MSSU baseball tops Central Oklahoma 5-4 in series opener

(From Missouri Southern Sports)

The Missouri Southern baseball program picked up a series opening 5-4 win over No. 5 Central Oklahoma on Friday from Warren Turner Field behind dominant pitching by Cole Woods.

The Lions (14-6, 5-2 MIAA) got 8.0 innings with nine strikeouts and one walk issued from Woods with his first hit being surrendered off a pinch hitter in the ninth inning. 

Laif Hultine picked up his second save of the season with a shutout ninth inning and two strikeouts. Nate Mieszkowski collected his eighth home run of the season and scored three runs, Matt Miller had two RBIs and Henry Kusiak had an RBI and scored once.

UCO (15-4, 5-2 MIAA) was led by Aiden Proctor with a three RBI triple as James Wambold picked up his second loss of the seaosn with 5.2 innings giving up seven hits, four runs and walking three.

Southern raced out to a 2-0 lead in the first after a Kusiak triple to right center scored Mieszkowski and a Miller sacrifice fly scored Kusiak later on in the inning. Miller would get another RBI in the third inning with Mieszkowksi scoring and in the fifth Mieszkowski hit one over the left field fence to make it 4-0 in the fifth inning. Ethan Clark would add a run in th eight with a single through the right side to score Will Doherty for a 5-0 lead.

Woods began the ninth inning off with no hits allowed and only two baserunners allowed on base from hit by pitches as a pinch hitting Broncho broke up the no hitter in the inning. After four runs scored Hultine was called in to close out the game and delivered with a sacrifice bunt and back-to-back third pitch swinging strikeouts to end the game.

Game two of the MIAA series will be played tomorrow with first pitch being moved up to 12:00pm at Warren Turner Field in an attempt to beat rain forecasted for the Joplin area.