Joplin, Mo. – The Missouri Southern baseball team will open up the home season tomorrow afternoon as the Lions play host to the first of three games against Winona State. First pitch of the double-header Monday is set for 1 pm.
The Lions (0-1) will play two games on Monday with a single game on Tuesday starting at 1 pm. All games will be played at Warren Turner Field.
The Lions dropped their season opener last week as Southern fell 13-6 at Southwestern Oklahoma State. Southern led 6-5 heading to the bottom of the fifth, but the Bulldogs broke it open with a big inning in the bottom half of the inning to take the season opener.
Southern got a pair of hits from
Henry Kusiak and
Clay Milas in the game, while
Jordan Fitzpatrick,
Tommy Stevenson, Milas,
Drew Davis,
Matt Miller and
Treghan Parker each drove in a run.
Fitzpatrick, Stevenson, Kusiak, Milas, Davis and Tyler Furguson scored a run each for the Green and Gold.
Logan VanWey had four strikeouts in the start, while
Laif Hultine struck out three in two innings of relief.
Winona State will be playing its first games of the season against the Lions. The Warriors were picked to finish seventh in the Northern Sun preseason baseball coaches poll. Winona State earned a berth in the 2021 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) baseball postseason with a 22-20 overall mark and a 19-16 NSIC record.
WSU returns several key offensive threats, led by Derek Baumgartner who hit .288 in 2021, with five home runs and 26 RBI's overall.
On the mound, the Warriors rely on Dillon Whittaker and Nick Herold to be two of several key arms for Winona State. Herold is coming off an All-Star season in the Northwoods league this past summer and was the top Warrior reliever last year. In 2021, Herold made 18 appearances for WSU, tossing nearly 23 innings, and allowing just 12 hits over that time period. Whittaker made 10 appearances, including nine starts, and threw 29 2/3 innings, notching 41 strikeouts.
Live stats and live video will be available for each of the games and links to each are in the story links section above.
