CONWAY, Ark. – Freshman right-hander Hayden Minton stymied Central Arkansas' lineup for six frames, and fellow rookie Drake Baldwin's first home run as a Bear sparked Missouri State's three-run, seventh-inning rally that paved the way to a 6-2 victory Saturday afternoon at Bear Stadium.
Held to one run through the first six innings, the Bears (2-0) snapped a 1-1 tie on Baldwin's solo shot to lead off the seventh, then--thanks in large part to key homers by Logan Geha and Dakota Kotowski—added four more runs against the UCA bullpen over the final three innings to claim the season-opening series.
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Minton (1-0) logged the second lock-down mound performance by a Bears starter in as many days, holding the home-standing Bears (0-2) to one run on two hits, while fanning four and issuing three walks in his 6.0 innings of work in his collegiate debut. Ben Ayala's leadoff home run in the second put UCA on the scoreboard for the first time in 2020 and erased an early 1-0 MSU lead. But Minton gave up little else from that point, as the Oklahoma native worked around walks in the third and fourth innings with the help of a pair of double-play grounders and retired eight of the final nine hitters he faced to keep the game deadlocked at 1-1 through the sixth inning.
Following Ayala's first career homer, UCA would go hitless until the bottom of the seventh when Connor Emmet and Ayala delivered back-to-back singles against MSU's Nick Schmidt. By that time, Baldwin had put MSU back in front by driving a 2-1 offering from Tyler Cleveland (0-1) over the wall in right-center to open the top half of the seventh. Mason Hull coaxed a walk to keep the rally going, and Geha made his first hit of the season count by drilling a two-out, two-run homer to left to hike the Bears' cushion to 4-1.
After sophomore reliever Trey Ziegenbein worked the Bears out of trouble in the seventh by striking out a pair of batters, Kotowski launched a long home run down the left-field line to start the eighth. Kotowski produced the Bears' first run of the afternoon with a two-out RBI single in the first and capped his second two-hit game in as many days against UCA with his 13th homer as a Bear.
MSU tacked on an insurance run in the top of the ninth, using a John Privitera single, a double steal and a throwing error into another tally.
Despite a ninth-inning UCA rally that saw the Bears scratch out three hits and eventually bring the potential tying run to the plate, Hayden Juenger finished off the victory with a pair of strikeouts to leave the bases loaded.
Jack Duffy paced the Bears' 10-hit attack with a 3-for-4 day at the plate, while Kotowski finished the game 2-for-4 with a pair of RBIs. Ziegenbein logged 2.0 shutout innings of relief, striking out three hitters and allowing just one hit.
Emmet and Ayala led UCA with two-hit games, while starting pitcher Noah Cameron struck out five and permitted just one run on five hits in 6.0 innings.
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MSU and UCA will conclude the weekend with another 1 p.m. contest Sunday.
