Joplin, Mo. -- The Missouri Southern baseball team got two more complete games and a bevy of clutch hits as the Lions swept both Emporia State and Lindenwood to earn a bid on Championship Sunday at the 2017 MIAA Baseball Tournament.
The Lions (29-25) saw back-to-back complete games from
Seth Mesey in game one against 11th-ranked Emporia (41-11) and from
Will Bausinger against Lindenwood (33-18) in game two.
Mesey went all nine allowing just four hits and striking out six to move to 4-3 on the season. Bausinger went nine, as well, as he struck out five and allowed just one run to move to 3-4 on the season. The Lions have now thrown four-straight complete games in the tournament.
In game one, Southern scored three in the first en route to the 4-1 win over ESU. The Lions got a 3-4 day at the plate from
Brett Graham, as
Tyler Sutherland,
Dave Prost and
Richie Gorski had a hit each. Sutherland scored twice, while Gorski had two driven in.
Max Hogan and Prost both had a run scored and Prost added an RBI.
The Lions got on the board first with RBI singles from Prost and Graham, scoring Hogan and Sutherland, while Gorski added a sacrifice fly to put Southern up 3-0 after one. Gorski then added an RBI single in the third, while Emporia added a run in the fifth, but it wasn't enough.
In game two, Hogan went 4-4 at the plate with a homer, a run scored and two RBIs. Sutherland went 2-3 with two home runs, two RBIs and two runs scored.
Alec Alvarez and
Trever Burkdoll had the other two hits for the Lions.
Sutherland started the scoring with a homer in the first to left field, his 11th of the season, to put the Lions up 1-0. That would be how the score stood until the 8th when both Hogan and Sutherland would add homers to give Southern a 3-0 lead.
Lindenwood answered back with a run in the bottom of the eighth, but the Lions added another run in the ninth on an RBI double from Hogan, to score Burkdoll.
The Lions will be back in action tomorrow with a re-match with Lindenwood. First pitch is slated for 12:30 pm from Warren Turner Field. Central Oklahoma and Missouri Western will play at 9 am with the winners of the first two games meeting at 4 pm for the MIAA Championship.
