Joplin, Mo. - The 10th ranked Missouri Southern baseball program ended their 2023 season in the final game of the NCAA Central Regional Tournament with a heartbreaking 10-4 decision against Minnesota State - Mankato on Sunday, May 21st at Warren Turner Field.

Southern (45-17) won the first game of the day, 9-5 to force the if necessary game to be enacted against the Mavericks (42-16) to determine who advanced to the Central Super Regional. Leading the charge was Chayton Beck with three RBIs, Nate Mieszkowski, Treghan Parker and Ethan Clark finished with two hits with Mieszkowski chipping in with two RBIs. Steen Lane picked up his fourth win of the season after 7.0 innings of relief with six strikeouts from 124 pitches.

The Mavericks scored three runs in the first and added another in the third to jump out to an early 4-0 lead. Southern responded in the fourth with a Matt Miller RBI double down the right field line and a Chayton Beck two RBI single up the middle to make it a one run game, 4-3. In the fifth Ethan Clarks singled home Mieszkowski to tie it up before a Garrett Rice single through the left side scored Parker to give the Lions a 5-4 lead that by the end of the inning ballooned up to 9-4. MSU scored one run in the ninth but was not enough as the Lions roared into the decisive game with the momentum and a 9-5 win.

In the second game the Lions and Mavericks scored in the top and bottom half of innings for three of the first four innings with MSU ultimately pulling away, 10-4. Treghan Parker wend 3-for-5 to lead the team in hits and was one of four Lions to score a run and provide an RBI. Cale McCallister, Laif Hultine, Kyle Moore and Kyle Kaempf all recorded two strikeouts in the game.

Parker on the sixth pitch of the game went opposite field to left center for his 18th home run of the season to give the Lions a 1-0 lead heading into the bottom half of the inning. The Mavericks responded in the bottom half with two runs to have a 2-1 advantage. Southern got on the board again in the third inning with an Ethan Clark RBI single up the middle to tie it up 2-2 before the Mavericks scored three in the bottom half for a 5-2 lead.

Mieszkowski got the Lions on the board again this time in the fourth with an RBI single to right field to make it a two-run game, 5-3 before the Mavericks scored twice in the bottom half for a 7-4 lead. Mankato scored again in the sixth and seventh innings with a Beck RBI single up the middle in the eighth representing the last run of the game for a 10-4 final scoreline.

This season the Lions went on a historic ride throughout the season winning the second most games in a season with the 1991 season winning 48 and played in the second most games in a season as the 1986 team played in 63. Broke 11 team records in at-bats (2,149), runs (568), hits (691), doubles (145), home runs (114), RBIs (529), HBPs (97), putouts (1,558), total bases (1,212), extra base hits (276) and innings pitched (519.1). Made it to the MIAA Tournament championship game for the first time since 2013, made their first NCAA Regional Tournament appearance since 2019 for the ninth appearance overall with it also being the first time hosting a regional since 1992 and the third time ever in program history. 

Single-Season Update
Nate Mieszkowski - Broke the MSSU single-season runs record that was held by Tim Casper, 1991 with 81 and moved past Casper and Brock Reller, Northeastern State in 2022 for sole possesion of seventh in MIAA single-season history. Mieszkowski finished tied for sixth in MIAA history for hits in a season with Rich Ladjevich, Central Missouri in 1994.

Cole Woods - Set a MSSU single-season record for games started passing Zach Parish and Zac Shoemaker in 2019 with 17. Woods moved past Scott Wright for the fourth most innings pitched in a season with 99.1.

Treghan Parker - Tied Jesse Rall, 2016 for the second most home runs in a season with 18.

Matt Miller - Moved past Garrett McGowan, Pittsburg State in 2022 for eighth in MIAA single-season history for RBIs with 80.

Laif Hultine - Moved past Logan VanWey (2019), River Wright (2019) and Ryan Paschall for third in appearances with 28.

Kyle Moore - Moved into a tie with Logan VanWey (2019), River Wright (2019) and Ryan Paschall for fourth in appearances with 27.

Career Update
Cole Woods - Finished his career ninth in MIAA career ranks for strikeouts with 256. Read Full Article