Missouri State snapped its longest losing streak in nearly two years with a 2-0 victory over Central Michigan Thursday evening in the opening bout of a three-game series at Hammons Field. Jordan Hovey’s one-out, RBI triple in the bottom of the eighth inning broke up a scoreless pitcher’s duel, as three MSU hurlers combined on a four-hit shutout to end the Bears’ (20-5) three-game slide.
MSU starter Jordan Knutson carried the heaviest load, striking out a career-high 10 batters while allowing just four singles over his 7 2/3 shutout frames. Sam Perez (5-0) picked up his 14th victory since the beginning of the 2015 season with a scoreless one-third of an inning, before Bryan Young locked down the Bears’ second shutout and his eighth save of the year with a perfect ninth inning.
With the game still scoreless and pinch runner Landan Ruff on second, Hovey’s clutch line drive on a 2-2 pitch from CMU’s Jordan Grosjean landed just inside the first-base bag before finding its way into the right field corner to chase home the game’s first tally. Aaron Meyer followed with a run-scoring single to center to account for the final two-run margin, extending his career-best hit streak to 17 games in the process
Young then retired Alex Borglin on a fly ball to center before coaxing back-to-back grounders to second to end the contest and secure his 24th save as a Bear.
But the Bears’ 20th victory of the season did not come without a few tense moments. Missouri State’s struggles hitting with men on base continued in the early stages of the contest, as the Bears put runners in scoring position in four of the first five innings, only to come up empty each time. Hunter Steinmetz’s doubled to left to start the home half of the first, but CMU starter Sean Renzi retired the next three MSU hitters, getting key strikeouts of Spencer Johnson and Justin Paulsen to keep the Bears off the scoreboard. Back-to-back walks to Blake Graham and Matt Fultz started the second, but once again Renzi sat down three in a row.
Fultz’s one-out single to right set up another scoring threat for MSU in the fourth, as Alex Jefferson drove the first of his two base hits on the night through the right side to put runners on the corners with two men out. But Renzi froze Jeremy Eierman with a called third strike to once again thwart the Bears’ threat.
Knutson, meanwhile, worked his way out of minor trouble in the first two frames, using inning-ending ground balls to strand a runner in the first and two more in the second. The junior would find his groove in the middle innings, striking out a pair in the fourth as part of a 1-2-3 inning, then working around a one-out hit in the fifth. The lefty picked up steam in the seventh as well, striking out the side to nullify a one-out walk to Joe Houlihan.
In the eighth, Knuston allowed a leadoff single Zach McKinstry, but Fultz would gun down the runner attempting to steal second, and Daniel Robinson popped for the second out. Perez then took over for Knutson and promptly fanned Chippewa cleanup man Daniel Jipping for the final out.
Like Meyer, Steinmetz also extended a personal-best hit streak to 17 games with his first-inning double, and Jefferson finished 2-for-3 as the lone Bear to log a multi-hit game.
Renzi (2-3) suffered the tough-luck loss for CMU (5-21) after working 7.0 innings and allowing just one run on five hits and four walks while striking out seven Bears. McKinstry went 2-for-4, and Houlihan drew three walks from Knutson to lead the Chippewas at the dish.
The Bears and Chippewas renew their series Friday (April 1) with another 6:35 p.m. contest, before wrapping up the weekend with a 2:05 p.m. game Saturday.
