STILLWATER, Okla. – Missouri State and Oklahoma State played the highest-scoring game in NCAA Tournament history Sunday afternoon at O’Brate Stadium with the No. 7 national seed Cowboys coming away with a 29-15 victory.
The Bears conclude their season with a 12th NCAA Tournament appearance and 31-29 overall record and have at least one victory in each of their last 10 postseason trips.
Missouri State’s bats continued a torrid season-ending stretch with six more home runs Sunday, giving the Bears 31 in their last nine games and 110 on the season, good for second in school and fifth in Missouri Valley Conference history and the most by any league team since 1999.
It was all Missouri State early with a nine-run second inning that included a two-run double from Grant Wood, three-run double from Drake Baldwin and grand slam by Cam Cratic.
Will Duff and Baldwin homered in the third inning to make it 12-0, and Ty Buckner carried a shutout into the fourth in his second career NCAA Tournament start before OSU ended his 16.1-inning scoreless streak during a six-run fourth.
Wood hit a solo homer in the fourth and Baldwin added another in the fifth, and OSU went ahead for good with a seven-run sixth to lead 17-14.
Spencer Nivens swatted his 11th homer of the year in the seventh, and Oklahoma State reliever Trevor Martin pitched the final 6.2 innings and struck out 16.
End of season notes:
Missouri State played in the NCAA Tournament for the 12th time in its Division I history and fourth in the last eight seasons…MSU has won at least one game in each of its last 10 NCAA appearances…The Bears hit 110 home runs, second in school history and fifth in MVC history with the most long balls for an MVC program since 1999…The Bears had six players with 40-plus RBI and five with 50-plus RBI for the first time since 1999…Dakota Kotowski’s 24 home runs rank fifth on the MSU single season list while his 44 long balls are seventh on the career list…Missouri State’s .507 slugging percentage was the school’s best since 1999…Adam Link tied MSU’s single-season record with 17 starts on the mound…Drake Baldwin drove in 70 runs to tie for seventh on MSU’s single-season list…Mason Greer finished with 21 doubles, the most for an MSU player since 2015, tying for seventh on the single-season list…Trey Ziegenbein’s 33 appearances rank third in school history for a season, and his 73 career appearances rank eighth…Spencer Nivens scored 70 runs to rank seventh in MSU history for a season and drew 44 walks to rank sixth…Will Duff was hit by 15 pitches on the season to rank seventh in school history, while Grant Wood and Drake Baldwin occupy the next two spots with 13 and 12, respectively.
