On a day that included four lopsided scores, the William Jewell baseball team was the only lower seed to come up with a win in the opening round of the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament. The Cardinals, the No.4 seed from the West Division took down No. 1 East seed Southern Indiana 7-3.

The Cardinals opened the game quickly as Drew Standifer took the first pitch he saw to right center field for a double and came around to score on a single from Brad Jelinek. The Screaming Eagles responded in the bottom of the frame and tied the game at one a piece.

The two teams remained knotted until the top of the fifth when Nate Pecota singled and advanced second on a passed ball. The bottom of the Cardinal order put their team on top with back-to-back hits from Ben Pautler (triple) and Brendan Carney to make it 3-1 Jewell. Standifer reached on a hit-by-pitch followed by a single from Garrett McKinzie to set up another big moment for Jelinek. The senior shortstop blew the game open with a two-RBI double to left center to give the Cards a 5-1 lead after five innings.

In the seventh frame, the Cardinals loaded the bases with two outs with the clean up hitter Dylan Christie at the plate. The senior was patient and drew a four-pitch RBI walk to make it 6-1 Jewell. Southern Indiana got a run back in the bottom of the seventh but the Cardinals added an insurance run in the top of the ninth as Jelinek, who after being intentionally walked in the seventh inning, once again came through with the RBI single to score Carney who had also singled.

The Eagles scored one final run in the bottom of the frame, before Eric Smith closed things out with a fly ball to center field to take the victory 7-3.

Jelinek enjoyed a career day, going 3-for-4 with four RBI. McKinzie, Pecota, Pautler, and Carney each posted a multi-hit game, while Standifer was hit-by-pitch three times and scored three runs.

On the hill, redshirt junior Brendan Beatty was in control, tossing seven innings, and allowing just two earned runs on six hits, while striking on six.

The Cardinals move on in the winners bracket to take on Quincy University who defeated Illinois Springfield 10-1 in the morning game. The Cardinals and Hawks are scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. start time.