The Missouri State baseball team fell behind 10th-ranked Wichita State 9-0 and could not overcome the deficit despite a five-run sixth in an 11-6 Missouri Valley Conference loss to the Shockers Sunday afternoon at Hammons Field.
After Conor Gillaspie singled home Damon Sublett in the Shocker first, Matt Brown hammered his seventh home run of the season in the second to give WSU a 2-0 lead.
In the third, Andy Dirks drove in a run with a grounder to second and cleanup hitter Danny Jackson powered a two-run homer to extend the Shocker lead to 5-0.
Jackson struck again in the fifth, driving in Dirks with his second round-tripper of the game. Tyler Weber made it back-to-back homers for the Shocks, hitting a towering fly ball that landed near the scoreboard in left-center for an 8-0 advantage.
Josh Workman made the score 9-0 by hitting WSU’s fifth home run of the game to lead off the sixth.
Missouri State got on the board with five runs in the bottom of the sixth. Tanner Mattson walked and Matt Lawson reached on an error before both men advanced a base on a wild pitch. Nolan Keane singled between third base and shortstop to plate Mattson and Kyle Paul hit an RBI single to left to bring Lawson home. Brayden Drake then singled to load the bases with one out, and reliever Anthony Capra issued a four-pitch walk to Shane Elenz for the Bears’ third run of the frame. Chris Taylor blooped a two-run single to right to score Paul and Drake.
The Shockers answered in the seventh, getting a two-run single from Brown to push the advantage back to six runs.
Elenz homered over the 400’ sign in dead center with two outs in the eighth, giving the senior a 3-for-3 day at the plate with two RBIs. He was also a triple short of hitting for the cycle.
The Bears are now 19-21 overall and 4-8 in the league at the midway point of their MVC schedule. WSU is 34-9 and 13-2 in the Valley with the series sweep.
Rob Musgrave (7-0) earned the win for WSU with a season-high seven strikeouts. Tim Clubb (4-3) went just three innings for Missouri State and suffered the loss.
Missouri State opens an eight-game road trip at Southern Illinois on Friday at 3 p.m.
