Collegio Online

Issue date: 5/10/07 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Shiho Itooka Jacob Boan, Pitt State outfielder, slides to home base, while Luke Lawver has the ball in hand. PSU defeated Missouri Southern 9-1 Sunday, May 6, at Al Ortolani Field.

The Pittsburg State baseball team couldn't pull off the improbable.
Needing to win all five of its remaining games and get a lot of outside help to reach the postseason, the Gorillas dropped four straight before ending their season with a 9-1 win over Missouri Southern on Sunday afternoon.
Pitt State finished the year with a 24-30 mark, including a 15-20 record in the MIAA. The Gorillas finished fifth in the league, behind Central Missouri, Emporia State, Northwest Missouri, Fort Hays State and Missouri Western.
The team entered its long weekend last Thursday needing to go 5-0 in its remaining games and for Missouri Western, Fort Hays or Northwest to go 0-5 to have a shot at the MIAA Postseason Tournament.
Those dim hopes were quickly snuffed out on Thursday evening as Emporia State scored eight times in the fourth inning and rolled to a 14-2 win that put the Gorillas out of postseason contention.
Kyle Bates was solid on the mound for the Gorillas until that fateful fourth inning. After allowing no hits and just one earned run in the third inning, Bates was battered for seven runs - five earned - while recording just one out in the fourth.
Emporia's big inning put the Gorillas in a 9-0 hole and Pitt State couldn't recover.
The Gorillas scored once in the fifth on T.J. Franklin's ninth home run of the season, but ESU racked up three more in the bottom of the fifth and two more in the sixth to go up 14-1. The Gorillas added one in the top of the seventh for the final 14-2 score.
Things didn't get much better for Pitt State the next day when it opened a four-game series with rival Missouri Southern at Al Ortolani Field.
The Gorillas traded runs for the first few innings and entered the sixth with a 4-4 tie. It was the sixth inning, however, that made the difference in the game. The Lions took advantage of a pair of Gorilla errors to score four runs on just one hit, that one hit being a three-run home run from Henry Adams.
Pitt State scored three times in the final two innings, but the Lions plated two in the top of the ninth and held on for the 10-7 win.
Saturday didn't offer any relief for the Gorilla men, who dropped both ends of a doubleheader. MSSU won the opener 11-9 before scoring three times in the top of the seventh for a 6-5, come-from-behind win.
Things finally came together for the Gorillas on Sunday in a 9-1 win that closed out the season.
Pitt State scored a lone run in the second and fourth innings before adding three in the fifth, two in the sixth and two more in the eighth. The Lions' lone run came in the fifth inning.
Bryson Clark, who emerged as Pitt State's ace this season, was stellar. Clark went eight and two-thirds innings while allowing just one run on six hits and striking out five.
The win ended an up-and-down season for the Gorillas, who recognized 10 seniors with careers at a close. Pitt State won consecutive games just six times all season. Four of those instances saw the Gorillas win three straight contests.

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