5/5/2026 Columbus, MS– The Westminster Blue Jays entered the SLIAC tournament as the five seed, their highest ranking since 2023. They faced off against the four-seed MUW Owls. In the regular season, the Owls took two out of three against the Jays in a competitive series that seemingly started the Jays' season turnaround. Both teams matched up in Columbus on Tuesday night to see who would advance to the SLIAC semifinals.
W, 4-2
The Blue Jays repeated their three-headed monster pitching strategy that worked wonders earlier in the week against Greenville. Senior Derek Archer got the start for Westminster and was followed by Jack Page and Blake Althuisuis. Archer dazzled. He allowed just two hits over 4.1 scoreless innings. While he was dominating, so was the Owls' pitching. MUW shut out the Jays until the fifth inning. The Blue Jays finally broke through when
Troy Romero singled in fellow senior
Donovan Bohler. After
Jack Page got out of an inherited jam the next inning, striking out two while two runners were stranded, the Jays tallied two more runs, both coming from a
Donovan Bohler single. The Blue Jays had another chance to add more runs in the seventh, but squandered a bases-loaded and one-out opportunity. The Owls made them pay and scored two in the eighth before Blake Althuisuis shut down the rally.
Donovan Bohler added to his impressive day in the top of the ninth, adding another RBI single, giving the Blue Jays a much-needed insurance run. In the bottom half of the inning, MUW rallied again; two batters reached, now the tying run was on first base, and the game-winning run was at the plate. The senior Althuisuis stayed composed, though; he got the next batter to ground out, advancing the Jays to the SLIAC quarterfinals.
Westminster continued its great play of late to catapult them into a quarterfinal matchup vs last year's SLIAC tournament winners, Webster. Webster has only lost three conference games this year and swept the Blue Jays in their previous matchup. This game will take place Thursday, May 7, at Carshield Field in O'Fallon, Missouri, as the Blue Jays aim to continue their hot streak and upset the reigning champions.
