No. 11 MSSU completes baseball sweep of Newman
Apr. 11—That three-game skid the Missouri Southern baseball team was riding heading into the weekend? The Lions made sure to leave it in the rearview mirror.
No. 11 MSSU got just what the doctor ordered and completed a weekend sweep of Newman on Saturday by picking up wins of 5-2 and 29-11 at Warren Turner Field in Joplin. Southern opened the series with an 8-1 win over the Jets on Friday.
The Lions, winners in six of seven MIAA series played, improved to 21-6 on the season and 15-6 in conference play.
"We needed to play well, and we did a lot of good things," Southern coach Bryce Darnell said. "It's not indicative of how Newman competed. You know, one of the games today got out of hand, but I thought Newman competed hard and played well throughout the weekend. So credit to our guys. It was a good weekend, for sure."
With MIAA frontrunner Central Missouri upending Pittsburg State twice on Saturday, Southern claimed sole position of third place in the conference standings and trailed second-place Northeastern State by a half game.
The Lions will be back in action Tuesday when they play host to Drury in a nonconference contest at Warren Turner Field.
MSSU 5, NU 2
Senior righty Corey Cowan put together a solid outing in his first start for the Lions this season, limiting Newman to two earned runs and four hits in six innings of work.
Cowan, a product of Turner High School in Kansas City, Kan., was recently thrusted into Southern's starting rotation due to a season-ending injury suffered by 2018 all-MIAA performer and four-year starter Zac Shoemaker.
Totaling 99 pitches on Saturday, Cowan struck out eight batters and surrendered just one free pass as he picked up his first win of the season.
"I just wanted to go out there and give my team a chance to win," Cowan said. "I obviously have big shoes to fill — that's for sure. But my job is to help my team in whatever way I can, whether it's six innings in the starting rotation or three innings out of the bullpen."
"He's probably going to have to do what he did today from here on out now," Darnell said of Cowan. "He was great. And, you know, Corey's personality is pretty relaxed and calm. So not much really shakes him. He did wonderful and showed why we were comfortable moving him into that role."
Corey had enough run support behind him to get the job done as the Lions tallied eight hits to plate two runs in the first inning and three runs in the third.
Henry Kusiak got the scoring started for Southern in the bottom of the first when he drove in two runs on a single to left center. The freshman infielder led the team with two RBI.
Newman got on the scoreboard with one run in the top of the third before the Lions responded with their three-run showing in the bottom of the fourth to go up 5-1. The frame was highlighted by RBI doubles by Clay Milas, Brad Willis and Jordan Fitzpatrick.
The Southern defense took over from there, holding the Jets to one run in the final five innings. Relievers Scott Duensing and Logan VanWey threw three shutout innings combined as VanWey picked up his second save of the season.
MSSU 29, NU 11
In a game that featured a combined 34 hits between the two teams, Southern outpaced Newman and put the final nail in the coffin with a 16-run showing in the sixth inning.
Southern's big frame included 10 total hits and home runs by Kusiak, Joe Kinder and Tommy Stevenson. The Lions had 22 at-bats and batted through the order twice as Newman used four different arms in the inning.
"I haven't seen very many innings like that as a player or a coach," Darnell said. "We've been really happy with our offense's ability to execute, and that was just a continuation of that. So credit to our guys for maintaining focus in each at-bat and for basically putting the game away. It was fun to see."
MSSU finished with gaudy numbers in the final box score with 24 hits, seven home runs, one triple and three doubles.
Kusiak finished a perfect 5 for 5 with two home runs and six RBI, while Fitzpatrick finished 4 for 5 with a home run, one double and five RBI. Stevenson also homered twice and finished 4-for-5 with three RBI, and Troy Gagan went 3 for 5 with one home run, a triple and five RBI.
Ryan Paschal tossed one scoreless inning in relief and struck out one batter to pick up his first win of the season. Will Bausinger started the game and limited Newman to three earned runs in three innings. Cole Woods and Chase Beiter tossed two innings and one inning in relief, respectively.
Contact Jared Porter on Twitter at @JaredRyanPorter.