The Missouri State baseball team got off to a slow start at Evansville Saturday before a six-run fourth inning gave the Bears a 7-0 lead on the way to a 14-6 Missouri Valley Conference win at Braun Stadium in Evansville, Ind.
Evansville’s Keegan Dennis retired the first seven Bears of the game before
Tyler Ryun tagged him for a solo homer with one out in the third, the first hit of the game for either team and Ryun’s sixth long ball of the season.
The Bears began the six-run fourth with a walk and a single, with both runners moving up on
Brayden Drake’s fly ball to right.
Chris Playter drew a two-out walk to load the bases, and Dennis walked
Travis McComack on four pitches to force in
Kevin Medrano. A wild pitch let another run score, Ryun walked and
Ryan Modglin hammered the first grand slam by an MSU freshman since 1997 with a high drive to right center to make the score 7-0.
Buddy Baumann (8-0) held the Aces hitless until two outs in the fourth, and Andy Pascoe followed Tom Heithoff’s single with a two-run homer to break up the shutout. Baumann went the distance for the Bears, striking out seven with no walks in the win.
In the fifth,
Dallas Hord drove in Carlson with a sac fly, but Evansville began the sixth with three straight hits to match that run and make the score 8-3. Heithoff followed with an RBI single, and the Bears turned a double play to get an out away from ending the frame. Nate Smith hit a two-out double and Peter Tountas blooped an RBI single as UE rallied for a pair of two-out runs to pull within 8-6.
Carlson led off the seventh by lining his 12th homer of the season inside the right field foul pole, and two walks and a two-out error gave the Bears another run in the eighth to push the lead to 10-6.
Three straight doubles by Drake, Hord and Playter opened the ninth, and a McComack single drove in Playter to give the Bears three quick runs with no outs. McComack came around to score on a two-out error to cap the four-run inning.
The series concludes at 1 p.m. Sunday.
