WARRENSBURG, Mo. – Washburn baseball lost a high-scoring, blustery game one at No. 24 Central Missouri on Friday evening, 21-10. Game two of the series will take place on Saturday at 2 p.m.
 
The Mules (23-8, 15-3 MIAA) grabbed an early lead with five runs on six hits and an error in the first inning and extended their lead to 7-0 in the second.
 
Washburn (20-12, 13-5 MIAA) got on the board in the third inning after Ike Book led off the frame with a single through the right side and then scored on a triple by Otto Jones. With two outs and the bases empty, Trevor McCollum reached base after being hit by a pitch and moved over to third on a single by Cal Watkins. Trey Adams hit an infield single to load up the bases for Cale Savage. On a 3-1 pitch, Savage cleared the bases with a grand slam to left center to trim the deficit to 7-5.
 
The Ichabods pulled within one run an inning later. With two outs and runners on first and second after a walk and hit by pitch, McCollum drove in a run with a single to left field.
 
Central Missouri created some space in the home half of the fourth inning with two runs to go up, 9-6.
 
In the fifth inning, the Mules capitalized on six walks, five hits, and two errors to put together an 11-run inning and go up 10-6.
 
The Ichabods drew back-to-back walks to start the sixth inning and Jones brought one run in on a single to center field.
 
UCM got that run back in the bottom of the sixth to lead 21-7.
 
Just like the sixth inning, Washburn led off the seventh with two-straight walks. With one out, Andrew Schmidtlein and Book hit back-to-back RBI singles. Jones worked an eight-pitch walk to load the bases and Caden Bressler brought in a run with a sacrifice fly to make it 21-10. That would be the final run of the high-scoring game as the last out came on a strikeout.
 
Central Missouri led in hits for the game, 16-9, and left 12 runners on base. Book finished the evening 2-2 with two walks, two runs scored, and an RBI. Jones also had two hits with a walk and drove in a pair of runs. Savage collected a team-high four RBI and scored twice.