Lions take down No. 5 Gorillas
No. 5 Pittsburg State University struggled to find the strike zone early in Tuesday's MIAA rivalry at Warren Turner Field as it visited Missouri Southern State University for a battle on the diamond. PSU couldn't overcome pitching woes and lost 14-12.
"We took advantage of it. We made them pay. They really struggled to find the zone, and, you know, really, if we don't give up the six spot, the game's much different and a lot of that's self-inflicted," MSSU head coach Bryce Darnell said.
The "six spot" he referenced came in the fifth inning when Southern surrendered six runs to the Gorillas to make an 11-1 game 11-7. Without an error that inning, the Lions would have escaped with an 11-3 lead instead. Another MSSU error occurred in the seventh with two outs.
Marcus Young would have had a strikeout of Andrew Branson, but on the dropped third strike that Jacob Filip blocked in the dirt, Filip made an errant throw to first base that pulled Blake Jones off the base and allowed Branson to reach first safe. The Gorillas went on to cut into the deficit again with two runs that inning to make the score 14-10. "They took advantage of a couple mistakes we made.
We didn't make a play at third and then didn't make a good throw when Filly (Filip) blocked the ball and they took advantage of it. You give them extra outs ... they're just such a good offensive team," Darnell said.
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