Joplin, Mo. - The Missouri Southern baseball program picked up a walk-off 11-9 win over (RV) St. Cloud State and a 12-2 seven inning run rule over Southwest Baptist today at Warren Turner Field to begin the season 4-0.

The Lions (4-0) began the day with a comeback win over (RV) St. Cloud State (2-2) to hand the Huskies two early season wins. The Huskies got out to a 3-0 lead by the fourth but the Lions started chipping away with a Nate Mieszkowski sacrifice fly to score Will Doherty in the fifth and a Tyler Ferguson double down the left field line that scored Treghan Parker and Henry Kusiak to tie it 3-3 in the sixth inning. 

In the seventh inning, Matt Miller would single to center field which allowed Chayton Beck to score and a two-run home run by Kusiak made it a 6-3 lead in his first homer of the season. St. Cloud State scored six runs in the eighth to claim a 9-6 lead heading into ninth where the Lions kept the Huskies off the board in the top half to set up a dramatic finish.

Miller got the scoring started with a single to right center scoring Mieszkowski and moved Garrett Rice over to third base, Kusiak followed that up with a single through the left side to score Rice and move Miller into scoring position at second base. Following a ground out that moved the runners up a base, Tyler Ferguson sent the Lions into a frenzy with a first pitch three-run home run to complete the comeback victory 11-9.

In the game, Ferguson claimed five RBIs while Kusiak went 4-for-4 with three RBIs and three runs scored while Laif Hultine picked up the win after pitching the final 1.1 innings.

Game two of the day saw a 12-2 run rule win over Southwest Baptist (0-4) with Cale McCalister picking up his first win of the season with five shutout innings and four strikeouts while Will Doherty went 2-for-4 with four RBIs and three runs scored.

Southern got the scoring started in the second inning with a Mieszkowski ground rule double to center field scoring Doherty with Rice hitting his first home run as a Lion in the following at bat to make it a 4-0 score. In the fifth, Doherty doubled to right center to score Treghan Parker and Ferguson before scoring off a pinch hit sacrifice fly by Garrett Latoz to make it 7-0. 

The sixth inning would see a Miller home run, Doherty double to center field scoring Ferguson and Parker and an Ethan Clark single up the middle to score Doherty for an 11-0 lead. SBU got two runs across in the seventh but a pinch hit single to center field by Ryan Cline to score Mieszkowski enacted the run rule victory 12-2.

Up next for the Lions will be a trip to Arkadelphia, Ark. to play Henderson State on Feb. 9th at 2:30pm at Clyde Berry Field before making the journey to Cleveland, Miss. to play a three game series against Delta State. Southern is set to play the Statesmen on Feb. 10th at 4:00pm and a double header on the 11th at 1:00 & 4:00pm from Harvey Stadium at Ferriss Field. 
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