinson State from Pierce College, where he batted .228 on 57-for-250 hitting with 46 RBIs, 64 runs and 23 stolen bases in 80 games in the NWAC.