March 29, 2025 – Emporia State baseball used four home runs and six runs with two outs to propel them to a 12-7 win over Missouri Southern on Saturday afternoon, setting up a rubber match between the Hornets and Lions in the series finale.
Missouri Southern struck first in the bottom of the second, as a solo home run by Nate Mieszkowski put the Lions ahead 1-0. Emporia State finally got on the board in the third inning with the help of the long ball. Following the first two outs of the inning,
TJ Racherbaumer singled and then was driven in by
Noah Steele on a two-run homer to put the Hornets ahead 2-1. Two batters later,
Dominic Felix delivered his own two-run homer as the Emporia State lead grew to 4-1.
Both teams went scoreless in the fourth before the Hornets added to their tally in the fifth. Steele was hit by a pitch and then scored on a two-run home run by
Cooper Schwindt to improve the lead to 6-1.
The Lions were able to get two runs back in the bottom half on a home run from Drew Townsend, trimming the Hornet lead to 6-3. The Hornets were held scoreless in the top of the sixth, and Missouri Southern threatened in the bottom half, getting two runners on against Stover which forced a move to the bullpen.
Ryan Sauter took over on the mound and got his first batter faced to pop up on the infield, maintaining the 6-3 lead heading to the late innings.
Emporia State doubled their advantage in the seventh as two hits, a fielding error and a hit by pitch to take a 9-3 lead. Missouri Southern grabbed two runs back in the bottom half, but the Hornets answered back with two of their own, as a home run from
Brady Unrein extended the Emporia State lead to 11-5.
In the ninth, the Hornets got a sac fly from
Noah Steele and despite a push from Missouri Southern that resulted in two runs, Emporia State held on for the 12-7 win in game two of the weekend series.
Logan Myers,
Cooper Schwindt,
Dominic Felix and
Brady Unrein all had multi-hit games, while
Noah Steele had three RBI in the game. Schwindt, Felix and Unrein all had two RBI on their home runs.
Seth Stover picked up his third win of the season and went 5.2 innings with three runs allowed and two strikeouts.
The rubber match and series finale between the Hornets and Lions is set for Sunday, March 30 at 1:00 p.m. in Joplin, Mo.
