The Griffon baseball team opened up their 2012 season with a split against the 26th ranked North Alabama Lions on Sunday afternoon. The Griffons won the first game 4-1 behind a strong pitching performance from Brandon Simmons. In game two the Griffons fell 7-2.

Game 1
MWSU 4
UNA 1

The Griffons road the pitching of junior Brandon Simmons in game one as he pitched seven innings striking out six and giving up just one earned run. Ethan Ward came to pitch two innings giving up one hit earning the save.

Grant Fink led the charge offensviely for Western getting two of the Griffons eight hits. He put the Griffons on the board in the second singling in Spencer Shockley. The Griffons went up 2-0 in the second when Michael Schulze singled and scored on a single by David Chew.

Western went up 3-0 in the fifth when Fink scored on a wild pitch. The only run the Lions got was in the seventh. Bubba Dotson added an insuarnce run in the eight with a solo home run as Western picked up the victory in the season opener.

Fink singled and doubled in the game getting one RBI and scoring one run. Six other Griffons got hits in the game.

Game 2
UNA 7
MWSU 2

In the nightcap, UNA plated a run in the second inning off singles by Jake Sloan and Andrew Almon and a run scoring sacrifice bunt by Josh Cyr. Josh Carpenter also singled but Almon was called out at the plate on a controversial call where the umpire ruled that he had not touched home plate.

Missouri Western tied the game with a run in the third on their lone hit over the first five innings. Fink doubled and then scored on sacrafice fly by Schulze.

UNA took the lead for good with a three-run fifth. Drew Parker walked, Darrmal Moore singled and Michael Schmidt walked to load the bases. Josh Doyle had a two-run single and Schmidt later scored on the backend of a double steal as UNA made it 4-1.

Missouri Western got a run in the sixth but UNA added three more in the bottom of the frame. Almon had an RBI single and Carpenter had a two-run single to make it 7-2. Watkins (2-0) got the win, allowing just three hits in six innings. Ben Seabrook pitched a scoreless seventh for the Lions.

Western had just four hits in the contest while leaving five runners on base. Matt Bergin pitched 4.1 innngs giving up five hits and three earned runs while striking out one. He falls to 0-1 with the loss.

Missouri Western will play UNA again Monday in a single game at 1 p.m. at Mike Lane Field.

— MWSU Sports Information —