JOPLIN, Mo. - (3)/#15/8 Southern Arkansas faced elimination on Saturday afternoon from Warren Turner Field, but used a complete game shutout from junior right hander Mikel Howell to force an end to (7) Arkansas Tech's season, but the Muleriders found themselves on the wrong end of the nightcap in Joplin as the host (2)/#10 Missouri Southern surged late with 10 runs over the final four innings to beat SAU 11-4.
The Muleriders conclude the 2023 campaign at 40-18 making it the 13th 40-win season in the program's NCAA history. Southern Arkansas won its seventh regular season Great American Conference Championship (24-9) and its seventh league tournament title and was in the NCAA postseason for the 15th time.
In the opener, which pitted the Muleriders and Wonder Boys against each other for the fifth time this season and for the 11th time since the start of 2022, SAU outhit Arkansas Tech 11-7, while ATU stranded a dozen base runners much to the credit of Howell and stellar defensive play behind him as the Muleriders turned a trio of double plays to aid Howell's second complete game of the season.
Both sides threatened early as each managed to put a pair of runners on base in both the first and second innings of play and both would come away empty in each's first two trips to the plate. In the third, both clubs went down in order, before the Muleriders struck first in the top of the fourth.
Chris Lyles led off the frame by blistering a 2-1 pitch into the right center field for his 18th double of the season. Three pitches later and facing an 0-2 count, Will Richardson singled back up the middle to chase home Lyles for a 1-0 lead.
The Wonder Boys again threatened in the fourth as a one-out hit-by-pitch and an ensuing base on balls put runners at first and second, but Howell used a second line out to a shifted Sutton at second and a 6-4 ground ball to end Tech in the fourth.
The Muleriders provided much needed insurance for their right hander with a two-run fifth inning. Consecutive one-out free passes to McGee and Nicoll set the table for Conner Allen who doubled a 2-1 offering into right center to score McGee and place Nicoll at third. Nicoll was chased home on the very next pitch as contact from Lyles was fielded deep in the hole on the left side and a look was given home with no throw as Nicoll scored easily for a 3-0 lead.
Howell continued to work through the Tech lineup stranding a Wonder Boy base runner in the fifth, two more in the sixth and one each in the final three innings of play. The lanky right hander received his final bit of run support in the post stretch seventh as Allen stamped an exclamation on the victory with a mammoth two-out, two-run homer, his 11th of the season, out to left field for a 5-0 Mulerider advantage.
In his eighth victory of the season, Howell scattered seven hits, four walks and a HBP, while striking out three. Four players recorded two hits in the win with Allen contributing an RBI double and the two-run blast. The top five spots in the order all scored single runs.
In what would become the season finale, the Muleriders and Lions battled to a 2-1 SAU lead through five innings of play. Southern Arkansas answered a two-out, two-strike solo homer from MSSU's Matt Miller in the top of the second inning with single runs in the home half of the second and third. Richardson doubled on the first pitch he saw in the contest to score Lyles from first and in the third, Sutton had no time to get settled on the base paths as he doubled an 0-1 pitch down the right field line, moved up to third two pitches latter on a Riley Orr sacrifice bunt and then scored on the next pitch as McGee lifted a sac fly out to the deepest part of right center field giving SAU a 2-1 lead.
Wyatt Marr pitched into the sixth inning for the Muleriders and was solid as he only two blemishes were solo home runs including one in the sixth that knotted the game at 2-2. Marr fanned three and allowed only four hits. SAU turned to Santos Sosa (0.2 IP), Jake Uber (0.1 IP) and Jack Liddell (3.0 IP) to finish out the contest.
Missouri Southern's sixth inning resulted in four runs on four hits, while the host's seventh included three more runs on three hits as the Lions grabbed a 8-2 advantage heading into the stretch. SAU answered two more MSSU runs in the eighth with a Jackson Duke two-out two-bagger that plated Nicoll and Allen. Allen and Duke each collected two of the team's six hits.
It was a tale of two contests as MSSU recorded ten of their 13 hits and scored ten of its 11 runs in the final four frames after managing just a single run on three hits through the first five frames of action.
The Muleriders saw five members of the 2023 squad garner all-region acclaim, nine receive all-conference honors, with three all-defensive team selections, five all-tournament team members and the tournament MVP to go along with four that were named to all-academic teams.
