Just one night after they could do little wrong in a 5-2 win over Wichita State in the opening round of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, the Missouri State baseball Bears found themselves in a position Thursday evening they’ve become uncomfortably familiar with over the last six weeks. Evansville capitalized on three MSU errors and some timely hitting to claim an 11-7 decision at Hammons Field and send the Bears to their 21st loss in 25 games.
Leading 5-3 entering the ninth inning, Evansville seemingly broke the game open with a six-run inning. The Purple Aces got a two-run double from Pat Tumilty and a two-run single from Kirk Bacsu to take an 11-3 lead into the bottom of the inning.
The Bears weren’t quite finished. Kyle Paul led off the ninth with a homer to left-center off Jeremy Kuester, and Ryan Mantle followed with another home run - the first pinch-home run by a Missouri State player since Jacob Hilgendorf accomplished the feat against Rice in the 2003 College World Series. Ben Woodbury singled to keep MSU’s hopes alive and, two batters later, Shane Elenz belted a two-run shot to draw the Bears to within four runs. Chris Taylor and Josh Mazzola singled, but Matt Brinkmann got Matt Lawson and Brayden Drake to go down swinging to end the ballgame.
Evansville took advantage of a pair of Missouri State miscues in the first inning to claim a 1-0 lead. Lead-off man Jim Viscomi singled off Missouri State right-hander Scott Carroll, then advanced to third on a fielding error by shortstop Tanner Mattson. Next, Tumilty lofted a short fly to right field on which Viscomi initially held at third before racing home ahead of Nolan Keane’s throw.
  The Bears responded with a two-run first, highlighted by back-to-back singles from Keane and Taylor after Mattson was hit by a Ben Norton pitch with one out. Taylor’s liner off the first base bag brought home Mattson to even the score, and the next hitter, Mazzola, broke the tie with a sacrifice fly to center to put MSU on top, 2-1.
Drake made it a 3-1 ballgame when he homered to right-center field to lead off the third. But the Bears squandered a promising offensive threat that ultimately swung the momentum in Evansville’s favor. After Paul and Ben Carlson delivered base hits to put runners on the corners with nobody out, Norton coaxed a pop-up off the bat of Woodbury before getting Mattson to ground into a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning.
Missouri State saw another opportunity to score go by the wayside in the third when Lawson singled to right field with two men out and Keane was thrown out at the plate attempting to score from second base. The play at the plate netted another setback for the Bears when Keane was subsequently ejected for running into Bacsu at home plate.
The Purple Aces grabbled the lead for good with a three-run fourth inning that was capped by Viscomi’s two-out, two-run double. Bacsu led off the frame with a slow roller toward third that resulted in an infield single, advancing to second when Drake’s throw sailed wide of the first base bag. Kern Watts followed with a single to center that plated Bacsu to cut the Missouri State lead to 3-2. After a Jeff Zelenovich sacrifice bunt and a hit batsman, Andy Smith grounded to first to put runners on second and third. Viscomi then put Evansville back on top by lining a Carroll offering down the left-field line to score Watts and Troy Krider for a 4-3 UE advantage.
With a one-run lead in hand, Norton (9-4) settled into his comfort zone and allowed just four singles in five straight scoreless innings. The senior right-hander recorded seven of his eight strikeouts from the fourth inning on and left with one out in the eighth after allowing three runs on 11 hits.
Carroll was saddled with the loss for Missouri State, falling to 4-5 on the year after giving up five runs (three earned) on 10 hits in eight innings of work.
With the loss the Bears dropped to 23-33 on the year, while Evansville upped its season mark to 35-22. Missouri State will take on the loser of Thursday evening’s Bradley-Creighton match-up at noon Friday, while the Purple Aces will square off against Wichita State at 3:30 p.m. The top-seeded Shockers knocked off Southern Illinois by a 4-2 score Thursday afternoon in a game that was delayed more than three hours by rain.
