Twenty-four runs is all that was scored in Missouri Southern’s four-game series with Missouri Western over the weekend.

That averages to only six runs per game – between both teams combined.

This statistic reflects the fact that Southern Head Coach Bryce Darnell is a pitching man.

“Without a doubt, especially after this weekend when you look back, and maybe you know the cold…our pitching in terms of walks and all of that stuff was great this weekend so that’s something that’s very encouraging,” he said.

 This weekend, Southern will face the winless Northwest Missouri Bearcats in a four-game series at Joe Becker Stadium.

“We didn’t make plays when we had to [against Western],” Darnell said. “Especially offensively I think we just struggled in certain spots offensively, and when you do that you know, you’re going to get beat. So we hope to not struggle as greatly this weekend.”

Friday, Southern failed to scratch across the game-winning run with the bases loaded and no outs before the game went to extra innings and Western sealed the victory, 5-3.

The two teams only scored four runs between the two of them in the next two games, as the Lions won game two 2-1, but lost the next game 1-0 before also being beat 7-5 to seal the series loss.