Maryville, Mo. -- The Missouri Southern baseball team picked up a pair of wins today, sweeping a double-header 4-2 and 7-2 at Northwest Missouri State. 

The Lions (17-6, 10-5 MIAA) stopped a five-game losing streak in the process and moved back into third place in the MIAA standings with the double-header sweep. 

Senior Ryan Wheat went the distance in the opener striking out eight and walking just two, while allowing two runs on seven hits to earn his fourth win of the season. In the nightcap, David Reese and Grant Conrad combined to limit the Bearcats (6-17, 5-10 MIAA) to just seven hits and one earned run. 

Southern trailed 2-1 going into the seventh inning of game one, but a home run from Sam Ryan to start the inning tied up the game and RBIs from Tee Helsel and Thomas Wilson sealed the win for the Lions. 

Jesse Kinzey, Ryan, Helsel and Wilson had the RBIs for the Lions, while seven different Lions had a hit each. 

In game two, Southern scored a run in the second and two each in the third, fourth and seventh innings. 

MJ Sartin got the scoring started for the Lions with a sacrifice fly in the second, scoring Kinzey. Southern picked up a run from an RBI single from Ryan in the third, while the Lions scored another off a balk in the inning. Dane Kolkmeyer added a two-run home run in the fourth, his third of the season, to put the Lions up 5-0, and Kinzey added a two-run single in the seventh. 

Kinzey went 2-4 with a pair of RBIs and a run scored in the game, while Ryan, Helsel, Cullen Baxter and Michael McCoy all had two hits each. 

The Lions and Bearcats will finish up the series tomorrow afternoon with a single, nine-inning game at noon.