Taylor Hodges, Sports Information Director

PARKVILLE, Mo. – The Lions (36-13, 23-4 AMC) became the American Midwest Conference Regular Season Champions and earned the No. 1 overall seed in the conference tournament on May 1-4 with an 11-3 win over Park (19-19, 11-16 AMC) on Saturday afternoon.

A lot of Lions swung the bat well in the lop-sided win, especially third baseman Will McCall, who went 3-for-3 on the afternoon with two solo homeruns and two RBIs.

The freshman's first long ball came when he led off the top of the second inning on the first pitch he saw. His second homer came in the following inning with two outs. In that same inning, Josh Sears hit his 15th home run of the season, extending the career Freed-Hardeman record he broke on Monday against Cumberland.

Other notable hitters were Bryce Lester, who went 4-for-5 in the leadoff spot, scoring one run and bringing in one of his own. Sears went 3-for-4 including his home run, and added on to his team-leading RBI total, bringing in three runs on the day.

Zach Sanders and Dom Pisano each had doubles in the contest. Sanders went 2-for-4 in the game, and Pisano had a 2-for-5 outing.

Austin Steel got the start on the mound and nearly went the full nine innings. He pitched eight complete innings and struck out six batters. Landon Sewell cleaned things up in the ninth, striking out one batter.

While this win earned the Lions the top seed in the conference tournament, it does not give them an automatic qualifier into the opening round of the national tournament. Only the tournament winner and runner-up automatically qualify for the national tournament.

The Lions will take on Bethel on the road on Tuesday in a single-game matchup at noon, and they will close the season out with a three-game series at home against Hannibal-LaGrange on Thursday and Friday.