Box ScoreJOPLIN, Mo. – The Northeastern State baseball team dropped a 6-1 decision to No. 15 Missouri Southern State Friday night at Turner Field in the first round of the MIAA Championship.
The Lions (38-11) swept the RiverHawks (25-24) to advance to the MIAA Championship semifinals. NSU's season came to an end, and the team posted a winning record for the third time in the last four years.
Northeastern State finished the contest with five hits, two of which came off the bat of junior
Gabriel Wurth. The other three were evenly distributed between senior
Preston Cash, senior
Jorge Ozuna and junior
Jamie Graeser.
Sophomore
Ryan Helsley (7-4) took the loss on the mound to finish with the exact same record that he posted in his rookie campaign. He conceded five runs on eight hits in the first 6.2 innings. He was able to strike out seven Lions and now leads the MIAA in total strikeouts this season (95).
Junior
Jake Kern and senior
Cayle Shambaugh also pitched in the contest.
For the second-straight game, Missouri Southern State received a nine-inning complete game from its starting pitcher. Payton Walker allowed five hits and just one run, while striking out 10 and walking two on 137 pitches.
Chris Hoffman and Jacob Bryant both finished 2-for-3 at the plate to lead MSSU.
-GoRiverHawksGo.com-
