After taking their best of three series against Newman in the opening round of the MIAA baseball tournament, the Missouri Southern Lions are ready to get back on the field in the MIAA double elimination bracket this week in Warrensburg.

The Lions enter the tournament with a 40-13 record. They faceoff with Northeastern State at 4:00 Thursday. The winner heads to the semifinal game and faces the winner of Pitt State and Central Missouri.

The Lions didn’t get the chance to play in the double elimination bracket last year, but now with a lot of improvement this season, MSSU looks to raise the MIAA trophy on Saturday. The team spoke on the excitement of going, but also staying focused on earning wins this week.

Nate Mieszkowski said, “It’s pretty exciting for us, last year we didn’t make it that far and it’ll be a first for all of us mainly. I know Miller and Cole Woods have been there before, but it’ll be a first for a lot of us. Just keeping the intensity in practice and keep getting better every day, keep getting better at the little things and just keep getting better.”

Ethan Clark said, “We’re grateful, but we know we’ve earned it and we’re ready to play and ready to show everybody what we’re made of. We’re ready to just fine tune our defense, baserunning and we didn’t hit well this weekend, but I don’t think a lot of teams can keep us from hitting very long.”