ST. CHARLES, Mo. – Third-seeded Washburn Baseball put together a comeback 8-4 victory over No. 6 seed Northeastern State to open MIAA Tournament play on Friday, May 12.
 
Nick Silva (9-0) went 6.1 innings in the win, allowing four runs on 14 hits with four strikeouts.  Silva exited in the seventh to give way to Greg Mason, who tossed 2.2 innings of shutout ball with a pair of strikeouts to wrap up the game.
 
David Gauntt led the Ichabod offense, going 2-for-2 with a home run, two walks and three runs scored.  Kyle Carnahan went 2-for-3 on the day with an RBI and Bowe Behymer had a double and an RBI.  Zane Mapes added two RBI with a single in the ninth.
 
Trailing 3-0 after one and a half innings played, Gauntt opened the second with a blast over the left field pitch on the first pitch of the inning.  Lance Barkley drew a walk in the next at bat, moving to second on a wild pitch and third on a groundout. 
 
Behymer picked up an RBI on a sacrifice fly, hitting a ball deep enough to right to score Barkley and cut to deficit to one (3-2).
 
NSU got one back in the third, but WU again answered with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the inning to stay within one.  Mapes was hit by a pitch in the leadoff spot, moving to third after a sacrifice bunt and a throwing error.  Later in the inning, Carnahan flew out to center field and Mapes scampered home for WU's third run of the day.
 
Heads-up base running in the fifth helped WU capitalize on an error and take the lead.  With two outs, Carnahan and Gauntt had back-to-back singles, and a chopper from Barkley was hurried by NSU's third baseman and an errant throw skipped into right field foul territory, allowing Carnahan and Gauntt to race home and give WU the lead, 5-4.
 
Facing bases loaded with one out in the top of the sixth, Silva induced a ground ball to shortstop where Riley Krane started an inning-ending double play to get out of a jam and hold the lead.  NSU continued to threaten the remainder of the game, but WU's defense and pitching staff held strong and WU added three insurance runs in the eighth.
 
Gauntt walked on a full-count in the first at-bat of the inning, and a sacrifice bunt pushed him to second.  With one out, Triggs lifted an RBI single into left field, landing close to the line as Gauntt came home to make it 6-4.  From there, Cole Gardner pinch ran for Triggs and stole second and Behymer walked before a flyout put runners on the corners. 
 
Behymer stole second to move into scoring position and Mapes came through in the clutch, ripping a 2-2 pitch into left center to plate both Ichabods and give WU a 8-4 advantage.
 
Washburn advances to the second round on Friday, May 13 at 4 p.m., and will take on the winner between No. 2 seed Emporia State and No. 7 Central Oklahoma.  Live stats for that game and updates on the entire MIAA Tournament are available here.