Joplin, Mo. - The Missouri Southern baseball team played host to the Oklahoma Baptist Bison on Tuesday, as the teams swapped host sites for their series this year. As a team, 11 different Lions recorded a total of 17 hits, leading to a 21-6 victory in seven innings. The win improves the team to a 7-2 record on the year.
The Bison led off with a hit, but a ground ball double play and a lineout put the Bison away with no harm done. In their first opportunity at the plate, the Lions made the most of it.
Drew Townsend started things off with a double off the left-center wall, then
Henry Kusiak went the other way for an opposite field home run, jumping to a 2-0 lead. Later in the inning with a couple of runners on,
Garrett Rice hit a screamer over the left field wall to make it 5-0 after one.
Chayton Beck led off the second inning with a base hit and Kusiak drew a walk later on. Both runners then scored on an
Ethan Clark double to right-center. He too made his way around the bases, scoring on a passed ball. Next,
Treghan Parker doubled and was then driven in on a
Nate Mieszkowski single, 9-2.
The third inning started with a
Drew Davis triple to right-center. A batter later,
Drew Townsend walked and stole second, then
Ethan Clark drove in another pair with a single.
Will Doherty followed with a double to drive in Clark, then smart base running by Doherty scored another, making it 13-2 MSSU.
Both teams were scoreless in the fourth, but OBU plated a pair in the fifth. Leading off the bottom of the fifth,
Henry Kusiak launched his second homer of the game to make it 14-4. The visitors scored a couple more in the sixth, but the Lions got those runs back right away. Southern hit three doubles to start the inning, hit by
Nate Mieszkowski,
Drew Davis, and
Case Tucker. With the bases loaded,
Ethan Clark drove one deep to center that one-hopped the fence and scored a couple.
Ryan Cline later came up to the plate as a pinch hitter, sending one over the left field wall to make it 21-6 heading into the seventh. OBU was unable to score any more, as the final read 21-6 ending early via the run rule.
Ethan Clark led the team with 3 hits in 5 at-bats, recording a pair of doubles, 6 RBI, and 4 runs scored.
Henry Kusiak had a couple hits, both being home runs, driving in 3 runs and scoring 4 himself after walking twice as well.
Garrett Rice and
Ryan Cline both hit three-run home runs to finish with 3 RBI.
Kyle Kaempf was credited with the win, giving up just 3 hits and striking out 5.
The team will host the 2024 MSSU Lion Classic next, a three-day tournament featuring six teams. Games will be played Friday, February 16 through Sunday, February 18, with games at 10:00am, 1:00pm, and 4:00pm each day. More information on the tournament can be found
here.
