SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – New Orleans scored 12 times in the top of the fifth inning to overcome an early Missouri State onslaught and salvage the final game of the two clubs' series at Hammons Field with a 20-12 victory over the Bears Saturday afternoon.
Trailing 9-8 entering the fifth, the Privateers (19-21) took advantage of a six-hit barrage, coupled with three walks, two MSU miscues and a pair of hit batsman to score nine unearned runs as part of their decisive rally. Pearce Howard's sacrifice fly tied the game, and Gaige Howard's two-run single put UNO—which had watched two separate leads evaporate in the first three innings—on top to stay.
Salo Iza added a run-scoring double off
Peyton Carson, before Darren Willis and Wade Raburn tacked on RBI singles. Pearce Howard followed with his second hit of the inning—a two-run single—and Luther Woullard drove in two more with a double to right-center. The second Bears error of the inning extended the rally and plated the 20th and final UNO run of the contest.
The Privateers' 20 runs eclipsed the Hammons Field single-game record of 18 runs scored by the Bears against Kansas on April 6, 2016. UNO's run total marked just the third 20-run game allowed by a Missouri State pitching staff in the last 22 years since Rice set a Bears' opponent record with a 25-run outburst at the 1997 NCAA Central Regional.
Missouri State (13-26) posted a big inning of its own to seize an early 7-3 advantage, scoring seven times in the second inning to negate a three-run rally by the Privateers in the first. A two-run homer from
Joey Polak opened the scoring for MSU, before the first of
Logan Geha's three hits on the day sparked the offense once again. A walk to
Mason Hull and a
Jack Duffy single knotted the score at 3-3, and
Ben Whetstone's base hit to right-center handed the Bears their first lead.
Drew Millas added a single, then swiped second as UNO catcher Beau Bratton mishandled the pitch for a passed ball that allowed Whetstone to score from third.
Jordan Fitzpatrick's sac fly to right brought in Millas to hand the Bears a four-run cushion.
UNO answered in the third, however, cashing in on five consecutive walks from MSU pitching to force home the first four runs of its rally, leveling the score once again. Raburn, who finished the day 2-for-5 with two RBIs and three runs scored, added a sacrifice fly to plate Antonio Gauthier with the go-ahead run.
The Bears responded with a two-run rally of their own in the home half of the third, using singles from Geha and
John Privitera, as well as a Hull sac fly and a run-scoring single by Millas to reclaim the lead at 9-8.
But
Nick Schmidt (0-3) ran into immediate trouble to open the fifth, hitting two of the first three hitters. A Hull error on a chopper to short compounded the inning and set up Howard's two-run single that flipped the score in UNO's favor. Seven-straight Privateer hitters would reach base, scoring a total of eight runs, after Carson fanned Bratton for the second out in the inning.
MSU claimed three of those runs back on Whetstone's three-run blast to right-center—his third homer in the Bears' last four contests—in the bottom of the fifth.
That would be the last offense for either club, as MSU's
Logan Thomazin held UNO to one hit over 4.0 shutout innings, and Privateer closer Reeves Martin logged three hitless frames to lock up his 11th save.
Duffy registered the first four-hit game of his MSU career, finishing the day 4-for-6 with an RBI, a steal and a pair of runs scored. Whetstone logged his sixth multi-hit game during a career-best 13-game hit streak, going 2-for-4 with a career-best four RBIs, while Privateera notched his second-straight two-hit effort and scored three runs.
UNO benefited from Gaige Howard's three-hit, four-RBI afternoon, while Woullard and Pearce Howard each drove in three runs apiece to pace the Privateer offense.
Missouri State will travel to Columbia, Mo., for a Tuesday (April 23) non-conference contest against Missouri. First pitch from Taylor Stadium is scheduled for 6 p.m.
