Good outings on the mound, coupled with quality hitting from Justin Domiano and a record-breaking day for Jake Meilstrup helped the Bears claim a 12-9 win over Itawamba in the opener of Saturday's home conference doubleheader. Southwest unfortunately fell in Game 2, 5-1.
 
In the opener, Meilstrup broke the school's single-season steals record of 36, previously set by former Bear great Maleke Fowler and as of the close of business Saturday, he currently sits at 38 with 10 games to go.
 
"The thing is, is that I didn't even know that I was close to it (record)," said Meilstrup who stole five bases in the opener, marking the second-consecutive game doing so. "It feels really good, it feels really nice."
 
In addition to Meilstrup, Domiano also shined leading the Southwest (19-27, 9-9 MACCC) offense with two hits and three RBIs. Afterwards, he gave praise to his offense as a whole.
 
"Everybody was on, everybody was doing their jobs, getting bunts down, stealing bags," he said. "When runners are in scoring position, it is easy to knock them in. Our team did a good job of getting runners in scoring position and it worked out."
 
The Bear offense got going early as a Domiano double scoring Gage Hinnant was immediately followed by an RBI single from Trace Roy who later scored a run of his own in the inning making it a 3-0 lead for Southwest.

Bear starter Brodey Walker went right back to work, shutting down the Indians and keeping them off the scoreboard. 
 
In the third, Lane Steinwinder joined the fray offensively with an RBI single allowing Meilstrup to score, putting Southwest up 4-0.
 
Itawamba responded in the fourth with a four-run rally, tying the game. But Southwest had an immediate answer with a single run on a Zayne Landry fly out where Cam Bolden tagged and scored giving the Bears the lead once again at 5-4.
 
The Indians answered right back to re-take the lead at 8-5 with another four-run frame in the fifth.
 
But the back-and-forth tussle continued in the bottom half of the inning as it was now the Bears' turn to rally.
 
With one out, walks to Roy and Bolden and a single from Presley loaded the bases for Davis Knight who was hit by a pitch bringing a run home. Back-to-back bases-loaded walks to Landry and Meilstrup tied the game at 8 before yet another hit batter with the bases loaded — this time to Steinwinder — gave the Bears the lead at 9-8. Another bases loaded walk plated another run for Southwest, giving the hosts a 10-8 advantage.
 
Itawamba inched closer in the sixth, scoring a run to pull within one, but Southwest had the last laugh with three additional runs in the seventh on a hit batter followed by a two-run single from Domiano making the score the eventual final.
 
In addition to Domiano, Presley and Meilstrup also finished with two hits apiece.
 
The combination of Walker, Darius Dampier, Jackson Hawsey and Davis Knight combined to give up only six hits and one earned run while striking out eight.
 
After the game, Davis — who got the save — recapped his performance adding that the mental aspect of his game is very important to him.

"It's all about staying level-headed, especially with being a two-way player," he said. "You can't take what you have on the mound to the plate and you can't take what you did at the plate to the mound. It is all about keeping a level head, doing your job and throwing strikes."
 
In Game 2, the Bears found themselves down 2-0 in the second but responded in the third, cutting the Indian lead in half on a Landry RBI single to left, scoring Tanner Moore.
 
Unfortunately, the momentum swung back over on the visiting side as Itawamba added to its lead in the fifth with a single run before adding two more in the seventh.
 
Steinwinder led the Bear offense in the nightcap with two hits.
 
Southwest head coach Jack Edmonson praised the fight that his team showed in both contests.
 
"I am proud that they kept playing, and that they continued to try and continued to work hard," he said. "We didn't play very clean baseball but some days you don't and I am glad that we were able to get out with one win."
 
Southwest will play host to No. 5 Jones on Tuesday at 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.