Joplin, Mo. – The Missouri Southern baseball program picked up an opening day win over (RV) St. Cloud State, 2-1 at Warren Turner Field.
The Lions (1-0) got six shutout innings from
Cole Woods with nine strikeouts to become the 14th Lion in program history to accomplish 150 career strikeouts passing Garrett Groom (2009-10) in the process.
Jacob Davis picked up his first career save going three innings and held opponents to one hit.
Matt Miller went 2-for-4 with two RBIs with a home run and double. Garret Rice went 2-for-3 with a double and scored a run as well.
The Huskies (1-1) were led by Ethan Navratil who went 2-for-2 with a double and on the mound Ethan Lanthier went five innings in a losing effort.
Miller would get the scoring going with a towering home run over the right field wall in the fourth inning for his first of the season and 36th of his career. In the sixth Miller would double down the right field line to score Rice and extend the lead out to 2-0. With those RBIs Miller moved into 14th for career RBIs passing R.J. Forth (95-98) and Jody Hunt (85-86, 88-89) with 128.
The Huskies would get one across in the ninth on a ground out to second base but that was all the Lions would allow to claim the opening day win, 2-1.
Up next for the Lions will be Southwest Baptist tomorrow at 12:00pm in the only game of the day for Southern before wrapping up the weekend against St. Cloud State and Southwest Baptist on Sunday at 11:00am and 2:00pm with all games being played at Warren Turner Field.
