Box Score Kearney, Neb. – Nebraska-Kearney senior Brian Wuest hit two more home runs but the Lopers stranded the tying run at second in the top of the ninth inning in a 9-8 loss to 4th-ranked Central Missouri Saturday afternoon in Warrensburg, Mo.  

The Mules, which saw its 31-game MIAA win streak snapped on Friday night, improve to 13-2 (10-1) while the Lopers fall to 9-9 (9-6).
UNK finishes a four week, 14-game road swing with a solid 7-7 mark.

Central led 1-0 after four full and then erupted for three in the fifth and five more in the sixth. Sandwiched around those two big innings was a two-run shot to right by Wuest (2 for 4, six RBI's), now at first base, in the top of the sixth.

To score those eight runs, the Mules had five hits, drew three walks, got hit once and took advantage of a Loper error.

The UNK rally started in the seventh thanks to two walks and a single. With two outs, a UCM error not only brought home the third Loper run but kept the inning alive. Kearney used two more walks to make it a 9-5 game and keep the bases full.  

Senior Andrew Urban, a transfer from Creighton, came in and got the Mules out of the jam thanks to a ground out to third.

With one out in the ninth, a hit by pitch and a single to right put two Lopers on. That brought up Wuest (Prosper), who belted his 10th homer of the young season over the right field fence. This is the eighth different game he has homered in; he also smacked two in a win over NW Missouri on Feb. 19th.

The school record for dingers in a season is 19, set by Major League draft pick Tom Bales in 1988. Wuest is now hitting .466 with 10 HR's and 36 RBI's. He also has drawn 19 walks and has a 1.086 slugging percentage.  

After a fly out that could've been a homer, senior second baseman Brandon Pacheco (Kearney) singled to center and moved to second on a wild pitch. On a 2-2 pitch, lefty reliever Dany Coulombe manage to get a strikeout to end the game.

In a game that featured 10 combined pitchers, UNK got two scoreless innings from junior southpaw Kyle LaClaire (Orland, Calif.) with Central's Travis Higgs (2-0) allowing two earned in 6.2 innings to earn the win.

UNK hosts Fort Hays State Wednesday afternoon at Memorial Field.