Maryville, Mo. - The Lions and Bearcats faced off in game two of their three game series Friday afternoon, Northwest Missouri taking a 1-0 series lead into the contest. Missouri Southern evened the series with a 7-5 win, scoring two runs in the twelfth inning. The win improves the Lions to 28-7 (15-4 MIAA) on the year.
Things were pretty quiet through the first three innings, as both teams were scoreless until the fourth. Northwest Missouri scored a run in the fourth and another couple in the fifth, taking a 3-0 lead.
In the next frame,
Drew Townsend got things going with a base hit bunt.
Henry Kusiak followed with a double to score Townsend, tying the MSSU career extra base hits record at 112 in his career. Later in the inning,
Nate Mieszkowski tied things up at 3-3 with a double to center, scoring Kusiak and
Wyatt Morgan.
After an out was recorded in the top of the seventh,
Ryan Cline stepped up to the plate as a pinch hitter. Making the most of his opportunity, he sent one over the outfield fence to give the Lions a 4-3 lead.
Henry Kusiak later doubled to left field, setting the program record for most extra base hits in a career.
Northwest Missouri quickly evened the score in their half of the seventh, but
Nate Mieszkowski recorded another RBI with a sacrifice fly to score
Wyatt Morgan, giving the Lions the lead once again at 5-4 in the eighth. Like game one, the hosts managed to tie things late to send the game into extras.
The Bearcats had runners on second and third with one out in the bottom of the tenth, when
Treghan Parker caught a fly ball in left and threw out the runner trying to tag and score, sending things into the eleventh inning.
Neither team was able to score in the 11th, but the Lions broke the tie in the 12th.
Will Doherty led off with a single to left, then moved over on a sacrifice bunt.
Tyler Ferguson moved Doherty to third with a base hit, then stole second. With two outs,
Treghan Parker hit an infield single to score Doherty, and
Garrett Rice added one more with a base hit to make it 7-5 Lions. The Bearcats had two runners on in the bottom of the inning, but were held scoreless for a 7-5 final.
Nate Mieszkowski went 2-3 with a double, driving in 3 runs on the day. He also drew 2 walks in the win.
Henry Kusiak was 3-6 at the plate, recording 2 doubles to set the program's career extra base hits record. He drove in a run and scored one himself.
Ryan Cline had one at-bat in the game and made the most of it, launching a home run. The win was credited to
Michael Moore, and the save went to
Laif Hultine.
The teams will wrap up their series Saturday afternoon, as game three is scheduled for a 1:00pm start.
