Kearney, Neb. –University of Nebraska Kearney baseball team split a doubleheader with feature MIAA opponent Missouri Western, winning game one 4-2, then dropping game two 17-16, Saturday afternoon in Chanute, Kansas at Neosho Community College.

The Lopers record now stands at 4-2, while the Golden Griffons are 1-4 on the season. The games were to be played at Missouri Western in St. Joseph, Mo., but due to the weather the games were moved to Chanute, Kans.

Game one of the twin bill, UNK would get on the scoreboard in the first inning when senior third basemen Luke Valerius (Lakewood, Colo.) singled to score fellow senior Brian Chritz (Arvada, Colo.) from second. MWSU would score the tying run in the bottom of the second off of groundout to the second basemen by Andy Stewart to score Spencer Shockley from third.

Nebraska Kearney would add three more insurance runs over the next three innings, first run was scored in the third inning by Valerius hitting another single this time scoring senior second baseman Jordan Mitchelhill (Melbourne, Australia) from third.

Second insurance run was added in the fifth inning on a sacrifice fly by Valerius to bring home senior right fielder Patrick Oliver (Broomfield, Colo.), and the final run was brought home in the sixth inning on a home run by junior shortstop Mike Nowak (Omaha), to lead 4-1, after five and half innings.

Missouri Western added one more run in there half of the sixth inning when David Chew grounded out to Mitchelhill that scored Isaac Rome from third.

Loper starter senior Todd Stachura (Scotia) got the complete game win by striking out three Golden Griffons.

Second game of was more of an offensive outburst, both teams combined for 33 runs scored and 42 hits.

Missouri Western and Nebraska Kearney both scored four runs through the first four innings, and then scored 13 runs over the final four innings including a seven runs in the bottom of the six, to regain the lead at 15-10..

UNK scored a run less over five innings which included a six run fifth inning. UNK got three run homer by senior first basemen Andrew Haake (Beatrice), and then junior centerfielder Jason Trulin (Blair) singled to score Valerius.

Senior Brandon Buchanan (Fort Collins, Colo.) hit a single to score another senior Daren Grace (Blair), and the final run was scored off of double by Mitchelhill to bring home Trulin from second base to give UNK 10-4 lead heading into the bottom of the fifth.

Senior Ricky Muir was created with the loss by giving up five runs in a third of inning pitched, while Banks Born got the win pitching one and third innings.

The Lopers will travel to Lincoln on Wednesday to play Nebraska at 1:35 p.m.