O'Fallon, Mo. - The Central Methodist baseball program clinched a berth in the Opening Round Championship Series of the O'Fallon Bracket with a 6-4 win over William Carey Wednesday morning in O'Fallon, Mo. 

Central looks to earn its first NAIA World Series berth in program history with one more victory Thursday at 12:00 p.m. The Crusaders move to the losers bracket, and will look to battle their way back into the championship series. The Eagles also improve their overall record to 45-6. The 45 wins are the most in program history, as the previous record was 44 in 2016. 

Both teams remained scoreless through the first two innings of play before Central scored three in the third. Back-to-back singles from Grant Victor and Logan Haring put two runners on with no outs. Senior shortstop Sergio Macias then doubled to left center, scoring both Victor and Haring. 

Following a single from Mason Schwellenbach which moved Macias to third, Logan McDonald hit a sacrifice fly to left which brought Macias home from third. William Carey trimmed the lead to 3-1 with a run in the fifth. However, the Eagles responded with a run on an RBI double from Victor and added two more in the ninth, pushing their lead to 6-1. 

The Crusaders rallied for three runs in the bottom of the ninth, highlighted by a three run home run on a 1-0 count. Leading 6-4, Central retired two of the next three batters to punch their ticket to the championship series. 

Junior ace Nick Merkel got the start on the bump, tossing 6.1 innings and giving up only one earned run on seven hits with 13 strikeouts. The 13 K's are just one shy of matching his career high, as the Spokane, Wash. native earned his 12th win of the season. 

Macias led the offense batting four-of-five with four RBI, two doubles, and a home run in the ninth inning. Victor, Haring, and McDonald each collected two hits, while Victor and McDonald each drove in a run. Overall the CMU bats finished with 13 hits, four walks, three doubles, and one home run. 

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