Pittsburg, Kan. – Trever Burkdoll hit a go-ahead home run in the top of the ninth, but the Pittsburg State Gorillas scored two in the bottom to defeat the Missouri Southern Baseball team 5-4 tonight in MIAA baseball action.
 
Southern (28-16, 18-15 MIAA) picked up a 3-for-4 performance from Chris Hoffman as the senior scored twice and added a triple, extending his hitting streak to 16 games. Jacob Bryant went 2-for-5 with a double and a run scored, while Tyler Sutherland, Matt Smith and Burkdoll had a hit each. Burkdoll added his third home run of the season.
 
Payton Walker started for the Lions and went eight strong innings, striking out five and walking just one, while allowing only two earned runs. Cody Hutchinson threw the ninth and allowed two hits and two runs scored to take the loss and fall to 6-5 on the season.
 
Pitt (13-29, 8-25 MIAA) had two hits each from Brett Macary, Jack Mercer and Christian Arnold.
 
Southern got on top first in the opening frame as Hoffman and Sutherland pulled off a double-steal with Hoffman scoring.
 
The Lions added two more in the fifth to go up 3-0 on a sacrifice fly from Sutherland, as well as an RBI groundout for Jesse Rall.
 
Pitt answered back with a run in the bottom half of the inning and scored single runs in the seventh and the eighth to tie the game going into the ninth.
 
With two outs in the ninth, Burkdoll stepped up and launched a home run to left field to give the Lions the go-ahead run.
 
Hutchinson entered the game in the ninth looking to close it out, but the Gorillas used a bases-loaded walk and a sacrifice fly to push across two runs and give them the win.
 
Southern will be back in action this weekend as the Lions will play host to Lincoln University at Warren Turner Field.