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KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Washburn broke a scoreless tie with four runs in the seventh inning and Brett Ash threw his 10th straight complete game in a 4-1 win against Emporia State in the first round of the MIAA Centennial Baseball Championship at CommunityAmerica Ballpark Thursday afternoon.

Fourth-seeded Washburn improved to 27-22 and will play either top-seeded Central Missouri at 11 a.m. or No. 2 Missouri Western at 2:30 p.m. Friday in the second round. The four remaining teams will be re-seeded after No. 3 Missouri Southern plays No. 6 Fort Hays State Thursday afternoon. Emporia State ended its season at 26-22.

Blake Hageman walked and Connor Crimmins singled in the seventh inning. John Calhoun then drove Hageman in with a single and then Marcus Peavler later drove in Calhoun and Crimmins with a double. Brad Alberts completed the scoring with a single that drove in Peavler.

Those runs broke up a pitchers battle beween Ash, just announced as a second team all-MIAA selection, and ESU's Shawn Talkington, the MIAA freshman of the year. Talkington was chased after giving up the first three runs and he fell to 2-1.



Ash went the distance for the 10th time to tie for the NCAA lead in complete games. He gave up seven hits without an earned run and he struck out five with one walk. Ash only gave up more than one hit in an inning when he gave up two hits and a run in the eighth. He walked an hit a batter in the ninth but worked around that. He improved to 7-4 and lowered his ERA to 2.81 on the year.

Crimmins went 3 for 3 at the plate and Washburn ended with nine hits.

The Ichabods won their first MIAA tournament opening round game since 2000 and they're now 13-17 all-time in the tournament. The remaining portion of the bracket this weekend will be a double elimination format.