The Missouri Southern Baseball team played in a MIAA match up against Southwest Baptist University last weekend. The Lions are currently 26-13 overall with a 17-7 record in the conference, but have lost their spot in the national rankings.

The Lions won their first game of the series against the Bearcats with a final score of 11-6. The pitching staff, junior Zach Parish went five innings and containing eleven strike outs to move to 6-0 for the season. Sophomore River Wright, senior Joey Reeves, senior Bradly Hershey, and sophomore Logan VanWey threw in relief. Southern saw thirteen hits with just seven different Lions had just two hits each. Senior Jon Leighton and senior Mike Million got three RBI’s each, and senior Freddie Landers added a homerun. Southern came out scoring in the first with a run, then adding three in the second, two in the fourth, one each in the fifth and sixth, and three in the last innings.

In the second game against the Bearcats, the Lions didn’t allow a run to win the game10-0. Junior Zac Shoemaker pitched a complete game shutout. There was a pitcher’s duel that was broken when the Lions hit five homers in the seventh inning. Senior Alex Phillips started the scoring with a two-run homer. Senior Denver Coffee, and Landers added homeruns. Million hit two home runs as well. The Lions scored eight in the seventh and added a run in the last two innings of the game.

In the final game of the series, Southern fell short with the final score 3-2. Junior Will Bausinger put on an outstanding performance pitching eight innings and containing nine strikeouts with only three hits and a run earned. Logan VanWey, River Wright, and senior Cam Bednar threw in relief. SBU’s Dalton Morrow got a complete-game as he moved 5-4 this season, throwing six strikeouts. Southern only scored a run in the second and seventh inning. The Lions go 2-1 to complete the series in Bolivar, Missouri.

“SBU is a tough place to play and win a series, and we were able to come out and do that. Shoemaker and Bausinger were really good for us. Hersey and reeves got some big outs we needed coming in from the pen, and as a group we were not great on offense. Some of that was the SBU pitching, we did however in game two have five home runs in one innings! It was good to see Alex Phillips have a good weekend at the plate, we will need his bat down the stretch more often,” said Head Coach Bryce Darnell on the series against the Bearcats.

The also played this past Tuesday against Emporia State University where they loss 9-3 behind junior Cole Gacke who allowed 3 runs in one inning which would be his only inning pitched as the Lions had relief help by Reeves, Hershley, and senior Brennon Covington.

Missouri Southern Lions will be back on Warren Turner Field this weekend with another MIAA matchup against Northeastern State University (OK). Game two will be located at Joe Backer Stadium.