TULSA, Okla. – Missouri State seized control of a back-and-forth contest on Ryan Skalnik’s three-run double and a shutdown effort from its bullpen to earn a 9-5 victory over Oral Roberts Tuesday afternoon at J.L. Johnson Stadium.
Trailing 5-3 in the top of the fifth moments after the Golden Eagles (3-1) had erased a 3-0 deficit, Skalnik — an Owasso, Okla., native — blasted a two-strike offering into the left-center field gap to chase home all three baserunners and turn the tide in the Bears’ direction for good.
Led by a career-best 4-for-5 day from Justin Paulsen, the Bears (3-1) added a pair of runs in the seventh and a single tally in the eighth to pull away for their third win in their first four games of the 2017 season. Paulsen scored three runs and drove home another with hits in each of the Bears’ four scoring rallies.
Junior reliever Trey Turner and senior All-American Bryan Young would slam the door with 4 1/3 innings of shutdown relief, allowing just two harmless seventh-inning walks while combining for five strikeouts. Turner (1-0) earned the victory in his first mound appearance as a Bear, as the MSU bullpen ran its streak of consecutive innings without allowing an earned run to 13.2 to start the new season.
After three scoreless innings to start the afternoon, the Bears broke on top with a three-run fourth thanks to key hits by Drew Millas and Hunter Steinmetz. Paulsen started the rally by stroking a leadoff single to right, before a Blake Graham walk set up Millas’s run-scoring single through the right side. ORU reliever Bill Lovvorn recovered to strike out Jack Duffy for the second out, but Steinmetz snapped an 0-for-8 dry spell at the plate by driving a 1-0 offering off the wall in right to bring in two more runs for a 3-0 MSU lead.
ORU began chipping away at the lead with one out in the home half of the fourth, when Noah Cummings launched a solo shot over the wall in right-center to make it a 3-1 game.
MSU starter Dylan Coleman retired the final two batters of the inning in order to preserve the two-run cushion, but only temporarily. Trevor McCutchin’s double to start the fifth set the wheels in motion for ORU, which would ultimately send 10 batters to the plate en route to a four-run outburst. Coleman compounded the situation by firing wildly to third on a come-backer, then uncorking a wild pitch on his seventh strikeout of the game to bring the first tally of the rally home.
Sophomore reliever Jake Lochner’s first offering skipped past Millas to allow the tying run to cross the plate, and Matt Whatley singled to left with two out to bring home the go-ahead run. After a steal of second, Cummings delivered an RBI single to make it a 5-3 ORU advantage.
But the Bears rebounded in a big way, answering the Golden Eagles rally with another three-spot in the fifth to reclaim the upper hand. Paulsen got the ball rolling with another leadoff hit, before Graham drew a free pass and Aaron Meyer singled to load the bases. With one out, Skalnik worked the count to 2-2, the pounced on McCutchin’s next offering for a bases-clearing double into the gap in left-center and a 6-5 Bears’ lead.
Paulsen would continue his assault on the ORU pitching staff, doubling to set up Meyer’s two-run single that made it an 8-5 game in the seventh, then singling home a run the following frame to eclipse his previous career high for hits in a game.
Meyer finished the day 2-for-4 with a run scored and two RBIs, while Graham reached base via walks three different times and scored twice.
Cummings led ORU with a 3-for-4 day, finishing just a triple shy of hitting for the cycle.
The Bears return to the road Friday (Feb. 24), when they open play in the Mule Mix Classic with a 4 p.m. contest against Belmont in Nashville, Tenn.
