Joplin, Mo. -- The Missouri Southern Lions won the opener of the four game series with Emporia State, 8-1, before Mother Nature suspended game two with the Hornets leading 3-0 in the bottom of the fourth.  When play resumes at 11am Saturday the Lions will have runners on first and third with one out.

Southern (22-15, 15-14 MIAA) went on top in the second inning when Will Wagner drove in Tee Helsel with a single to left. Helsel had singled to start the inning. 

After Emporia (20-13, 15-10 MIAA) tied the score at one with a run in the fourth, but the Lions broke it open in the fifth with five runs and added another two runs in the sixth. 

Cullen Baxter singled to start the inning and Thomas Wilson followed suit with a bunt single to the right side. Luke Acosta then doubled down the left field line, scoring Baxter. McCoy followed that with a double of his own, scoring both Wilson and Acosta. After two outs, Jesse Kinzey singled home McCoy for the fourth run of the inning and Jim Gilkerson doubled to left, scoring Kinzey. 

Dane Kolkmeyer added a two-RBI single in the sixth, scoring Kinzey and Helsel. 

Kolkmeyer and Wilson had a pair of hits each, while Kolkmeyer and McCoy drove in two apiece. McCoy and Helsel scored two runs each.

Ryan Wheat started for the Lions and went the distance, striking out two and allowing one run, while scattering five hits.

The teams will be back at it at 11 am tomorrow, finishing up game two from today, then the teams will start the originally scheduled double-header.