The Lindenwood baseball team defeated the Harris-Stowe State Hornets 12-2 on Wednesday night at the Lou Brock Sports Complex in St. Charles, Mo.

The Lions quickly fell behind 2-0 in the top of the first but immediately responded with five runs in the bottom of the inning.  Wes Degener drew a walk to start the inning then stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error by the catcher.  Degener took advantage of a wild pitch and scored as the ball reached the backstop.  Wade Rothermich drew a walk and scored on a Drew Quinones stand-up triple to tie the game at 2-2.  Lindenwood took advantage of the lazy defense as Ryan Light singled to drive in Quinones and then moved to second as Harris-Stowe had no one covering second base.  Branden Sugar singled to score Light and Austin Holtgrieve drove in Sugar on a single to put the Lions up 5-2.

The second inning began with a Nathan Prindle ground-rule double and later scored on a Light single.  Sugar started the third inning by reaching on four pitches and was followed by a Holtgrieve walk.  Both runners moved up a base on a Lucas Tibbs sacrifice bunt.  Degener hit a double driving in Sugar and Holtgrieve in the process and a fielding error by the Hornets second baseman allowed Degener to score later in the inning.

In the fifth inning the Lions had bases loaded with two outs and Quinones came to the plate.  Quinones popped up in shallow right center and the ball that seemed to be a sure out was dropped by the Harris Stowe second baseman and all three baserunners scored.  The Lions held a 12-2 lead after five innings of play on just nine hits.

Lindenwood improves to 23-22 on the year.  The Lions will play final series of the season against Central Missouri starting on Friday night at 6 p.m. at the Lou Brock Sports Complex in St. Charles, Mo.