Joplin, Mo. - The fourth ranked Missouri Southern baseball program finished off a conference midweek series sweep of Rogers State on Tuesday Apr. 11th with an 11-1 run rule victory at Warren Turner Field and for the eighth time under coach
Bryce Darnell the Lions have won 30 or more games in a season.
The Lions (30-10, 18-6 MIAA) were led by
Henry Kusiak going 3-for-5 with three RBIs and three runs scored. Also having multi RBIs were
Ethan Clark,
Matt Miller and
Garrett Rice with two RBIs each and
Nate Mieszkowski led the team with four hits and two stolen bases.
Trent Harris pitched six innings giving up three hits and one earned run with five strikeouts in his fourth win of the season.
Kyle Kaempf and
Laif Hultine had shutout innings with both striking out two from 19 pitches.
Southern jumped out to a four run lead after the first inning thanks to a two run bloop double down the left field line by Kusiak and a Clark RBI single before scoring off a wild pitch later on in the inning. In the second inning a ground rule double down the right field line scored two followed by a Clark RBI single to third base,
Ryan Doran RBI single to left field and a two run triple by Miller to make it 9-0.
Rogers State (22-15, 10-14 MIAA) got on the board in the third inning with an RBI single before both teams exchanged scoreless innings until the eighth. In the eighth inning the Lions enacted the run rule with a tape measure two run home run by
Garrett Rice for his ninth home run of the season and 83rd as a team to claim the 11-1 victory and sweep their third conference opponent of the season.
Up next for the Lions will be a three game conference weekend series against Newman beginning on Friday Apr. 14th at 6:00pm from Joe Becker Stadium.
