EVANSVILLE, Ind. -- The Missouri State baseball team managed just one hit after taking a 1-0 lead in the first inning Friday as Evansville held MSU to a season-low three hits in handing the Bears a 3-1 Missouri Valley Conference loss at Braun Stadium in Evansville, Ind.
UE improved to 23-15 overall and 4-6 in MVC play, while the Bears fell to 24-16 and 6-4 in the league, dropping their first series opener since March 11 at Southern Miss and falling back into a four-way tie for second in the conference with Saturday’s 2 p.m. contest serving as the midway point in the 21-game league schedule.
The game started in promising fashion for Missouri State with
Aaron Conway hitting a leadoff single to shortstop, going to second on a throwing error on the play and scoring two batters later on a
Spiker Helms single to right.
In the meantime,
Nick Petree mowed down the Evansville order for three innings and struck out seven of the first 11 batters he faced before Cody Fick’s single broke up the no-hitter in the fourth. Fick later scored on Jared Baehl’s double for a 1-1 tie after four innings.
Evansville’s Kyle Lloyd retired 12 in a row after Helms’ single in the first and allowed one hit the rest of the way as the Bears routinely hit balls at UE defenders, striking out just four times in the game.
Missouri State’s final scoring opportunity came in sixth, but MSU left runners on first and second before the Purple Aces grabbed the lead in the home half. Fick started the rally with a comebacker off Petree’s glove that went for a single, and a double and intentional walk loaded the bases with one out. Ryan Oesterle then drew a walk, taking a borderline 3-2 pitch for the RBI, and Nate Smith’s roller to shortstop wasn’t hit sharply enough for the Bears to turn the double play but did plate a run.
Petree (6-1) struck out nine against six hits and three runs in his first loss of the year. Lloyd (4-4) scattered three hits and three walks in eight innings, and Jake Naumann got the save with a scoreless ninth despite a pair of hard-hit line drives that were caught, summarizing the night offensively for the Bears.
