SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Paced by a six-run fifth inning, Missouri State pulled away for a 12-4 victory over Pittsburg State in fall exhibition action Wednesday afternoon at Hammons Field. Joey Polak's grand slam highlighted the rally, as the Bears took advantage of four free passes in the fifth to turn a scoreless game into a 6-0 advantage.
 

Polak drove in a run as part of a five-run, ninth-inning rally as well, finishing his day 2-for-5 with five RBIs. Logan Geha logged a standout day as well, reaching base safely in four of his five trips to the plate, while Drew Millas added a pair of hits and score twice, and Javier Ramos recorded a 2-for-5 afternoon, punctuating the victory with a three-run homer in the ninth.

The Bears received strong pitching as well, getting five combined shutout frames from Logan Wiley (2.0), Peyton Carson (1.0) and Ty Buckner (2.0) to start the afternoon. Wiley retired all six Pitt State hitters he faced, before Carson worked around a one-out walk in the third, and Buckner fanned three Gorillas in his two innings of work.

The key rally for the home club started with a trio of walks to load the bases with one out in the fifth, before Sam Faith coaxed another free base from Gorilla reliever Dante Richardson to force home the game's first run. Millas followed with a run-scoring single, before Polak unloaded on a Briley Buckley offering for an opposite-field grand slam that pushed the margin to six runs.

PSU responded with its first tally in the top of the sixth, following a familiar script by drawing four walks from MSU pitching. Greyson Pinkett scampered home on a Ben Cruikshank wild pitch, before Logan Thomazin halted the Gorilla threat with a bases-loaded strikeout to keep it a five-run game. Thomazin and Zach Gibbs provided shutdown relief for MSU, combining for 2.1 innings of hitless work, with Gibbs fanning the side in the eighth.

The Gorillas struck again for three runs in the ninth, using three consecutive hits—including Alex Achtermann's two-run triple—to pull to within four runs, before Reece Garvie doubled home another with a liner down the left field line.

Three straight singles from Sam Faith, Tommy Woods and Polak set up the Bears' ninth-inning rally. Anthony Herron's fly ball to left brought home a second run in the inning, before Ramos lifted his three-run shot into the MSU bullpen in left-center to end the contest.

Missouri State will continue its fall season Thursday (Oct. 4) with Game 1 of the Bears' annual Maroon and White Fall World Series, set for a 3 p.m. first pitch at Hammons Field.