Joplin, Mo. -- The Missouri Southern baseball team will open the 2021 season in sunny Florida as the Lions will travel to St. Augustine, Fla. to take on Flagler College in the season opener this Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Game times will be 4 pm on Thursday, 5 pm on Friday and noon on Saturday. All times are central. Live stats will be available for each game with live video for the first two games. Links for both can be found by clicking in the story links above.
The Lions were recently picked to finish third in the MIAA preseason coaches poll and are receiving votes in the Division II preseason coaches poll. Southern is coming off a season where the Lions were 16-5 and 3-3 in the MIAA before the season was cut short by the Covid-19 Pandemic.
The Lions return 23 players off last year's roster including nine position starters and all three weekend starting pitchers, as well as the teams closer.
2019 MIAA Pitcher of the Year
Zach Parish was well on his way to a repeat performance as he was 4-0 with a 2.65 ERA and 57 strikeouts in 34 innings last season. He is the MIAA all-time strikeout leader and is 77 strikeouts from becoming the MSSU all-time leader. Parish already holds the single-season MSSU record with 136 in 2019.
Also returning to the starting rotation are
Zac Shoemaker (4-1, 48k's) and
Will Bausinger (3-1, 53k's). The three starters combined to go 11-2 with 168 strikeouts last season.
Cole Woods also picked up three starts last year, going 2-1 with 18 strikeouts.
Logan VanWey will return as one of the MIAA's top closers. A season ago, VanWey had six saves with 16 strikeouts and a 2.89 ERA in just 9.1 innings.
Returning in the outfield are
Clay Milas (.333, 12 RBIs),
Jordan Fitzpatrick (.324, 5 HR, 24 RBIs) and
Troy Gagan (.319, 5 HR, 19 RBIs).
Henry Kusiak (.306, 11 RBIs) returns at third, while
Joe Kinder (4 HR, 15 RBIs) and
Dexter Swims (2 HR, 14 RBIs) both return up the middle.
Matt Miller returns at first as he followed up a stellar freshman campaign with three homers and eight RBIs. Anchoring the infield is
Tommy Stevenson who led the team in hitting (.333) as a true freshman, while also adding three homers and 17 RBIs. Brad Wilson was the team's DH throughout the season and finished with a team-high eight doubles, while also adding 2 homers and 13 RBIS.
Flagler was 13-9 last season including a pair of wins against ranked opponents in the opening weekend. The Saints compete in the Peach Belt Conference and were picked to finish sixth in the preseason coaches poll.
