Missouri State bolted to a 9-0 lead and watched Southern Illinois creep back within three runs before Josh Mazzola’s second homer of the game put the Bears up by five, clinching a spot in the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament final Friday evening with an 11-6 win over the Salukis at Eck Stadium in Wichita, Kan.
Freshman Tyler Ryun pitched six innings of relief to up his record to 4-0, allowing two unearned runs and holding the Salukis scoreless in the final five innings while fanning a season-high six.
Missouri State, now 40-16 on the season, struck in the first when Nolan Keane drew a one-out walk, hustled all the way from first to third on a ground out and scored on Mazzola’s two-out RBI single.
Then in the second, Chris Playter and Matt Welch opened with back-to-back singles and moved up a base each on a Kyle Paul sac bunt. SIU starter Andrew Dunn got the second out, but the flood gates opened after that. Dunn gave up a two-run double to Ben Woodbury, an RBI double to Keane and another double to Brayden Drake to get the score to 5-0. Mazzola took the next pitch out of the park to left-center for his 13th home run of the season and a 7-0 lead.
Reliever Jimmy Cornell entered the game after Mazzola’s homer, hit Ben Carlson and gave up a single to Playter before Welch pulled a two-run single to left. In all, MSU scored eight runs in the frame, all with two outs, to take a 9-0 lead.
The Salukis (34-23) answered MSU’s outburst by loading the bases with no outs in the bottom of the second, but managed just one run, that coming on a Tyler Lairson sacrifice fly. SIU added another run in the third after putting the first two men aboard to make the score 9-2.
SIU loaded the bases again with no outs in the fourth, this time coming through with four runs, three after the Bears recorded the second out. Adam Hills hit a two-out, two-run single and later scored on a wild pitch to get the Salukis within three at 9-6.
Cornell retired 13 Bears in a row until hitting Drake to begin the seventh. Mazzola followed that with another long ball, marking his 14th of the season and third multi-homer game of the year and giving MSU an 11-6 lead.
The Bears play Wichita State at 12:30 p.m. Saturday for a chance to force a winner-take-all championship game. Should MSU defeat the Shockers at 12:30, the second title game will take place at 4:30 p.m.
