Pittsburg, Kan. - The Missouri Southern baseball team was back in action Thursday evening, following a sweep of Northwest Missouri in the first round of the MIAA Baseball Championships last weekend. In their first game of the second round of the MIAA Championships, the Lions jumped out to an early lead and held on for a 9-5 victory. With the win, MSSU advances to the winners side and will take on Washburn who won the first game of the day 11-1 over UCM.
The leadoff man for the Gorillas hit a single to open the game, but the Lions worked around that and escaped the opening inning unscathed. Things were quiet for both teams through the first round of the lineup, then Southern opened things up in the third.
Drew Townsend hit a one out single, then
Henry Kusiak later followed with an infield single. With two outs,
Will Doherty hit a triple to right center, scoring both runners for a 2-0 lead.
After a quick fourth inning, the Lions were back at it in the fifth. With one out,
Drew Townsend sent a laser over the right field wall to make it 3-0.
Garrett Rice later came to the plate with the bases loaded, scoring two runs with a single up the middle. Another run scored on a bases loaded walk from
Treghan Parker, then
Drew Davis drove one in on a sacrifice fly, making it a 7-0 ball game heading into the sixth.
In the bottom of the sixth,
Will Doherty hit one down the right field line that would've scored two, but it hopped over the wall to keep Kusiak at third and keep Doherty at second.
Garrett Rice then drove in Kusiak with a sacrifice fly, making it 9-0. Pittsburg State managed to score one in the seventh, two in the eighth, and two more in the ninth, but the Lions closed things out with a 9-5 score.
Will Doherty was 3-5 at the plate with 3 RBI and a run scored, recording a double and a triple.
Drew Townsend and
Henry Kusiak also had 3 hits on the day, Townsend launching a home run with 2 runs scored and Kusiak with 3 runs scored and a walk. Kusiak also broke another MSSU record, playing in his record-setting 226th career game as a Lion.
Cole Gayman threw 7.0 innings for the win, his 11th on the season which ties the MSSU single season record. He gave up just 1 run on 3 hits, striking out 3 and walking 2.
Cale McCallister also made his 76th pitching appearance, tying the MSSU career record.
The Lions will play "game 3" on Friday, May 10 at 11:00am, taking on the winner of the first game of the day - Washburn. Jumping to an early lead, the Ichabods never looked back, upsetting the #2 nationally ranked Mules 11-1 in eight innings. The loser will play in "game 5" at 7:00pm against the winner of "game 4" - Central Missouri and Pittsburg State. The winner of "game 3" will play the winner of "game 5" on Saturday, May 11 at 12:00pm.
