Missouri Southern Eliminates Fort Hays State

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (MSSU Sports Information) -- Kevin Humphrey pitched a complete game with only two runs allowed to lead Missouri Southern to a 6-2 win over Fort Hays State in MIAA Tournament action Saturday afternoon at CommunityAmerica Ballpark. With the victory, the Lions stay alive in the tournament and will play top seed Central Missouri in an elimination game later this evening at 7 p.m.

After allowing the Tigers (31-22) two runs on two hits in the first inning, Humphrey blanked the Tigers over the final eight frames on only three hits.

A sacrifice fly by Sloan Soulia and an RBI single from Kyle Stacken accounted for the Tigers' only runs of the game.

Skyler Rawlins homered in the bottom of the first that cut the Tigers' lead in half and made it 2-1.

Rawlins then scored the tying run on an RBI double by Joe Lincoln in the bottom of the third.

It remained 2-2 until the bottom of the sixth when Shayne Hoke led off with a single, advanced to second on a single by Patrick Deao and scored the go-ahead run on an error by the rightfielder.

The Lions (28-25) added three valuable insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth as CJ Matthews led off the inning with a single and scored the fourth run on a run-scoring single by Deao. Rawlins and Jacob Taylor also hit RBI singles in the inning that gave the Lions a four-run cushion.

Humphrey struck out five and walked only one in his nine innings of work.

Deao went 3-of-4 with one RBI for the Lions, while Rawlins was 2-of-3 with two RBI.

With a win over UCM later tonight, the Lions would advance to play No. 2 seed Emporia State in the MIAA Championship Sunday at 1 p.m. The Lions would need to defeat the Hornets twice to claim the tournament title and a berth in the South Central Regional Tournament.