WARRENSBURG, Mo. (April 15, 2016) -- The 16th-ranked Mules dropped their series opener with Missouri Southern 8-2 on Friday night at Crane Stadium/Tompkins Field. The loss drops UCM to 23-10 overall and 21-5 in MIAA play.

The Lions (26-11, 16-10 MIAA) jumped on top in the second inning on Hayden Steele's two-out solo home run. The Mules tied the game in the home half on Matt Safranek's RBI double down the right field line. UCM went in front 2-1 in the third when Blake Wilfong led off with a home run that banged off the foul pole in right field.

MSSU went back in front for good with four runs in the fourth. Six hits in the inning, all singles, and one UCM error led to the big inning for the Lions. They tacked on two more runs in the fifth on an RBI double from Richie Gorski and an RBI single from Matt Smith for a 7-2 lead.

The Mules threatened in the sixth inning, loading the bases with one out, but a groundout and a strikeout ended the threat.

Jesse Rall led off the ninth inning with a solo home run to give MSSU the 8-2 advantage.

Tyler House (5-2) took the loss for UCM after giving up five runs, four earned, on nine hits in just 3.2 innings. Tayler Ross allowed two runs, one earned, on three hits in 1.1 innings of relief. Reece Ponak tossed two innings of scoreless rlief and Luke Mercer added an inning of scoreless relief as well.

Cody Hutchinson (5-4) went the distance for Missouri Southern, allowing the two runs on 10 hits while throwing 130 pitches.

The Mules stranded nine men on base in the game.

Cole Distler finished the game 3-for-3 with a walk and a run scored for UCM.

The Mules look to even the series on Saturday at 1 p.m. The game can be heard live on 1450 KOKO and warrensburgradio.com with Bob Jackson and Ricky Rivera on the call.