The University of Central Missouri Mules had two chances to win their first NCAA Division II national baseball championship in 22 years, but came up empty both times when they fell to the University of Tampa, 10-8 and 11-5 on Saturday, June 7 in Cary, N.C.

The Mules were in the driver’s seat after having beaten the Spartans, 9-8 Friday evening in the first game of the best of three final-round series. Saturday’s action saw the two contests take a total of seven hours to play, not including a weather delay of more than one hour during the nightcap.

The Mules’ best chance to win Saturday came in the first game when they blew an early lead and fell, 10-8. Capitalizing on a misjudged fly ball with the bases loaded and two out, UCM scored four times in the first for a 4-0 advantage. In the sixth, the Mules were 10 outs away from a national title, but Tampa parlayed a single, two walks and a bases-loaded double into three runs which tied the score at four.

In the eighth, three walks and a single gave the Spartans the go-ahead run before a dropped infield pop up with the bases loaded and two out allowed three men more to score, making it 8-4 Tampa. The Mules battled back with six singles to score four runs themselves in the bottom of the eighth, tying it up once more at 8-8, before Tampa went ahead again with two runs in the top of the ninth to go in front for good, 10-8. UCM did have one last shot to win in the home-half of the ninth, but a strikeout with the bases loaded ended the opener. The Mules out-hit Tampa in this game 14-11 only to see UCM pitching walk 10 batters along the way.

UCM never led during the second game, trailing 3-0 after two innings and 5-1 following the sixth. The Mules did score three times in the top of the seventh to cut the margin to 5-4 only to see Tampa put the contest out of reach with six runs in the bottom of the seventh against pitching-thin UCM. Both sides had only nine hits in the final game, but the Mules’ hurlers surrendered eight walks.

For Tampa, it was their fourth game in a span of some 30 hours as they ended their year at 55-10. It was the Spartans’ second consecutive Division II national baseball championship and their 10th ever in the school’s history. UCM ended things at 48-14, their fifth trip ever to the national finals, having won the NCAA title in both 1994 and 2003.