Pittsburg, Kan. – The Missouri Southern baseball program won the first series of MIAA play on Sunday, beating rival Pittsburg State 19-14 at Al Ortolani Field.
The Lions (11-5, 2-1 MIAA) were led by
Treghan Parker with six RBIs and
Matt Miller with four RBIs, on the mound
Cole Gayman picked up the win after 5.1 innings of relief. Miller,
Nate Mieszkowski and
Tyler Ferguson had home runs today.
Pittsburg State (9-6, 1-2 MIAA) was led by Trey McClelland with three home runs for five RBIs today, Parker Tennill picked up the loss with four earned runs allowed off two hits and two walks in 0.1 innings of work.
Southern would get on the scoreboard in the second inning as
Garrett Rice and
Henry Kusiak walked in a run but following a McClelland home run was trailing 6-2. The hosts scored three more runs in the third to make it 9-2 but from there the momentum shifted in favor of the Lions.
In the fourth Rice hit a sacrifice fly to left field to score Ferguson as the Lions pitching a defense kept the Gorillas from scoring in the bottom half of the inning for a 9-3 defecit. The fifth inning would see Pittsburg State kept off the scoreboard and a Parker sacrifice fly to center field scored
Will Doherty as a Ferguson home run over left field scored
Ethan Clark making it 9-6.
The sixth inning was where the Lions took the lead and didn't look back as a Miller single through the right side scored Mieszkowski, Doherty walked home Rice, a fielders choice allowed Kusiak to score and a Parker double to right center took the lead 11-9 with Clark and Miller scoring on the hit. Southern wa not done scoring runs as a Miller home run to right field scored Rice and Kusiak for a 14-9 lead and the hosts got one run across in the bottom half.
Soutern extended the lead to nine, 19-10 in the eighth inning following a home run by Mieszkowksi to score
Chayton Beck and a bases clearing double to left center by Parker scored Miller, Rice and Kusiak. PSU would get three runs in the bottom half of the eighth and one more in the ninth as the Lions roared out to a 19-14 comeback victory to claim the series against the rival Gorillas and make the all-time series 65-49 in favor of the Lions.
For the weekend the Lions had 41 hits, 12 home runs, seven doubles, one triple, drew 18 walks and is now the Division II leader with 36 home runs on the season.
Up next for Southern will be a road weekend series with Northwest Missouri in Maryville, Mo. from Mar. 3rd - Mar. 5th. First pitch on Friday and Saturday is set for 2:00pm and on Sunday from Bearcat Baseball Field at 1:00pm to conclude the series with the Bearcats.
