The Lindenwood baseball team will host Lincoln on Tuesday night for the final meeting against the Blue Tigers this season. The Lions return home for the weekend to host Northeastern State for a vital three-game series that begins on Friday.

Last Week
The Lions pitching staff was a key component in three Lindenwood victories, all of which were MIAA contests.  Lindenwood opened the week with a one-hit shutout-shutout pitched by Brendan Kleekamp in the 10-0 win over Lincoln.  The only road game for the Lions was a 5-4 loss to Missouri S&T in Rolla, Mo.  In a pivotal series against Emporia State, the Lions won two games in the three games set at the Lou Brock Sports Complex in St. Charles, Mo.

Kleekamp and the offense kept it rolling against Lincoln. The Lions hit .333 as a team, collecting 11 hits and walking eight times. Each starter reached base at least once, with eight of them getting at least one hit. Ryan Sosnowski had three hits, including a double, while Drew Quinones tallied two knocks and two runs scored. Kleekamp threw 3.1 innings of perfect ball before allowing a triple, and retired 10 in a row before surrendering a walk in the seventh. The win brought Kleekamp's season record to 3-4.

Lindenwood got on the board early on a Quinones sacrifice fly in the first inning, and again in the third when the sophomore grounded into a double play to regain the lead, 2-1. The Lions tacked on two more in the eighth inning, but the Miners scored two on Luke Marcheschi to still only trail by one heading into the ninth. A double steal put runners in scoring position with only one out when Devin Breihan allowed a single to score two for Missouri S&T to walk-off with a 5-4 win.

The weekend series with Emporia State had its ups and downs, but the Lions won two-of-three. In game one, the visiting Hornets scored three in the first three innings for the early lead, but four straight hits by Wes Degener, Nathan Prindle, Mike Ehrhard, and Sosnowski resulted in a pair of runs for Lindenwood. Starting pitcher Brendan Feldman settled down after the third, allowing only one more run over the next six innings. Down 4-2 in the eighth, Bobby Lang and Degener reached with the bases loaded to have two cross the plate to even the score and force extra innings. Kleekamp came in relief in the 10th and shut down the Hornets in order. In the bottom of the inning, after consecutive strikeouts Prindle launched a walk-off homer to win the game for the Lions, 5-4.

The second game of the weekend didn't turn out so well for Lindenwood. Emporia State scored 13 unanswered runs off Geoff Hartlieb and Jevon Boyd through the first five innings. The Lions scored three in the eighth as a result of a Zach Perkins groundout, a Jake Cooper single, and a Degener sacrifice fly. The Hornets scored five more in the ninth to make the final score 18-3 for game two.

Lindenwood bounced back on Sunday to win the series. The Lions got another excellent pitching performance from Connor Law, who threw the complete game, only giving up one earned run. Lindenwood controlled most of the game as a Ehrhard single in the first and a Quinones homer in the sixth gave the Lions a 3-0 lead before Jackson Fuller singled in the seventh to increase the lead. The Hornets broke through in the eighth with a single to score one, and scored another after Law threw a wild pitch. Law hit his third batter of the game in the ninth before allowing a single to put runners on first and second with one out, but the righty induced a groundball double play to end the game and win the series.

On the Season
Ehrhard now leads the Lions in batting average at a .363 clip. Prindle remains in the lead for most offensive categories: home runs (9), doubles (14), runs scored (53), total bases (99), on-base percentage (.478), and slugging percentage (.707). Degener leads the Lions in hits with 61 and walks with 35.
On the mound, Law has a 6-1 record in 69 innings and a .212 batting average against. Feldman paces the team with a 2.21 ERA in 40.2 innings, while Kleekamp and Hartlieb have each completed three games. Breihan has two saves and has appeared in 15 games, along with Boyd and Kleekamp.
In the MIAA, Prindle is sixth in slugging percentage, eighth in the on-base percentage, tied for third in runs scored, tied for seventh in doubles, and tied for fifth in triples. Degener is tied for second in triples with six and fourth in walks with 35.
Law remains atop the conference in ERA at 2.35, batting average against, innings pitched, and wins.

This Week in Lindenwood Baseball
4/26/16 –vs. Lincoln in St. Charles, Mo. at the Lou Brock Sports Complex at 6 p.m.
4/29/16 –vs. Northeastern State in St. Charles, Mo. at the Lou Brock Sports Complex at 6 p.m.
4/30/16 –vs. Northeastern State in St. Charles, Mo. at the Lou Brock Sports Complex at 1 p.m.
5/1/16 –vs. Northeastern State in St. Charles, Mo. at the Lou Brock Sports Complex at 12 p.m.
 
The Lions wrap up their season series with Lincoln tomorrow night from Lou Brock Sports Complex. Lindenwood has taken the first two games from the Blue Tigers by the scores of 10-2 and 10-0, respectively.

This weekend, Lindenwood hosts Northeastern State, who is 4.5 games ahead of the Lions in the MIAA standings. The RiverHawks are coming off a series win over No. 13 Central Missouri this past weekend.

MIAA Players of the Week
March 21-27 – Hitter of the Week – Nathan Prindle - Lindenwood
April 4-10 – Pitcher of the Week – Connor Law – Lindenwood
 
*MIAA Players of the Week will be announced each Tuesday afternoon at TheMIAA.com
**National Rankings will be released each Tuesday at NCAA.org
Follow the Lions at lindenwoodlions.com, on Twitter (@LU_Lions), and on Instagram (Lindenwood_Lions).