May 28, 2016 Box Score
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - In a fitting ending to a drama-filled 2016 Missouri Valley Conference Championship, Dallas Baptist walked away with a 4-3 victory over Missouri State and the tournament title after scoring the winning run on a two-out wild pitch in the bottom of the 12th inning Saturday evening at Bob Warn Field.
The Patriots (41-17) captured their second MVC Tournament title in three years when Trooper Reynolds scampered home on a 1-2 pitch that scooted just far enough behind the plate to decide a game that saw no shortage of twists and turns. DBU's dramatic finish capped a night that saw the MVC's regular-season champs rally from two separate deficits to force extra innings.
Both bullpens factored mightily in the outcome, as four Dallas Baptist relievers combined to hold the Bears (38-21) scoreless over the final seven frames. MSU's relief corps turned in a night to remember as well, with Jake Fromson, Bryan Young and Ryan Dunne joining forces to keep DBU off the scoreboard for 7.0 total innings as well.
MSU center fielder Hunter Steinmetz added to the drama with two different game-saving catches against the wall with DBU runners on base in extra innings. In the end, the Patriots' pitching was able to extinguish one rally more than their counterparts, stranding a total of 15 MSU runners on base to offset a 15-hit night for the Bears.
After hitting five home runs in the Bears' six Championship games, senior outfielder Spencer Johnson took home tournament most-outstanding player honors, and was joined on the all-tourney team by teammates Justin Paulsen (1B), Aaron Meyer (2B), Jake Burger (3B) and Sam Perez (P), as well as MVC Elite 18 winner, Alex Jefferson.
In a match-up of the last two MVC Tournament champions, it was the defending titlists who struck first, scoring twice in the second inning to gain the upper hand. Missouri State, which entered the final with 11 home runs as a team in its five previous games at the Championship, once again used the long ball to establish a lead in the early stages. Blake Graham's solo shot to lead off the second put MSU on the board, before a one-out double by Eduardo Castro set up another scoring chance for the Maroon and White. Patriots starting pitcher MD Johnson coaxed a come-backer from Matt Dezort for the second out, but Steinmetz's double to left-center chased home Castro for a 2-0 Bears lead.
The Bears, who totaled 11 hits in the first five innings, squandered several chances to add to their lead, stranding multiple baserunners in five of the first six frames. In the third, MSU recorded three hits, but a double-play grounder to short and a line drive off the bat of Castro was snared second to end the threat.
After the Patriots leveled the score in the bottom of the third on the first of two Darick Hall run-scoring hits, the Bears went back to work in the fifth to reclaim the lead. Graham's two-out walk sparked a surge, as Jeremy Eierman delivered his second hit of the game, and Castro came through with another double to hand MSU a 3-2 advantage.
The lead would be short-lived, however, as DBU mounted a two-out strike of its own in the home half of the fifth. Back-to-back walks to David Martinelli and Austin Listi set up a second RBI single from Hall, who laced a Coleman offering to center to pull the Patriots even once again.
DBU manufactured scoring chances in both the sixth and seventh innings as well, but Fromson and Young avoided trouble in each instance by recording inning-ending strikeouts to keep the score tied at 3-3.
From there, the bullpens would seize control, with DBU's Landan Wilson working two scoreless frames of one-hit relief, before handing the ball off to closer Seth Elledge. The right-hander delivered with 2 1/3 innings of shutout work, avoiding trouble in the 10th after Eierman led things off with a double to right. Left-hander Sean Stutzman (6-1) would provide the final link between the Patriots' bullpen and the championship by blanking the Bears on one hit over the final 2.1 innings.
For his part, Young starred for a Missouri State bullpen that answered the call on nearly every occasion throughout the MVC Championship. The junior right-hander shut out the Patriots over a career-long 5.0-inning stint, allowing just three hits while fanning a career-high six hitters.
Unfortunately, Young's night would end due to an apparent injury in the 12th with a 2-0 count on Reynolds, who eventually started the deciding rally by coaxing a walk on a full-count offering from Dunne. A pair of sac bunts and a walk put runners at second and third with two out, before Dunne's deciding two-strike pitch to Daniel Sweet.
Meyer led the Bears with a 4-for-5 night, capping a big MVC Tournament that saw the junior hit .650 (13-for-20), while Eierman went 3-for-6 and Graham finished 2-for-5 with his fifth homer of the year.
Johnson capped his Missouri State career with a Division I-best 24 home runs, good for fifth on the Bears' single-season chart, while also totaling 218 hits to rank 18th all-time at MSU. Fellow senior Sam Perez also ended his career with a bang, totaling 22 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings over his final six outings. The right-hander also finished his year with an MVC-best 112 strikeouts-all in relief-to rank sixth on MSU's single-season chart.
