Count ‘em up. Now is the time to tune in to Missouri Southern baseball if you haven’t already. That’s eight straight wins for Lions baseball now. The Lions took advantage of an eight game home stand and swept right through both of the four-game weekend series’. This brings their record to 11-2 on the year.

This past weekend the Lions played host to the Bulldogs of Truman State. The beginning of the weekend series was delayed because of some rain on Saturday. The Lions were able to get both games in on Saturday despite the rain. They started play at 3 p.m. rather than 1 p.m. The Lions won the first game by the score of 7-4. Later that day they would win 10-7. On Sunday, they kicked things off with an 8-6 victory, and finished the day with a 6-3 win over the Bulldogs. The Lions scored 31 runs over the four game series against Truman State, which would average nearly eight runs per game, just like they did in the first weekend series at home. The Lions were led offensively over the weekend by a couple different guys. First, their lead-off hitter, Alec Alvarez. Alvarez went 9-18 over the weekend, exactly .500 at the plate, with six runs scored and two RBIs. First baseman, Alex Phillips, was 6-14 at the plate over the four-game span. He also had four runs scored, 8 RBIs, and two walks. As for pitching, in the first game Corbin Osburn went a full seven innings, of a shortened game, and struck out 10 batters. In the second game, Will Bausinger went seven of nine innings, and struck out 12 batters, Lions pitching struck out 14 for the entire game. In the final game, Corey Cowan had a very short outing. Cowan recorded just one out, and faced only six batters. He gave up one hit, two earned runs, threw a wild pitch, balked once, hit a batter, and walked three, and struck out the only batter he retired. Zac Shoemaker came in and pitched seven and two-thirds innings of relief. Shoemaker struck out 10 batters, allowed just two hits, walked one batter, hit one, and gave up an unearned run.

Shoemaker earned MIAA Pitcher of the Week on Tuesday this week. Shoemaker is just a freshman. In his third week of college baseball he has already received his first MIAA award. Shoemaker reigns from Aurora, Mo.

The Lions were initially scheduled to begin MIAA conference play in Tahlequah, Okla. today, against the Riverhawks of Northeastern State University. It will be a three game weekend series with one game each day, tomorrow, Sunday, and Monday, instead of today, tomorrow, and Sunday. First pitch tomorrow is at 2 p.m., 1 p.m. on Sunday, and noon on Monday.