The Missouri State baseball team took a 4-0 lead over the Bradley Braves and watched BU get within two runs two separate times before using a five-run eighth to put the game away and earn a 12-6 Missouri Valley Conference win Sunday at O’Brien Field in Peoria, Ill.
The Bears improved to 25-13 and 10-5 in league play with the series win, while Bradley fell to 17-19 and 8-7.
Missouri State stranded four runners in the first two innings and got a runner to second with no outs in each of the first three before breaking into the scoring column in the third when Nolan Keane scored on a Chris Playter sacrifice fly.
The Bears got the leadoff man on for a fourth consecutive inning when Ryan Mantle singled in the top of the fourth. Dallas Hord drew a walk and Ben Woodbury outran a sac bunt attempt to load the bases with no outs. Keane moved up all three runners with a sac fly to left, making the score 2-0, and Brayden Drake plated Hord with MSU’s third sac fly of the game. Ben Carlson was intentionally walked for a second time and Playter drove in Woodbury with a double to put two more MSU runners in scoring position before reliever Kori Jensen got the final out to end the three-run frame.
Bradley responded in the bottom of the fourth, loading the bases with one out and getting an RBI bloop single from Tommy Fitzgerald. Aaron Meade pitched a 1-1 count to Brett Hendricks before freshman Tyler Ryun was called into relief duty. Ryun struck out Hendricks on the next two pitches and got Nick Mitidiero to ground out, preserving the 4-1 MSU lead.
The Braves made the score 4-2 in the fifth when Colby Luttrell doubled home Dan Brewer, but the Bears got it back and then some in the sixth. With one out, Drake singled home Woodbury, stole second and scored on a Carlson single the extended the MSU DH’s hitting streak to 11 games and moved the MSU lead back to four at 6-2.
Ryun (2-0) pitched 1.2 innings in relief before giving way to Cody Aycock with runners on first and second and no outs in the sixth. Aycock worked out of the jam without allowing a run, but Luttrell struck again for the Braves in the seventh, hitting a two-run homer to pull Bradley within two runs. Aycock surrendered another single, bringing Pat Doyle in from the bullpen with no outs. Doyle pitched around a single to keep the MSU lead at 6-4 entering the eighth.
Woodbury got on base for a fourth time with a leadoff single in the eighth and scored on Keane’s double to left-center with no outs. Drake followed that with a bunt single, Carlson drove in Keane with a fielder’s choice, Playter singled and Josh Mazzola smacked a three-run homer off the first pitch he saw from Jensen to cap a five-run inning and give the Bears an 11-4 advantage.
Drake doubled home Keane in the ninth for the Bears’ final run.
Missouri State put the leadoff man on in six innings, stranded eight runners in scoring position and tied an O’Brien Field record with five stolen bases. The top five hitters in the MSU lineup combined to go 13-for-22 with nine runs and nine RBIs.
The Bears return home Tuesday to face Oral Roberts at 7 p.m. at Hammons Field.
