The Missouri State baseball team committed three costly errors in a seven-run Middle Tennessee fourth inning and watched the Blue Raiders keep the pressure on from there in a 19-4 season-opening loss Friday at Reese Smith Field in Murfreesboro, Tenn.
Aaron Conway led off the season for the Bears with a double down the left field line,
Chris Playter reached on an error and
Brayden Drake extended his hitting streak to 16 games with a single up the middle to load the bases with no outs for MSU.
Ben Carlson drove in Conway with a sacrifice fly, and a fielder’s choice and a walk loaded the bases again with two outs before MTSU’s Bryce Brentz got out of the jam with his team trailing just 1-0.
The Blue Raiders tied it in the second with Justin Miller’s solo homer to left, but
Tim Clubb struck out the side aside from that hiccup to keep the game tied at 1-1 through two frames.
Miller struck again in the fourth with a triple to score Rawley Bishop after he reached third on two MSU errors to begin the inning. A Justin Guidry double scored Miller, and two more singles and another MSU error loaded the bases with two outs. The Blue Raiders added four more runs from there to go up 8-1 with a seven-run fourth.
Clubb (0-1) was on the wrong end of the MSU errors, as just three of his eight runs allowed were earned over four innings, giving him his first loss since April 22, 2007, a stretch of 13 consecutive winning decisions.
The Bears were hitless after the first inning until Drake led off the sixth with a solo homer. Carlson followed with a double and
Dallas Hord singled to left and advanced to third on an error by Guidry in left. Carlson scored to make the score 8-3, and
Christian Overstreet drove in Hord with a sac fly to shallow left to make it an 8-4 game.
The Blue Raiders tacked on a run in the bottom of the sixth and 10 more in the eighth after the first six batters reached base. It was the first time since April 15, 2006, that an MSU opponent scored 10 runs in an inning.
Drake and Carlson each had two hits and an RBI for MSU.
Game two of series is set for Saturday at 2 p.m.
