St. Charles, Mo. – No. 4 seed Missouri Western would scratch across two runs in the bottom of the eight inning to pull out a 6-4 victory over fifth-seeded Missouri Southern in the opening round of the MIAA baseball tournament Thursday.

The Griffons improve to 35-16, while Southern falls to 32-19.

Missouri Southern got the scoring started in the top of the second as Chris Hoffman singled to right field to drive home Trevor Burkdoll. Tyler Sutherland kept the inning going as he tripled to right field driving in two runs. Jesse Rall would then come up and hit a single to the shortstop to keep the two out rally going and make it a 4-0 lead.

Missouri Western would answer in the bottom of the third inning as David Glaude followed an Orencio Fisher double with a single of his own to drive in Michael Babbit. Nick Gawley would follow that up with a single of his own that sent Fisher to the plate. Jeremy Alvarado would cut the lead to just one run at 4-3 with a sacrifice fly scoring Glaude.

The Griffons would then tie the game in the bottom of the fourth as Fisher singled to plate Alex Huering. Huering would then drive in the go-ahead run in the bottom half of the eighth inning singling to plate Kody Matthews. Fisher would then be hit by a pitch to force home an insurance run later in the inning.

For the Griffons Fisher finished two for four with two runs driven in and Heuring was two for three with a run scored and a run driven in. For the Lions Hoffman was two for three with a run scored and one driven in.

On the mound Preston Bailey pitched 4.1 innings of relief allowing just two hits and striking out six to pick up the win. Conner Schwienbart struck out the final three batters of the game to earn the save.

Missouri Western will take on top seeded Central Missouri at 7:30 p.m. Friday from Lou Brock Sports Complex in St. Charles, Mo.  The game will air on ESPN 1550 AM.

— MIAA Press Release —