McPherson, Kan. – The Tiger Baseball team hosted the Nelson University Lions this past weekend in the first round of the Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament needing to win 2 out of 3 to advance to the final site in Joplin, Mo.
Game 1 would unfortunately be all Lions as they would run rule the Tigers in 7 innings to begin the series The game was still within reach for the Tigers through the 5th inning as they trailed only 4-0 but the Lions added 5 more in the 6th and 2 in the 7th while holding the Tigers to just 2 hits to earn an 11-0 win.
The Tigers needed to win game 2 to keep their season alive and would score first getting 2 runs across in the 1st inning. But the Lions responded with a 3 run 2nd inning on Tiger starter Justin Evasovic who had shutout the Lions the weekend before. The Lions added a couple more in the 5th and 6th to lead 6-2 as the Tigers needed to quickly get something going to avoid elimination. Kurt Ippolito homered in the 6th to give the Tigers some life but the Lions bullpen would shut the Tigers down the rest of the way, allowing no runs and no hits to close the series out and end the Tigers season by a score of 7-3.
The Tigers finish their historic season 21-25 overall and will look to build on the momentum of a conference tournament appearance and make some noise in the tournament next season.
