The Lindenwood baseball team defeated the Southwest Baptist Bearcats by a score of 15-5 on Friday night at the Lou Brock Sports Complex in St. Charles, Mo.

Austin Klein has been a great asset to the Lions this year and he continued to battle in the opening game of the weekend against the Bearcats.  Southwest Baptist got on the board first in the top of the third with a solo home run that just barely cleared the leftfield wall.  The Lions offense answered back with a solid bottom frame.

Paul Sherwood started the rally by reaching base on a fielding error and moved to second on a single by Wes Degener.  Both runners moved up on a Nathan Prindle single and the bases were loaded for Wade Rothermich.  The Lions took the lead on a two-RBI single to center by Rothermich driving in Sherwood and Degener.  Drew Quinones followed with a single of his own that drove in Prindle and Rothermich extending the Lions lead to 4-1.  Quinones moved to second on a Ryan Light single and advanced to third on a Michael Bibbs groundout.  Lindenwood scored its final run of the inning on a Mike Wilson sacrifice foul out to give the Lions a 5-1 lead after three innings.

Southwest Baptist scored a run in the top of the fourth in an attempt to cut down the Lindenwood lead.  Degener began the bottom of the fourth with a standup triple and scored on after Prindle put the ball in play and reached on an error.  Rothermich put his second hit of the day up the middle for a double and Prindle scored from first to help the Lions pull away.  Lindenwood kept the inning going as Light reached on a catcher's interference and Bibbs drove in Rothermich on a single to left field.  Light scored on a Wilson double and gave the Lions a 9-2 lead after the fourth inning.

The Lions continued to pile on runs in the ball game and the extra base hits were not hard to find.  Sherwood hit a standup triple to right field in the bottom of the fifth and scored on a Degener groundout.  Prindle singled to shallow right center and moved to third on a hard hit double past the first baseman by Rothermich.  The Lions went up by 10 runs on a single through the left side of the infield by Quinones that allowed Prindle and Rothermich to cross the plate to give the Lions a commanding 12-2 lead.

Klein controlled the game from the bump through six innings allowing just two runs on five hits and struck out four batters.  The Lions failed to close the game out in the top of the seventh as the Bearcats scored three runs in the inning to extend the game on a 12-5 Lindenwood lead.  In the bottom of the frame Rothermich drew a walk, stole second, and scored on a single by Quinones to go up 13-5 after the seventh.  Klein finished his day with seven innings tossed, nine hits allowed, five runs against, and fanned seven Bearcat batters.

Austin Holtgrieve started the bottom of the eighth inning with a standup double and Vince Saladino was hit by a pitch to put two runners on with no outs.  Sherwood hit a double to score Holtgrieve and Saladino scored on a wild pitch to end the game.

The win puts Lindenwood at 19-18 on the year and 10-11 in the MIAA.  The Lions will continue their series with Southwest Baptist on Saturday for a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. at the Lou Brock Sports Complex in St. Charles, Mo.