Joplin, Mo. – The Missouri Southern baseball team will be in action this weekend as the Lions will travel to Northeastern State for a three-game MIAA series with the RiverHawks.
The series will take place on Thursday, Friday and Saturday at Rousey Field. Game times are 2 pm on Thursday and Friday and 1 pm on Saturday. Live stats and live video will be available for each game and links to each can be found in the story links section above.
The Lions (25-17, 15-12 MIAA) are in sixth place in the MIAA standings, but just two games out of second. Southern is hitting .312 as a team and carries a 5.44 team ERA, both are fourth in the MIAA.
Southern ranks fifth nationally in shutouts, sixth in doubles and seventh in home runs and triples, leading the MIAA in each of those categories. The Lions rank 10
th in home runs per game, 12
th in slugging, 13
th in doubles per game and triples, 15
th in hits and 17
th in triples per game. Southern leads the MIAA in four different categories, while ranking in the top-3 in 12 total categories.
Individually,
Jordan Fitzpatrick leads the MIAA and ranks fifth nationally in doubles, while
Tommy Stevenson is 12
th nationally in slugging, 16
th in home runs per game and 17
th in home runs. Stevenson leads the MIAA in slugging, while ranking second in home runs per game, third in home runs and fourth in total bases.
Henry Kusiak is 15
th nationally and third in the MIAA in triples.
The Lions have four active players that are in the top-ten of career home runs at MSSU.
Matt Miller is 3
rd all-time with 32, while Stevenson is tied for 4
th with 31, Fitzpatrick is tied for 6
th with 27 and
Henry Kusiak is tied for 10
th at 21.
Logan VanWey is one of the best starters in the MIAA this year as the righty leads the league in strikeouts with 92 and ranks third nationally. VanWey also leads the league in strikeouts per nine innings and games started. VanWey has found his form as of late as he is 4-1 in his last six starts. In those six starts, VanWey has allowed just five earned runs, while striking out 60 and posting a 1.12 ERA.
Scott Duensing and
Ryan Paschal rank third in the MIAA in appearances and ninth nationally in that category.
The RiverHawks (29-13, 17-10 MIAA) are tied for second in the MIAA standings. NSU is hitting .327 on the season as a team and posts a 5.03 team ERA, ranking second and third in the MIAA, respectively in those categories.
NSU is led by Blake Freeman who ranks second in the MIAA with a .443 batting average, while Brock Reller leads D2 with 21 home runs and ranks second in the MIAA with 62 RBIs.
Seth Key leads the pitchers with a 5-1 record in six starts with a 2.25 ERA. Jonathan Smithey is 5-2 with a 3.02 ERA, while the other weekend starter Davin Pollard is 1-2 with a 6.26 ERA.
After this game the Lions will have a midweek game on Wednesday, April 27 at Drury, before finishing up the regular season, playing host to Missouri Western on April 29-May 1.
