Baseball | 5/8/2015 8:54:23 PM

Kansas City, Kan. – Missouri Southern used a strong start to earn an 11-7 victory and earn a slot in the MIAA Baseball Tournament Championship Game.
 
In the first inning Jesse Rall hit a two run single up the middle to put the Lions on top early. Evan Natick would then single and score Rall to make it a 3-0 lead before Mitchell Osburn used a double to left center and Axel Johnson added an RBI groundout for a 5-0 lead in the first.
 
Emporia State would answer with ground balls that plated two in the top of the second followed by a sacrifice fly by Justin Harris to make it 5-3 in the second. Evan Natick would put the lead back at five with a three run home runs scoring Rall and Chris Hoffman in the bottom half of the second. MSSU would tack on a run in the bottom of the third to make it 9-3 on a Jon Davis RBI single.
 
John Bryant’s RBI groundout for MSSU would make it 10-3 in the sixth inning plating Davis. ESU would grab a run back when Tory Bell scored on a wild pitch in the top of the seventh inning. Evan Koehler following that up with a  three-run home run scoring Dean Long and Justin Harris to make it 10-7 in the top of the eighth.
 
Bryant would add an insurance run in the bottom half of the eighth inning with a sacrifice fly.
 
Matt Harvey pitched 5.2 innings of relief for the Lions to pick up the win Kanon Hoover picked up the save with 1.1 innings of relief.
 
Emporia State will now face Washburn on May 9 at 11 a.m. and Missouri Southern will await the winner of that game at 2:30 p.m. from CommunityAmerica Ballpark in Kansas City, Kan.