The Lindenwood baseball team dropped game one of its best-of-three MIAA Tournament series on Thursday night in Emporia, Kan. The Lions lost to Emporia State by a 9-3 score.
 
Lindenwood had eight hits in the game, just one fewer than Emporia State. The Lions could not get any hits with runners in scoring position though, and the Hornets were six-of-14 when they had runners on base.
 
The night started good for the Lions as they went ahead 2-0 after two batters. Wes Degener led off the game with a single, and Nathan Prindle followed with a two-run homer. That lead held until the bottom of the second, when Emporia State pushed three runs across the plate. A pair of errors and a bases loaded hit by pitch helped the Hornets in the inning.
 
Emporia State increased its lead in the fourth inning with five more runs, the final three coming off a home run by Dean Long. The Hornets got one more run in the fifth before the Lions bullpen shut them out for the rest of the game.
 
Lindenwood's best chance for a comeback came in the eighth inning. Lindenwood led off the inning with singles by Wade Rothermich and Drew Quinones. After a passed ball, Ryan Light hit a sacrifice fly to score one run. Lindenwood loaded the bases with two outs in that inning, but Emporia State got out of the inning without any further damage.
 
Lindenwood and Emporia State will play game two of the series tomorrow with a 5 p.m. start time.