Tahlequah, Okla. - The Lions baseball team was back in action Friday evening, playing game one of a three game series against the Northeastern State Riverhawks. Southern used a two run fifth and a three run seventh to take the game 5-1. The team improves to 31-10 (18-7 MIAA) with the Friday victory.
Things were pretty quiet early on, taking a 0-0 tie into the fifth inning.
Will Doherty and
Henry Kusiak each picked up a hit prior to that.
Ethan Clark singled with one out in the fifth, then
Henry Kusiak followed with a single of his own, and each advanced a bag due to a fielding error. With runners in scoring position and two outs in the inning,
Will Doherty came up clutch with a two-run single to left, making it a 2-0 Lion lead.
The hosts cut their deficit in half in the sixth as the Lions held their threat to just one run. With one out in the seventh,
Drew Townsend got that run back, hitting a bomb over the right field wall.
Ethan Clark and
Henry Kusiak followed with back-to-back singles, and Clark later scored on a failed pickoff attempt.
Garrett Rice then drove in Kusiak, making it a 5-1 game.
In the seventh, the Riverhawks put together a pair of hits to get runners on first and third, but a 5-4-3 double play ended the threat without a run scoring. NSU had a similar situation in the ninth, two runners on with one out, and the Lions produced a similar outcome with a double play, this one being 6-4-3 to end the game.
Will Doherty recorded four hits on the day, driving in a pair of runs as well.
Ethan Clark went 2-4 at the plate, scoring two runs and drawing a walk.
Henry Kusiak was 3-5 with two runs scored as well, and
Drew Townsend had the team's only extra base hit in the form of a home run. On the mound,
Cole Gayman went 6.0 innings for the win, striking out 9 in the process. He gave up just 1 run on 7 hits and 2 walks.
The teams will meet for game two on Saturday, with that contest scheduled to begin at 6:00pm once again.
