The tough hits keep coming for Auburn baseball.

Auburn held an 11-6 lead over Missouri in the 7th inning of Friday’s series opener. Then, as has been the case for most of the SEC slate, Auburn’s luck ran out in the final innings. Missouri rattled off six unanswered runs over the final two innings to stun Auburn and claim the first game of the weekend series, 12-11, on Friday night at Taylor Stadium in Columbia, Missouri.

Each team traded blows through the first six innings with Missouri hanging on to a 6-5 lead. Auburn caught momentum in the 7th inning by scoring six runs to build a comfortable 11-6 lead. Eric Guevara kicked off the inning by scoring two runs on a double, with Ike Irish following suit later in the inning with a three-run triple. Cooper McMurray capped scoring by grounding out to the shortstop which allowed Irish to score.

Auburn’s momentum was taken away immediately as Missouri scored twice in the bottom frame and stole the lead in the 8th inning by scoring four runs. Missouri’s final blow was delivered by Matt Garcia, when he doubled home three runs to push his team ahead, 12-11.

Irish led the team in hits with three. Chris Stanfield, Caden Green, and Eric Guevara each recorded multiple hits. On the mound, Parker Carlson took the loss after allowing four runs on five hits. Starter Tanner Bauman allowed three runs on four hits while striking out three batters in four innings of work.

Game two of the weekend series between Auburn and Missouri is scheduled for 3 p.m. CT Saturday.

SPRINGFIELD, MO (Dakota News Now) – Another round of college re-alignment is hitting the FCS and Missouri Valley Football Conference.

Missouri State announced today that they are leaving the Missouri Valley and Missouri Valley Football Conference to join FBS Conference USA effective in the 2025-26 season.

They are the second charter member of the Valley to leave the conference in the last two years after Western Illinois bolted following the end of last season for the Ohio Valley. They were effectively replaced by Murray State who joined last season.

As it stands the league will be down to ten teams after 2024 when Missouri State heads up to the FBS. The Bears will not be eligible for the FCS Playoffs this season.

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The United States Postal Service provided a media tour Thursday of its new processing center in Missouri City after residents in the Houston area experienced mail delays earlier this year.

Medications, wedding dresses and other packages were often weeks late. And Houston-area representatives of Congress were mediating between residents and the postal service for most of the delays.

John DiPeri, the vice president for regional processing operations in USPS’ western processing region, led reporters throughout the South Houston Local Processing Center (LPC) in Missouri City. DiPeri said he wanted to be in town when the tour happened.

“There’s been major construction going on, a lot of equipment going in, a lot of cement work going in, a lot of planning,” he said. “So we wanted to bring it in when it was safe enough to bring a crew in, it was organized to where we could bring in and show you a good tour.”

A press release from the postal service states the South Houston facility officially opened for operations in late March. An audit released last month found the same facility was opened in November with temporary staff for a “peak season annex.” The same audit found more than 380,000 delayed parcels during an inspection in January.

DiPeri said Houston-area residents saw mail delays earlier this year because of new technology and the construction happening at the facility.

“We learned that we need to be precise in our planning, have better communications, have well-trained people, and have better communications with our suppliers, and understand the supply chain better,” DiPeri said.

The Delivering for America plan is a 10-year initiative the postal service has been working on to increase efficiency. Part of the plan included replacing some of the machinery at the South Houston facility with newer mail sorters. Local leaders found out in a meeting with the National Association with Postal Supervisors that there were also staffing shortages and transportation issues.

“I apologize for that poor service that we had in the beginning of the year,” DiPeri said. “Our jobs are to collect, process, and deliver the mail and we take that really seriously. So we have brought the right people, the right leaders, right leadership, right employees … to assure as we’re going through this modernization we’ll maintain a service and efficiency.”

DiPeri said since January, over 100 employees have been added to work at the processing center. Construction and modernization is expected to continue until mid-August, when 500 people will be working at the building.