TAHLEQUAH – Northeastern State Baseball jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning and didn't look back in a 12-4 win over Emporia State Sunday afternoon.
 
With the win, the RiverHawks improve to 22-10 and 19-7 in MIAA play. They stand alone in second place in the conference with the most wins in conference play since 2016 in head coach Jake Hendrick's first season at the helm.
 
Blaze Brothers and Brayden Rodden drew back-to-back walks in the first inning and came around on a double by Blake Freeman followed by a C.D. White groundout. Jaxon Phipps singled in Freeman.
 
NSU starter Nic Swanson threw 6.0 innings and allowed the most runs of an outing this season, just three. Emporia State led off the top of the second with a home run to left center before Swanson got a strikeout and double play ball up the middle. Brothers walked three times in the game and scored another run in the second on a Rodden single.
 
Brothers scored in the fourth on a two-out Collin Klingensmith double. Emporia State would cut the lead to two runs in top of the sixth, 5-3 but could not get any closer as NSU had three hits in the bottom half to plate two more.
 
Northeastern State extended its lead in the eighth with five runs and the ESU pinch hitters could only scratch across one run in the ninth.
 
Brothers had five plate appearances and scored four times while five RiverHawks had multi-hit games. C.D. White drove in four runs in his second game batting fifth in the order.
 
John Rains, Ryan Summers and Cohen Bell combined for three innings of one-hit ball in relief of Swanson.
 
Northeastern State will look to complete the sweep of Emporia State tomorrow at 12 p.m. They have won eight MIAA series and are 16-2 in conference doubleheaders.