JOPLIN, Mo. - The Fort Hays State baseball team dropped the first game of the weekend against Missouri Southern on Friday, 4-0.
Zach Berg (0-3) gave the Tigers a solid start, retiring the first nine batters he faced before giving up just one run through the first five innings. But the FHSU bats were unable to solve Lion starter Jacob Davis, picking up just three hits on the day compared to 10 for the Lions. Neither team was charged with an error in the contest.
Missouri Southern manufactured its first run in the fifth on a sacrifice fly before scoring three runs on four hits in the sixth.
The Tigers had their best chance to score when they were trailing 1-0 in the top of the sixth. Trip Pennington led off with a great at-bat, fouling off six pitches before working a 10-pitch walk. Jenner Kehe followed with a single before the pair moved up 90 feet on a wild pitch. But Missouri Southern got out of the jam with a strikeout and two ground ball outs. The Lions went on to retire the final 12 FHSU batters of the game to lock down the victory.
Berg completed 5.2 innings on the mound, allowing four runs on eight hits while striking out three. Mason Holton allowed one hit over 1.1 scoreless innings of relief before Jason Robertson came on to throw the final inning, giving up one hit while striking out one Lion. The Tigers issued zero walks for just the second time this season and had no walks and no hit batters for the first time all year.
Kehe, Mikey Felton and Jaxson Webb all collected one hit on the day. Pennington worked two walks on the day while Kade Wallace picked up one free base on balls.
Davis struck out nine batters and allowed three hits and three walks over 7.0 innings to earn his fifth win of the year.
The Tigers and Lions will resume their series on Saturday (April 2) beginning at 1 p.m.