Joplin, Mo. -- The Missouri Southern baseball team will open up the 2017 MIAA Baseball Tournament Thursday afternoon as the Lions will take on 11th-ranked Emporia State in the first round at 4 pm on Warren Turner Field.
Southern (26-24) enter the tournament as the No. 8 seed while Emporia (40-9) are the top seed and the regular-season MIAA Champions.
The Lions are led offensively by Max Hogan who leads the MIAA in five different offensive categories, including walks, on base percentage, slugging and total bases. Hogan ranks second in RBIs, third in home runs and third in doubles. Nationally, Hogan is second in walks, eighth in on base percentage and 20th in slugging.
Dave Prost is second in the MIAA in home runs with 14 and seventh in RBIs, while Tyler Sutherland is second in the league in runs scored and first in sacrifice flies.
As a team, Southern leads the MIAA in walks, doubles, home runs, sacrifice flies and slugging percentage. The Lions rank second in scoring, while ranking third in on base percentage and fielding percentage.
Emporia State is the top-ranked team in the latest NCAA Division II Central Region rankings and the Hornets rank in the top ten nationally in 11 different categories. The Hornets hit .331 as a team and have a 4.57 team ERA.
Third seeded Lindenwood takes on sixth seeded Southwest Baptist in game one of the day at 9 am. Second seeded Missouri Western plays seventh seeded Northwest Missouri at 12:30 pm, while the Lions and Hornets go at 4 pm. The 7:30 pm game features fourth seeded Central Missouri against fifth seeded Central Oklahoma.
All games will be streamed live with video and audio and all Missouri Southern games can be heard locally on 103.5 FM, as well as streamed online via www.mssulions.com.
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