April 29, 2014
Box Score
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Six Arkansas pitchers teamed up to hold Missouri State's offense in check to lift the visiting Razorbacks to a 4-1 non-conference victory over the Bears Tuesday afternoon at Hammons Field. UA (29-18) scored all four of its runs in the second inning, then relied on a strong bullpen performance to hold MSU to just five hits in claiming its 10th consecutive win in the series.
Dominic Taccolini (2-0) led the Razorbacks' mound effort, tossing 2.0 perfect frames as part of a string of 12 consecutive batters retired by three different UA hurlers. After the Bears tallied their lone run of the afternoon with two out in the third, Arkansas' first reliever of the day, Jackson Lowery, sat down the last four hitters he faced before handing the ball off to Taccolini. The freshman right-hander breezed through the MSU half of the fifth, then fanned two in the sixth to cap his day.
Alex Jefferson's two-out single in the seventh snapped the string of hitless innings for MSU, and the Bears threatened in the eighth against Zach Jackson after Eric Cheray's second hit of the game and a walk to Trey Hair brought the tying run to the plate. But Jackson dug deep to strike out Matt Fultz and Trey Massenberg, and Michael Gunn retired the side in order in the ninth to secure the win and his seventh save of the season.
Michael Bernal paced the UA offense by reaching base safely in three of his four trips to the plate. The Razorbacks shortstop delivered a key two-run homer and walked twice, while Brian Anderson and Tyler Spoon added two hits apiece for the visitors.
The strong finish from Arkansas' bullpen followed a quick start, as the Razorbacks touched up Bears starter Andy Cheray (1-1) for four runs on five hits and a pair of walks in the second. Blake Baxendale got things started with a leadoff single, before Eric Fisher's double handed UA an early scoring opportunity with runners at second and third and nobody out. Next, Jake Wise put the visitors on the board with a line drive sacrifice to right that brought in Baxendale from third, and Bernal made it a three-run game with a home run into the left-field bullpen on an 0-2 pitch from Cheray. A walk to Bobby Wernes and back-to-back hits by Spoon and Andrew Benintendi produced a fourth and final run for the Razorbacks.
Missouri State (19-21) answered with its only scoring rally of the game in the bottom of the third, forging a two-out rally on Cheray's double and a Patrick Drake RBI single to left-center field. A walk to Spencer Johnson kept the inning alive and brought Tyler Harris to the plate with the potential tying run, but Lowery fanned the Bears sophomore catcher to keep it a three-run game.
After Cheray departed after issuing a pair of walks in a scoreless third, Matt Hall performed the heavy lifting for the Bears mound corps to give his club a chance at a comeback. The left-hander faced the minimum through his first four innings of work, allowing just a leadoff single in the fifth before erasing the runner by rolling a 6-4-3 double-play ball.
Hall worked his way out of trouble in the eighth with an inning-ending grounder off the bat of Wernes after an error and two walks loaded the bases with two out. In all, the sophomore would strike out five Razorbacks and allow just two hits over his 5 2/3 scoreless innings.
Cheray and Drake led the Bears with two-hit games, while Jefferson accounted for the only other MSU hit.
Up next, the Bears will head to Little Rock for a Wednesday (April 30) afternoon game with UALR at 4 p.m. MSU will then head south to resume MVC play with a three-game set at Dallas Baptist, beginning with a 6:30 p.m. contest Friday (May 2).
