TAHLEQUAH -- One swing of the bat changed Northeastern State's afternoon in a dramatic 3-2 win on Saturday afternoon over Northwest Missouri State. 

After a leadoff walk to start the game, 19 NSU batters were sat down in order before Jordan Payne walked with one out in the seventh.  Chad Reibenspies then broke up the Bearcat's no-hit bid with a bloop single that fell behind the second baseman, and into center.  Everything then changed for the RiverHawks on the second pitch of Dakota Morse's at-bat where he found the jet-stream down the left field line to clear the bases to take a 3-2 lead.

"You got to grind through the ballgame," said head coach Jake Hendrick. "It was a 2-0 game and we were in it all the way through and a lot of credit goes to how we played defense and how we pitched it.  I don't think (Zach) Parish was as sharp as we have seen from him but he still struck out a good number."  

"You keep battling and its two-to-nothing, all of the sudden you get two hits in a row, and you're going to win the ballgame."

The RiverHawks only had three hits but it was Morse's three run shot is the one that mattered in a pitching heavy afternoon where there were 23 strikeouts combined by both teams.  Zach Parish stared the game and went 6 2/3 innings on the mound, striking out nine, and allowing four hits in the no-decision.  Zach Poehl came out of the bullpen for the second day in a row and sat down three Bearcat batters to pick up his first win of the season.  Dustin Berrong closed the game out for NSU for his first save.

Northwest Missouri (8-4, 0-2 MIAA) missed plenty of chances put the RiverHawks down and they left 16 runners on base.  The Bearcats did have tying run on second and the go-ahead run on first after back-to-back hit batters with two outs in the ninth.  However, Berrong stopped the momentum on a 0-2 fielder's choice to allow the RiverHawks to take the series over the Bearcats.

Saturday's win will send Northeastern State to 7-3 overall and in MIAA play they are 2-0.

Nolan Sturgeon will start for NSU on Sunday at noon where they will go for the series sweep.