TAHLEQUAH – Northeastern State Baseball is at home again with an MIAA home series against Central Missouri. 

The team seeks to regroup after losing three of four last week against the likes of Missouri Southern and Missouri Western. 

The Setup
- Northeastern State baseball is guided by head coach Sunny Golloway. Golloway was hired last summer after spending a season in Ada, Okla. in the same position at East Central. He brings decades of experience at the Division I level to Tahlequah, also leading teams at Oral Roberts (1996-2003), Oklahoma (2005-13) and Auburn (2014-15). Golloway-led teams have appeared in 15 NCAA Regionals and four Super Regionals, while he led the Sooners to an appearance in the 2010 College World Series.
- NSU enters the season two removed from one of their best in program history, where the RiverHawks won 38 games and made the Central Regional in 2022. The RiverHawks were only a couple wins shy of returning last season, as one of the last three teams remaining in the MIAA tournament as part of a 25-win effort in 2023.
- The team's series continues their 33-game MIAA schedule. 

Around the Diamond
- There wasn't a low-scoring game in sight from last week's schedule, as the RiverHawks lost a 14-6 non-conference contest against Missouri Southern before combining with Missouri Western for 92 runs across three days at the end of the week. 
- Tyson Fourkiller was a tone-setter every game last week, with three performances of at least three hits, while driving in four runs. The leadoff hitter enters Friday's meeting with UCM on a five-game hitting streak, and has recorded a hit in 15 of 16 appearances. 
- Last Sunday's series finale with the Griffons saw the first NSU home runs of Korben Ford and Gage Williams. 
- The pitching staff will look to bounce back after three starters failed to make it past two innings of work last week and the unit surrendered a total of 28 earned runs.
- Woes in the field proved to be a problematic point for the RiverHawks, as they were tagged with 13 errors in the MWSU series, including five in both of the first two games. 

Northeastern State vs. Central Missouri (Mar. 1-2 at 3 p.m., Mar 3. at 1 p.m.) // Live Coverage

About Central Missouri (11-3, 2-1 MIAA) 
- Central Missouri claimed two of three in their MIAA opener with #9 Central Oklahoma. Dropping the finale ended a ten-game winning streak and marked their third loss to a team ranked in the top ten. 
- Kyle Crookes has been with the program for over a decade and enters his tenth season as the head baseball coach at Central Missouri. Crookes win total with the Mules exceeded 350 earlier this season, while he has led the team to five MIAA regular season titles, six MIAA tournament championships and three Central Region crowns. Notably, his 2021 group finished as the runner-up of the NCAA DII College World Series.  
- Josh Patrick highlights the UCM bats with a team-best six homers and 12 runs batted in. Patrick had a pair of multi-hit games in the UCO series and enters the week with a .404 batting average. 
- Conner Wolf leads the charge for the pitching staff, as he has only surrendered four earned runs in his last three starts, with two complete games in that span. 

Series Notes
- Central Missouri leads the series 35-14. 
- The Mules have won 12 of the last 14 going back to 2019.
- The RiverHawks struggled to contain the UCM bats last season, as the Mules reached double-digits in three meetings in 2023. 

Coming Up
Northeastern State has a non-conference clash with Randall on Mar. 5 at Rousey Field before continuing the MIAA slate away from home with Fort Hays State from Mar. 8-10.