One day removed from clinching the 2024 University Athletic Association Championship, the 17th-ranked Case Western Reserve University baseball team split a doubleheader against Washington University (Mo.), falling 6-2 in the first game before bouncing back for an 8-3 win in the late affair at Nobby's Ballpark in Cleveland on Saturday afternoon.

CWRU stands at 29-9 overall with a 12-3 UAA record, while WashU moved to 24-14-1 with an 8-6-1 conference ledger.

Game 1 - WashU 6, CWRU 2
The Bears jumped out to an early lead, and despite having opportunities throughout the game, the Spartans struggled to get runners across the plate in a 6-2 loss.

CWRU finished the game with nine hits and drew six walks, but left 13 runners stranded on base in the loss.

The Bears took a lead in the game with two runs in the first and two more in the second against CWRU sophomore Archer Stankowski to go ahead 4-0. CWRU was able to get a run back in the bottom of the third when graduate student catcher Jack Anderson led the frame off with a single, advanced to third on a double by graduate student third baseman James Powers, and scored on a sacrifice fly from graduate student first baseman Dane Camphausen. An inning later, Anderson drove in a run of his own with a sacrifice fly to cut the Bears' advantage to 4-2.

WashU extended its lead to three runs with a solo home run from Clayton Miller to lead off the fifth inning. The score remained 5-2 until the top of the eighth, when the Bears added a run to increase their advantage to four, and would maintain the lead through the final two innings.

Graduate student second baseman Franco Alonso went two-for-four in the game and was the only CWRU player with more than one hit in the contest.

Stankowski suffered the loss to drop to 6-3 on the year after allowing five runs on eight hits in his five innings of work. First-year Zach Barnes went the final four innings, holding the Bears to just one run on seven hits without issuing a walk.

WashU's Hank Weiss earned the win with five scoreless innings of work in relief to improve to 4-2 on the season.

Game 2 - CWRU 8, WashU 3
Harms homered twice in the second game of the day and senior Tyler Horvath was nearly unhittable in relief, as the Spartans topped WashU 8-3 in the second game of the day.

Harms went two-for-five in the game with a pair of solo home runs and now has nine home runs in 11 career games against WashU.

Meanwhile, Horvath was near perfect in his relief outing, pitching the final four and two-thirds innings in relief and allowing just one hit, a solo home run, while striking out a career-high 11 batters and failing to issue a walk. He earned the win in the game, improving to 1-0, and lowered his season ERA to 3.57.

WashU took the lead in the top of the third on a solo home run from Connor Lindsey but the Spartans answered back in the bottom of the inning, tying the game on back-to-back one-out doubles from sophomore second baseman Jasiah Harris and Andreyko. CWRU took the lead an inning later on a long home run over the right-center field wall on the first pitch of the at-bat by Harms, his 11th of the season to match his career high, and added a run later in the frame on a two-out RBI single from first-year left fielder Tyler Stillson. The Bears got a run back in the top of the fifth, but in the bottom of the inning, Anderson scored on a balk and Camphausen drove in Powers with a two-run single to increase the CWRU lead to 5-2.

CWRU continued to add to its advantage, raising its lead to four runs on a two-out RBI single by Anderson in the bottom of the sixth. The Bears scored a run in the top of the seventh, but Harms connected for his second home run of the game and school-record-tying 12th of the year in the bottom of the inning to put CWRU back up four, 7-3. CWRU added another run in the eighth when Andreyko scored from third on a wild pitch, capping off the team's scoring at 8-3.

Andreyko finished the game three-for-five with a pair of doubles, a run, and an RBI, while Stillson went three-for-four with a run and an RBI as well. Anderson and Harris each recorded a pair of hits in the game as well. First-year starter Quinn Saunders went the first four and a third innings of the game, allowing two runs on seven hits and striking out five in a no-decision. His 74 strikeouts this season put him five away from the program single-season record of 80 strikeouts, set by former Spartan Evan Faxon in 2022.

WashU starter Will Henkel suffered the loss, dropping to 3-3 for the season.

The Spartans and the Bears will wrap up their four-game series and the 2024 UAA schedule with a single game tomorrow starting at 11:00 a.m.