Box Score Kearney, Neb. – Nebraska-Kearney belted five home runs, four coming in the second inning, to roll past Missouri Western State, 11-4, Friday night in St. Joseph.

This was the start of a four-game series. UNK improves to 23-12 (18-7) while MWSU falls to 20-17 (13-12).

On a bit of a windy day, Kearney came home eight times in its second at bat with all the runs scoring because of a long ball.

With one out, junior 1b Connor Messinger (Niwot, Colo.) hit a two-run shot to start the fun. Three batters later, junior leadoff hitter Shane Sharkey (McKinney, Texas) smacked a three-run dinger, his sixth of the year. Each of those has come in just the last eight games (32 at-bats).

For the third time this spring, senior center fielder Brandon Landanger (Kearney H.S.) followed one of Sharkey's homers with one of his own. Finally, two batters later, junior left fielder Anthony Pacheco (Kearney Catholic H.S.) finished the scoring with a two-run bomb to right.

The Griffons tried to come back from the 8-0 hole as starter Grant Woods shut out UNK over the next four innings. At the plate, Western scored three times in the third and once in the fifth.

However, senior DH Dillon Schroeder (Kearney Catholic H.S.) hit a two-out solo homer in the seventh and then a MWSU error allowed two more Lopers to score in the ninth.

Junior right hander Jacob Dittman (Colo. Springs, Colo.), allowing two earned over seven innings, fanned six and walked one to even his season mark at 3-3. Grand Island junior Chayse Gulzow finished off Mo West by striking out three in two scoreless innings.

At the plate, nine-hole hitter Coby Roming (Canyon, Texas) went 3 for 4 with Schroder and senior third baseman Danny Droll (Penrose, Colo.) each collecting two hits. All nine Kearney starters had at least one hit and scored a run with five having an RBI.

A double header is scheduled to start Saturday at 1:00 p.m.