Joplin, Mo. – The Missouri Southern baseball team will head to Edmond, Okla. this weekend to take on the Central Oklahoma Bronchos in an MIAA series starting on Saturday.
Originally slated to be a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday series, the games have been pushed back a day, starting on Saturday. Saturday and Sunday's games will begin at 3 pm, with Monday's finale starting at 1 pm.
Southern (12-8, 3-3 MIAA) come into the weekend series with the Bronchos (10-6, 4-2 MIAA) having just taken two-of three games from Northwest Missouri last weekend. The Lions took a non-conference matchup with Minnesota-Duluth on Wednesday, 7-0, and have won five of the last six games.
As a team, the Lions lead Division II in both home runs and triples, while ranking third in slugging and fourth in doubles. Southern leads the MIAA in 11 different offensive and defensive categories, while ranking in the top three of 14 different categories. Southern leads the MIAA in doubles, hit batters, hits, home runs, runs scored, shutouts, slugging and triples.
Individually,
Tommy Stevenson is tearing up Division II. The sophomore catcher leads Division II in total bases, while ranking second nationally in home runs and ninth in hits, while ranking 12
th in both RBIs and slugging. Stevenson leads the MIAA in batting average, hits, home runs, runs scored, slugging and total bases, while ranking second in RBIs and triples.
Jordan Fitzpatrick ranks fifth nationally in sacrifice flies, while ranking 18
th nationally in doubles and 17
th in total bases. Fitzpatrick is fourth in the MIAA in doubles, while leading the league in sacrifice flies.
Matt Miller is fifth in the MIAA in home runs and 19
th nationally, while
Henry Kusiak and
Nate Mieszkowski are tied with Stevenson for 12
th nationally and second in the MIAA in triples.
Scott Duensing leads Division II in appearances, while
Ryan Paschal is seventh nationally and second in the MIAA.
Logan VanWey and
Cole Woods rank 10
th nationally and tops in the MIAA in games started, while Woods is 17
th nationally in strikeouts and strikeouts per game. Woods leads the MIAA in strikeouts per game.
Stevenson comes into the series hitting .440 with five doubles, three triples, 10 home runs, 28 RBIs and 27 runs scored. He is slugging .987 with a .538 on-base percentage. The Lions have six hitters at .300 or better in the starting lineup with two more at .286 or better and a team batting average of .313.
Woods leads the team with 38 strikeouts while VanWey is right behind at 32.
Cale McCallister has a team-best 1.26 ERA, while
Laif Hultine leads the way with two saves.
The Bronchos are led by Landen Wood with a .388 batting average, while Garrett Takamatsu has a team-high nine home runs. Clayton Peterson leads the way with 23 RBIs, while Takamatsu is second at 22. Lawson Isaacs and AJ Ozorio-Brace lead the way with two wins each, while Tucker Elliott has a team-best 28 strikeouts.
All three games will be streamed live on the MIAA Network and will have live stats each day. Links to each are available in the story links section above.
