The Lindenwood baseball team will play four games this week, including a home game against Missouri S&T on Tuesday at 3 p.m. at the Lou Brock Sports Complex in St. Charles, Mo., then the Lions will travel to Kearney, Neb. to take on Nebraska-Kearney for a three-game series beginning on Friday.
 
Last Week
The Lions went 1-2 last week as they played host to Northwest Missouri State in a three-game series at the Lou Brock Sports Complex in St. Charles, Mo.  Lindenwood defeated the Bearcats on Friday by a final of 3-2, but fell on Saturday 6-3, and again on Sunday by a 3-0 margin.
 
In game one, Connor Law was nails on the mound as he tossed six scoreless innings.  In his seventh inning of work, Law allowed one run as the Bearcats took a 1-0 lead into the ninth inning.  Northwest Missouri added another run in the top of the ninth to put the pressure on the struggling Lions offense.  Zac Perkins singled with one out to put the tying run at the plate.  Wes Degener singled on a bunt to put two runners on base.  Nathan Prindle singled to left to score Perkins, and move Degener to third base.  Drew Quinones singled to left to bring in the tying run, and Prindle moved up to third on the hit, but was able to score after a misplay by the outfielder.  Lindenwood took game one 3-2 for its second conference win of the season.
 
Game two was another tough game for the Lions offensively, but the Bearcats found more success at the plate on Saturday.  Lindenwood was down 2-0 after three innings, then Prindle cut the deficit in half after a solo blast to center.  The Bearcats scored four runs in the next five innings to take a 6-1 lead heading into the bottom of the ninth.  Lindenwood had four singles by the first five batters in the bottom of the frame, but the two runs scored was not enough as game two ended in a 6-3 loss. 
 
Brendan Kleekamp pitched a great game in the final meeting of the series as his seven innings with just three hits allowed was not enough for the Lions.  Lindenwood did not have an extra base hit in the game as it could only muster up seven hits in the game.  The Bearcats won 3-0 in the final game, and won the season series 2-1.

Head Coach Doug Bletcher acknowledged the quality of pitching in the conference, and feels his squad needs to improve at the dish.

"This past series showed that offensively we have to be more prepared to grind out competitive at bats. The MIAA simply doesn't offer up too many "run of the mill" pitchers especially in this three single nine inning format," said Bletcher.  He continued, "There are no vacations or easy times. I was pleased with several of our pitchers, however, that threw well against the Bearcats, and thought we generally threw well over the course of the weekend."  Bletcher added, "With that bit of good news and one of our pitchers just off of the DL and scheduled to return this weekend followed by yet another pitcher perhaps as early as next week, the pitching could bolster our team for the remainder of the year."
 
On The Season
Mike Ehrhard is leading the squad with a .425 batting average (17-for-40), and has driven in 12 runs, with four doubles, and scored seven times.  Quinones is leading the team with 19 hits, and has a team-high 17 RBI.  Quinones has hit three doubles, two triples, and two home runs, while Prindle has hit four doubles with four homeruns.
 
Law is leading the team in ERA (2.05), record (3-0), innings (22.0), and strikeouts (19).  Law has allowed 17 hits and just five earned runs in four starts.  Austin Georgen is 1-0 on the season in 8.2 innings pitched.  Georgen has 10 strikeouts on the season is holding the opposition to a .212 batting average.
 
This Week in Lindenwood Baseball
3/8/16 – Missouri S&T at Lou Brock Sports Complex in St. Charles, Mo. – 1 p.m.
3/11/16 – Nebraska-Kearney at Memorial Field in Kearney, Neb. – 2 p.m.
3/12/16 – Nebraska-Kearney at Memorial Field in Kearney, Neb. – 2 p.m.
3/13/16 – Nebraska-Kearney at Memorial Field in Kearney, Neb. – 12 p.m.
 
Lindenwood will host Missouri S&T on Friday at the Lou Brock Sports Complex in St. Charles, Mo. for a 3 p.m. start time.  The Lions split the season-series last year with the Miners with a 7-5 win in game one, but a 3-2 loss in game two in Rolla, Mo.  Devin Breihan was the winning pitcher in game one, after tossing three innings in relief and allowed just one run on three hits.  Prindle tallied three hits with two RBI, as he hit a double and a home run.  Vince Saladino pelted two doubles along with two RBI to help the Lions to the 7-5 game one victory.  In game two, the Lions tallied just three hits, while two of the hits came from Prindle.  Prindle hit his second double of the day in game two, but the Lindenwood offense was flat for the second matchup as it fell 3-2.
 
Lindenwood will hit the road for a three-game stint in Kearney, Neb. for an MIAA series against Nebraska-Kearney beginning on Friday at 1 p.m.  The Lions went 1-3 against the Lopers last season, after winning game one 8-4.  Nebraska-Kearney took game two 6-5, game three 14-1, and game four 9-7.  In the first game, Michael Bibbs and Quinones each had two hits, while Bibbs had two RBI, and two runs scored.  Bibbs added a home run to his day, and Quinones had a double in the game to help give Lindenwood the 8-4 win.  The second game begin with a Prindle home run in the first inning, and a Bibbs home run in the second inning to give the Lions a 2-0 lead.  Quinones had a three-hit game, but the Lopers came back to defeat the Lions 6-5.  Lindenwood scored just one run in a 14-1 game-three loss.  In game four, Quinones hit a home run as one of his two hits. Degener had two hits of his own, but the Lions could not split the series, and fell 9-7 to close out the weekend.

Bletcher expanded on how tough the MIAA is, and how it takes all nine innings to defeat a team, and similar to this past weekend, it sometimes does not happen until the final inning of play.

"After Tuesday's non-conference tilt against Missouri S&T, we will go to Kearney, Neb. to take on the Lopers who just took two of three from Missouri Southern. That says a lot about the Lopers," admitted Bletcher.  "They started the season off slow but once they hit MIAA play, they have hit the ground running. At least 81 outs of tough, hard nose, grinding baseball is in store for us this weekend," Bletcher explained.  He ended, "We owe it to ourselves to be mentally prepared to do whatever it takes to compete."
 
MIAA Players of the Week
Feb 1-7 Hitter of the Week - Andrew Vogelbaugh - Pittsburg State
Feb 1-7 Pitcher of the Week - Nathan Gieber - Emporia State
Feb 8-14 Co-Hitter of the Week - Joe Mapes - Fort Hays State
Feb 8-14 Co-Hitter of the Week - Joe Paulino - Missouri Southern
Feb 8-14 Pitcher of the Week – Peyton Walker - Missouri Southern
Feb 15-21 Co-Hitter of the Week - Andrew Vogelbaugh - Pittsburg State
Feb 15-21 Co-Hitter of the Week – Jesse Rall - Missouri Southern
Feb 15-21 Pitcher of the Week –Zach Litchen - Missouri Southern
Feb 22-28 Co-Hitter of the Week – Evan Koehler – Emporia State
Feb 22-28 Co-Hitter of the Week – Ethan Westphal – Central Missouri
Feb 22-28 Co-Pitcher of the Week – Zach Parish – Northeastern State
Feb 22-28 Co-Pitcher of the Week – Nick Silva - Washburn
*MIAA Players of the Week will be announced each Tuesday afternoon at TheMIAA.com
**National Rankings will be released each Tuesday at NCAA.org
 
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