Lions, Gorillas split league bouts

March 16, 2008 11:59 pm

— By Ryan Atkinson
ratkinson@joplinglobe.com
PITTSBURG, Kan. — Missouri Southern coach Bryce Darnell wasn’t about to say that he was pleased with his squad’s MIAA baseball doubleheader split with Pittsburg State on Sunday at Al Ortolani Field.
Even though the Lions ran away with a 7-1 victory in the opener, their two runs in the first inning of the nightcap failed to hold up.
MSSU fell 6-2 in the finale, giving it a split on the day and in the four-game weekend series.
Despite the fact that the Lions have won three of their last five contests after a 12-game skid, Darnell said they know they could have exited the weekend with a little more.
“I’m not going to stand here and tell you I’m pleased with a split,” Darnell said. “We didn’t want to come over here this weekend and split the four games ... we did some good things, but obviously we would have liked to have won the series.”
The Lions (4-14, 2-2 MIAA) put themselves in position to take the weekend set by running away from the Gorillas (7-9, 2-2) late in Sunday’s opener.
Pitt State scored an unearned run in the first and led 1-0 in the fifth before freshman Skyler Rawlins knotted the game with a one-out solo home run to left. Juan Hernandez then reached on an infield single and moved to second on Cliff Wheeler’s single to left. C.J. Matthews brought Hernandez home with a single up the middle, giving the Lions a 2-1 lead.
MSSU then took advantage of Pitt State’s fielding troubles and added two more runs in the sixth and three more in the seventh.
“We put the ball in play and put some pressure on them and they booted it around a little bit and helped us out,” Darnell said. “That’s the name of the game.”
Starting pitcher Scotty Roberson was stellar for the Lions, going all seven innings while allowing just five hits, striking out three and walking two. The only run he allowed was unearned.
Wheeler, a Pittsburg native, was 3-for-4 with two RBI, while Rawlins, from Seneca, went 2-for-3 with a pair of RBI.
It looked like the Lions would continue their solid play in the nightcap, taking advantage of another Pitt State error and scoring a pair of two-out runs thanks to Jeff Katchmar’s RBI triple and Derek Ezell’s RBI single.
But MSSU didn’t score again the rest of the way and the Gorillas slowly took over after scoring a lone run in the bottom of the first.
Patrick Martin — a Girard native who was 4-for-6 with two runs scored — came up with a two-out single in the bottom of the third. Brett Hothan then walked and they both scored when Justin Northern blasted a three-run homer to left, giving the Gorillas a 4-1 lead.
The Gorillas tacked on single runs in the fourth and fifth innings while escaping a bases-loaded jam in the top of the fifth. MSSU had four runners on with just one out, but PSU starter Brandon Boyer struck out Kenny Hart and Katchmar on called third strikes to escape the jam.
“Overall, we got some pretty good pitching this weekend,” PSU coach Steve Bever said. “Brandon Boyer just did a fantastic job ... him getting out of that jam in the fifth was huge.”
It was that bases-loaded situation — and another wasted scoring opportunity in the sixth — that had Darnell shaking his head.
“We’ve got to score some runs in those situations,” he said. “We have the bases loaded and our No. 3 and No. 4 hitters at the plate ... we had the guys up there that we wanted; we just didn’t get it done.”
Matthews was 2-for-4 for the Lions in the nightcap, while Northern went 2-for-2 with four RBI and a run scored for the Gorillas.
The Lions begin a four-game weekend series on Friday with Fort Hays State at Joe Becker Stadium. Pittsburg State plays host to Augustana State today before welcoming Truman State for doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday.