Sophomore lefty Buddy Baumann tossed a seven-inning complete game in game one and junior third baseman Brayden Drake tripled, homered and had six RBIs in the third inning alone of game two as the Missouri State baseball team swept a doubleheader from Iowa by scores of 8-3 and 12-5 Sunday afternoon at Hammons Field.
Baumann’s first career complete game represented career highs for innings pitched with seven and strikeouts with nine, as the sophomore improved to 1-1 on the year with the game one victory.
Trailing 1-0 in the second after an Iowa run in the first, Ryan Mantle doubled home Josh Mazzola to put the Bears on the scoreboard. Dallas Hord singled home Mantle one batter later to give MSU a 2-1 lead after two frames.
The Hawkeyes tied it in the third but left the bases loaded, and the Bears again responded to the Iowa run, this time staging a two-out rally in the bottom of the frame. Drake and Ben Carlson each grounded singles through the middle before Mazzola launched his second home run of the year over the right field wall. Mantle followed Mazzola’s bomb with his second double of game and stole third before scoring on another RBI single from Hord that made it 6-2 in favor of the home team.
MSU extended the lead in the fourth with Nolan Keane driving home Chris Playter on a fielder’s choice, and Iowa pulled within 7-3 with a tally in the fifth. Playter scored on a double play grounder in the sixth for the Bears’ final run.
As they did in game one, the Hawkeyes scored in their first at bat with a run in the first, and again in the second on a squeeze bunt by Justin Brauer to go up 2-0.
The Bears got one back in the bottom of the second, and took the lead for good in the third. Ben Woodbury led off with a single and Keane reached on an error to set up Drake’s two-run triple of the wall in left-center. The Hawkeyes continued to play sloppy defense, committing two more errors and hitting two batters as the Bears sent 14 batters to the plate and scored 10 runs to go ahead 11-2. Drake hammered a grand slam in his second at bat to run his RBI total to six in the frame.
Notable accomplishments from the big third inning included Drake becoming the first Bear to collect two hits in an inning since he did it against Arkansas State in 2006 and MSU scoring 10 runs in an inning for the first time since 2006. Drake’s six RBIs in the game were the most for a Bear since Shaun Marcum drove in six against Bradley in 2002.
Freshman Aaron Meade went five innings and struck out six for the Bears to earn the win in game two and up his record to 2-0. Meade combined with four relievers to strike out 11 Hawkeyes in the game.
Carlson had an RBI single in the fifth and Iowa added three runs in the sixth for the final score.
Missouri State goes to Oklahoma State for a 4 p.m. Tuesday game before hosting Kansas at 3 p.m. Wednesday to open a nine-game homestand.
