In their final regular-season home game of the year, the Missouri Southern Lions fell victim to the long ball in an 11-8 loss to the Northeastern State University Riverhawks on Sunday at Warren Turner Field in Joplin. The loss ended an eight-game win streak for the No. 17 Lions (36-11, 23-7) and dropped them to No. 2 behind Central Missouri (33-12, 24-6) in the MIAA standings.
Southern pitching gave up four homers on the day, including two home runs in back-to-back plate appearances by Isaiah Keller in the seventh and ninth innings.
“We can’t give up those runs at the end,” MSSU head coach Bryce Darnell said. “We gave up three home runs after we took the lead. We used a lot of energy coming back to take the lead, but we have to be better on the mound after we take a lead.”
The Riverhawks, of Tahlequah, Oklahoma, broke out to a 1-0 first-inning lead off an RBI single by Blake Freeman that plated Brayden Rodden. The Lions tied it up at 1-1 in the bottom of the second inning off a Matt Miller bomb to right field.
Northeastern State reclaimed the lead in the following frame, when a Coby Tweten triple sent C.D. White across the plate. Ty Van Meter made it 3-1 with a sacrifice fly to left field that plated Tweten. A Brady Evans’ single to right center field scored Freeman and the Riverhawks extended their lead to 4-1. A Kademon Graff sacrifice fly to center brought in Kaiser and expanded NSU’s lead to 5-1.
A three-run fourth inning for the Lions brought them to within a run at 5-4. Treghan Parker’s two-run double plated Nate Mieszkowski and Chayton Beck, before Parker was brought home with a Henry Kusiak single.
Van Meter increased the Riverhawks lead to 6-4 off a lead-off home run to left in the top of the fifth and the Lions went into the bottom of the fifth inning down by 2 runs. MSSU hung four on the Riverhawks in their half of the inning and captured its first lead of the game. The Lions’ fifth run of the game came off a Will Doherty sacrifice fly that scored Ethan Clark, who reached base earlier on a single up the middle.
A Mieszkowski 2-run double brought Drew Davis and Ryan Doran home and gave the Lions an 8-6 advantage and brought Cole White to the mound in relief of Riverhawks’ starter Bryan Paxton, who closed out the inning with Lions on all bases.
Neither team scored in a sixth inning that saw NSU strand two runners and Southern strand three for the second time in as many innings.
Southern surrendered its 2-run lead in the top of the seventh off a 2-run jack by Graff that plated Evans, who reached earlier on a single. After Trent Harris replaced reliever Laif Hultine on the mound, he gave up a Keller home run that put NSU up 9-8.
Neither team scored in the eight inning, but Keller hit a 2-run homer in the top of the ninth that drove in Graff. The Lions had no answer in their half of the inning and fell 11-8.
Mieszkowski (1 for 5) and Parker (1 for 1) each logged two RBIs for the Lions; Miller went 2 for 4 with an RBI.
Keller and Graff each recorded 3 RBIs for NSU. Keller went 2 for 5 with two home runs and Graff was 2 for 4 at the plate.
Southern wraps up its regular season at Missouri Western (10-20) with a three-game set beginning Friday. Central Missouri closes out its regular season against visiting Fort Hays State (10-20).