Lions hold off Reddies, move to 5-0
Feb. 10—Missouri Southern held off a Henderson State comeback in the ninth inning of Thursday's contest in Arkadelphia, Arkansas to top the home team 4-3.
After five innings of one-run baseball from pitcher Cole Gayman, Brandon Overman came in and shut down the Reddies for three more innings of work. But then in the ninth HSU started to get to Overman.
After seeing the bases get loaded up on Overman, MSSU head coach Bryce Darnell went to his pen again. He brought out Kyle Kaempf to try and maintain the lead.
Louis Holt grounded into a fielder's choice to score Dillon Thomas and make it 4-2 Lions. Pinch hitter Colton Patterson hit a sacrifice fly into left field as Treghan Parker made the catch but couldn't cut down pinch runner Drake Browning at the plate. Browning's run was unearned. With two outs and a 4-3 lead, Kaempf struck Cade Tucker out swinging to end the game.
The Lions picked up three runs in the second inning. They did so when Will Doherty doubled to left-center field to drive in Tyler Ferguson and Parker. A Chayton Beck ground out to shortstop made it 3-0.
MSSU's fourth run came in the next inning when a passed ball from Nick Sestito allowed Garrett Rice to move up to third base and eventually score on an errant throw from catcher Jacob Carroll.
Sestito was the losing pitcher in the contest and MSSU's Gayman earned the win while Kaempf picked up his first save of the year.
The Lions return to the diamond on Friday at 4 p.m. when they meet Delta State for the first of a three-game series in Cleveland, Mississippi. The next two games will be played on Saturday with the doubleheader starting at 1 p.m.
