The late Jane Meyer, along with her husband Ken, have been long time area sports boosters as owners of KTXR radio, the flagship station forMissouri St.athletics and St. Louis Cardinal baseball. Mrs. Meyer was especially active in her support of the Lady Bears, the only NCAA Division I program in the state to make the Final Four...twice.
And Evangel women's basketball coach Leon Neal just completed his 18th season at the school, where his teams have won nine national tournaments, eight conference titles, and made it to the NAIA's Final Four twice.
While those Ozarks residents were being honored as new Hall of Famers, Springfield Glendale fans were honoring their baseball coach, Howard Bell, on Tuesday. Bell is fighting ALS, better known as Lou Gehrig's disease, named after the former New York Yankee baseball great who brought the sickness to the attention of the nation back in the late 1930's. Bell was diagnosed with ALS last December, and after Tuesday's final regular season home game for the Falcons, a host of players, coaches, and fans gathered at Glendale's baseball field for a special candlelight ceremony to bring awareness to ALS and show their support for Bell.
Also at Glendale on Thursday, Elise Munroe signed a letter of intent to play volleyball at Missouri State. Munroe was a four year starter with 263 kills and 359 blocks for Glendale, who finished 24-9 this past season. Munroe plans on majoring in broadcast journalism at MSU.
Springfield, MO- The Springfield Cardinalshad a chance to win six of eight on the homestand; all they needed was a win on Tuesday afternoon against the Arkansas Travelers.
Springfield sent lefty John Gast in search of his fourth win of the season. Arkansas sent righty AJ Schugel to mound fresh off his first Texas League win five days ago.
While the Travelers had five hits in the first four innings, Gast did not allow a runner past second base keeping the game scoreless through three and a half innings.
The Cardinals did not have a hit against AJ Schugel until Greg Garcia led off the 4th with a single. After a groundout moved him to second and a wild pitch advanced him to third, Kyle Conley delivered a clutch two-out RBI single to give Springfield a 1-0 lead.
Gast continued to handcuff the Arkansas offense through the 7th inning allowing just five hits while walking one and striking out five. At one point he retired eight in a row and 12 of 13.
In the 8th, Springfield was look for some insurance and got exactly what they needed as Adam Melker and Greg Garcia singled and with one out, Oscar Taveras launched a three-run homer to right to give the Cardinals a 4-0 advantage.
Sam Freeman and Eric Fornataro retired all six batter they faced to close out the 4-0 win.
The Redbirds will hit the road for eight games beginning with a four-game set against the NW Arkansas Naturals Thursday night at 7:00pm. Trevor Rosenthal will start for Springfield against Chris Dwyer of the Naturals.
