The Missouri State baseball team got back in action Saturday after Friday’s rainout but dropped both games of a doubleheader to Dallas Baptist by scores of 3-2 and 5-4 to extend its season-long losing streak to four games on a chilly and windy afternoon at Patriot Field in Dallas.
The Bears fell 19-16 on the season, while the Patriots improved to 20-17 with the sweep.
With the score tied at 1-1 in game one, Chris Taylor led off the Missouri State eighth with a single up the middle, and following a pair of DBU errors, Taylor was on third and Nolan Keane on first with no outs. Kyle Paul lifted a shallow fly ball to right, and Taylor tagged and slid around Brandon Bantz’s tag at home for the go-ahead run.
Dallas Baptist answered in the bottom of the frame, as DH Garrett Baker hammered a two-run triple off Pat Doyle (1-1) to regain the lead at 3-2. Reliever Brett Lester (2-1) retired the Bears in order in the ninth for the victory.
After a bizarre first inning in which DBU caught Ben Woodbury stealing home to get out of a bases loaded jam and the Bears returned the favor with a 6-4-5 double play with two Patriots on and one out, Ben Carlson led off the top of the second with a single and stole second before scoring on Brayden Drake’s liner over the first baseman for a 1-0 Bears lead.
The Patriots broke into the scoring column in the fifth, using a leadoff double from Bantz and two-out single by Evan Bigley to tie the contest at 1-1.
Ross Detwiler pitched seven innings in the start, allowing six hits and a run in the no-decision. The southpaw struck out 10 Patriots, bringing his season total in two starts versus Dallas Baptist to 23. Detwiler’s milestone strikeouts included Baker in the second to pass Chris Krawczyk for 10th all-time at Missouri State, J.T. Bloodworth in the fifth for number 200 of his career, and Bigley in the seventh to move past Jeff Gray and into a tie for seventh all-time with Ken Watkins and John Hardin.
The second game saw the Bears overcome a 4-2 ninth-inning deficit to tie the game, only to see Austin Todd (2-3) toss a wild pitch while trying to intentionally walk Austin Knight that allowed Bantz to score the winning run for a 5-4 DBU win.
Paul put Missouri State on the board in the first with a two-out double to plate Matt Lawson, and the score remained 1-0 MSU until the bottom of the fourth, when the Patriots opened with four consecutive singles and came away with two runs to gain a 2-1 lead.
Dallas Baptist led off the seventh with three straight singles to knock Scott Carroll out of the game. Matt Frevert came in with the score at 3-1 and runners on first and second and retired the side to keep the Bears within two runs.
Keane led off the eighth by blasting his seventh home run of the year over the wall in right to cut the DBU advantage in half, but the Patriots responded with a run in the bottom of the frame.
Taylor and Christian Overstreet singled and Chris Playter drew a walk to load the bases with one out in the ninth. Matt Lawson was hit by a pitch to force a run home and Keane hit an RBI ground out to score Playter and make it 4-4.
Missouri State hosts in-state rival Missouri at 7 p.m.
