It was a rough start to in conference play as the Missouri Southern Lions (15-14) have stumbled to a 1-3 start in the MIAA.

Southern took on Nebraska-Omaha and Northwest Missouri, two of the better teams in the MIAA, last weekend and fell by scores of 2-0 and 11-4 to Omaha. The Lions took the first game from Northwest 5-0 behind another solid pitching performance from Nicole Reed (seven innings pitched, three hits allowed, and six strike outs), but fell in the second game 8-5.

“It is the stability that we were missing last year in our pitching staff,” Head Coach Bill Gray said of Reed’s performance. “We’ve been playing well, just not coming out on the winning side of it. We played two of the best teams in the conference. We’ve got four games this weekend that are winnable. If we come out and play like we are supposed to then we’ve got a good shot.”

The Lions also took down rival Pittsburg State in a non conference makeup game on Tuesday by a score of 4-3. Jessica Brooks led the way offensively going 3-4 with 2 RBI’s.  

Wednesday, the Lions took on Missouri S&T in a doubleheader they split, losing 8-0 in the first game, one shortened to five innings before taking the nightcap, 2-1.

This weekend is key for the Lions as they need to get on track in the tough MIAA. Southern will take on Fort Hays today in a doubleheader at home, and continue action at home tomorrow against Washburn. The Lions fell to Washburn earlier this season in a 9-7 loss on March 19.

“We hit the ball well, and the winds were blowing out,” Gray said. “We’re going to pitch them a bit differently and hopefully keep the ball in the ballpark. This weekend is a big weekend. We match up with both teams well, and they are usually good games.

“We’ll need to score more runs and play some solid defense to get some wins.”