Joplin, Mo. - Sunday's contest between the Missouri Southern and Missouri Western baseball teams was the final home game of the regular season for the Lions. Southern took that contest by a score of 9-3, completing the series sweep, improving to 36-11 (23-7 MIAA) on the year.
Missouri Western got a guy on with one out in the first, but a 6-4-3 double play ended that opportunity. Southern got on the board first, putting up two runs in the second inning. Leading off the inning was
Will Doherty, smacking a double to right field.
Garrett Rice followed with a single to left, moving Doherty to third. With one out in the inning,
Wyatt Morgan drove in Doherty on a single to right. Rice then scored on a
Treghan Parker sacrifice fly.
The Griffons responded with two runs in the third, tying things at 2-2. That score remained until the fourth inning, when MSSU scored three more runs. With two runners on,
Treghan Parker hit a double to center field, scoring
Nate Mieszkowski.
Wyatt Morgan then came home on a ground out, and
Ethan Clark later drove in Parker on a single to left.
Things remained the same until the sixth inning, as
Ethan Clark recorded another RBI with a single to right. He scored
Chayton Beck who led off the inning with a double. Later in the inning,
Henry Kusiak stole second, then advanced to third on a bad throw by the catcher, allowing
Ethan Clark to score in the process. After that,
Garrett Rice drove one up the middle to score Kusiak.
In the eighth inning, MWSU scored a run to bring their total to 3, but MSSU got that run back for a 9-3 final score. That run was scored by
Henry Kusiak, coming home on a
Garrett Rice sacrifice fly.
Keaton Anderson got the win, tossing 7.0 innings on the day. He struck out 6 in that time, giving up 2 runs on 5 hits.
Wyatt Morgan had 4 hits in 4 at-bats, driving in a run and scoring another himself.
Ethan Clark,
Garrett Rice, and
Treghan Parker each had 2 RBI in the win.
The team will hit the road for their final series of the regular season, traveling to Warrensburg, Missouri. They'll face the Central Missouri Mules in a three game series with game one scheduled for 6:00pm on Friday, April 26.
