MARYVILLE, Mo. – The Northwest Missouri State University baseball team dropped its home opener and game one of a three game set, 11-5 vs. the Missouri Southern Lions in a high scoring affair.
 
Northwest falls to 2-13, 0-4 in MIAA play and Missouri Southern moves to 12-5, 3-1 in MIAA play.
 
Missouri Southern jumped out to a 3-0 lead after 1.5 innings thanks to an RBI single and a two-run home run off Bearcat starter Max Spitzmiller.
 
Northwest answered back in the bottom of the second with a two-out, two-RBI double from Caden Diel to bring the score to 3-2 Lions.
 
Northwest got it within one again at 5-4, after a two-run home run by Jacob Selock scoring Evan Tocmo.
 
Northwest threatened in the bottom of the six after a pair of walks and a base hit by Quinn Mason loading the bases with two-outs but couldn't scratch any across keeping the score 6-4 in favor of the Lions.
 
Southern added to their lead with back-to-back home runs to take their lead to 8-4 after 7.5 innings.
 
The Lions tacked on three more in the ninth to bring their lead to 11-4.
 
The Bearcats added one more in the ninth but couldn't get anything else going.

Northwest tallied eight hits, six walks and left nine on base.
 
Max Spitzmiller was dealt the loss going 7.0 innings surrendering seven earned runs.
 
Northwest is back in action tomorrow afternoon for game two at 2 p.m.