JOPLIN, Mo. — The 11th-ranked Missouri Southern baseball team tied a school record for home runs in a game, but the Lions fell victim to a late-inning comeback from No. 21 Central Missouri, falling 18-16 at Warren Turner Field.
Southern (24-10, 15-6 MIAA) got home runs from Dexter Swims, Troy Gagan, Alex Phillips, Ryan Hunter and Jon Leighton. Gagan and Hunter’s homers were grand slams.
Swims went 4-for-6 on the afternoon with four RBIs and two runs scored. Gagan was 2-for-6 with four RBIs, while Hunter went 3-for-5 with four RBIs and three runs scored. Leighton had three hits, two RBIs and three runs scored, while Phillips had two hits, two runs and two RBIs. Freddie Landers went 2-for-4 with two runs scored, while Mike Million and Denver Coffee scored a run each.
Will Bausinger started and went five innings. River Wright, Joey Reeves, Cam Bednar, Austin DesRoche and Bradly Hershey threw in relief for the Lions with DesRoche picking up the loss.
The Mules (22-11, 14-7 MIAA) hit six home runs of their own in the game, led by three long balls from Michael Sinks as he drove in seven in the game.
After Central started the game with a run in the first, Gagan answered with a grand slam in the bottom half of the inning. The Mules got back within a run going to the fourth, before the Lions scored nine runs in the inning, started by a three-run bomb from Swims. Phillips was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to drive in another run before a grand slam from Hunter. Leighton followed that up with a home run to right field to end the scoring in the ending.
Central added two more homers in the fifth before the Lions answered with a homer from Phillips, an RBI double from Leighton and an RBI single from Swims in the sixth to lead 16-7 after six innings.
The Mules, however, scored 11-unanswered runs over the final three innings and Jonathan Sprinkle came in to close out the game in the ninth for Central.
Southern will have a mid-week, non-conference game at Washburn on Tuesday, before heading to Southwest Baptist next weekend to take on the Bearcats in MIAA play.
