TAHLEQUAH -- Northeastern State came up on the losing end of 20 innings of baseball on Friday afternoon with Lindenwood taking game one 5-1 and later the nightcap in 11 innings, 5-4 at Thomas C. Rousey Field.
Butch Rea saw his 25 game hitting streak come to an end in the opener as the RiverHawks would only gave one run off the bat of
Jordan Payne.  The NSU junior blasted his 13th homer in the seventh inning which kept Payne tied for MIAA lead with four others. Â
Nolan Sturgeon (4-3) got the rare game one start for NSU and threw 5 1/3 innings with seven strike outs;
Zack Hammock came out of the pen to complete the game.
In the nightcap, NSU trailed Lindenwood 4-0 heading into the home half of the fifth when
Tristan Ridenour hit a two run shot to left to cut the lead in half. Ridenour had a big day from behind the dish, gunning down to runners attempting to steal second, and in the ninth he prevented the go-ahead run by taking a home plate collision.
The RiverHawks (19-24, 13-19 MIAA) tied the game in the eighth with Payne hitting a RBI double down the line and
Dakota Morse plating NSU's fourth run on a single through the right side.
Northeastern State had two chances to end the game with the first coming with two on and two out in the ninth but a ground out ended the frame. Then in the tenth,
Blake Vandegrift singled to start the frame and then after a strikeout he advanced all the way to third on a failed pickoff by LWU.  With the winning run standing at third, NSU struck out and flew out.Â
Lindenwood (28-17, 21-11 MIAA) opened the 11th out with a single and a sac bunt moved him into scoring position.  The Lions got another single to put runners on the corners and then hit another single up the middle to plate the go-ahead run. In the bottom half of the frame, NSU got a runner on second but he would be left stranded, as they would drop their tenth game in a row.
Ridenour had three of the RiverHawks ten hits, and was a triple short of the cycle. Â
Zach Poehl made his first start of the season and went 3 2/3 innings,
Dustin Berrong also threw 3 1/3, and
Daniel Faulk (0-1) came in and went four innings.
Due to incoming weather to the region on Saturday, the RiverHawks have postponed the series finale to April 30 at noon. Â
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