Parish's shutout highlights Southern's split with NSU

Jared Porter, The Joplin Globe, Mo.
·4 min read

Apr. 18—For the second time in his Missouri Southern baseball career, Zach Parish was nearly untouchable against his former team.

Parish, a former MIAA Freshman of the Year at Northeastern State, limited the RiverHawks to two hits while striking out 13 batters in seven shutout innings to aid the No. 9 Lions in a 5-0 win in their series opener on Saturday at Warren Turner Field.

In two games against his former NSU ball club — the first outing taking place in 2019 when MSSU claimed a 1-0 win — Parish has tossed 15 shutout innings while logging 29 punchouts.

"I just want to go out and give my team the best chance to win as possible — no matter what team we're playing," Parish said. "My teammates always have my back, and they backed me up again today. It was another good team win."

Northeastern State bounced back with a 3-2 win in the second game of Saturday's doubleheader. The two teams will play a final game at 1 p.m. Sunday.

The RiverHawks (20-9, 17-6 MIAA) remain in second place in the MIAA standings and lead third-place MSSU (23-7, 16-7) by a game.

MSSU 5, NSU 0

The game started out as a pitchers' duel between Parish (8-1) and NSU's Seth Key (3-1) before the Lions drew first blood with four runs on six hits in the bottom of the fifth.

Ryan Hunter and Clay Milas opened the frame with back-to-back singles before Matt Miller plated Hunter on a bunt single for a 1-0 lead. Then two at-bats later, Troy Gagan pushed two runs across on a double to left-center before Tommy Stevenson capped the scoring in the inning with an RBI double down the line in left field.

"It was obviously a big offensive inning for us," MSSU head coach Bryce Darnell said. "Gagan had that big hit to drive in two runs, which was huge. He's been pretty consistent for us all year."

Gagan, leading the team with a .405 average this season, finished the game 3 for 4 with two RBIs. The Lions totaled 11 hits in the contest.

"I was just really trying to see it up and put a good swing on the ball without chasing it out of the zone," Gagan said. "We had the scouting report, and I knew I was probably going to see something low with his off-speed. So I really emphasized seeing the ball up and not trying to do too much with it — just hit it where it's pitched."

Miller, who tallied two hits in four plate appearances, provided an insurance run for MSSU in the bottom of the sixth when he blasted a ball out to right field for his fifth home run of the season.

Parish's day was complete after delivering 114 pitches in seven innings. The southpaw said his biggest moment came in the third when he struck out three consecutive batters with the bases loaded.

"I kind of caught my second wind right there," Parish said. "I knew if I got out of that inning, I'd have a good chance at finishing strong. So it definitely felt good."

Scott Duensing came on for the Lions in the eighth and tossed two scoreless innings. He struck out two and limited NSU to a pair of hits.

NSU 3, MSSU 2

A late comeback by Southern was denied in the final inning as the RiverHawks held on for a one-run triumph that snapped a two-game conference skid.

NSU held a 3-0 lead with two outs in the bottom of the ninth before Clay Milas, who went 3 for 3, delivered a two-run home run to cut the deficit to one run.

The home run capped an otherwise stellar outing for NSU starter Nic Swanson, who tossed 8 2/3 scoreless innings with 14 strikeouts up to that point. Swanson (8-0) was still credited with the win after closer Dakodah Jones came on to fan the final out for his seventh save of the campaign.

"NSU is a good team, and that pitcher (Swanson) is obviously really good," Darnell said. "It just took us till the ninth to finally get to him. We had some opportunities. We left them loaded in the fourth. So that's the name of the game. You have to get hits when runners are on base."

The Lions outhit NSU 9-6 but stranded seven runners on the base paths.

The setback spoiled a solid outing by Will Bausinger (5-2), who surrendered just one earned run and four hits while striking out four in seven innings. Jacob Davis tossed two scoreless innings in relief.

"Will did a lot of good things, but they got two unearned runs there (in the seventh)," Darnell said. "Usually in a tight game like that, the team that doesn't make mistakes is going to win. They made us pay for it, but we'll regroup and come back tomorrow for another."