EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Evansville’s Kenton Deverman kept Missouri State’s offense in check with a complete-game four-hitter Friday at Braun Stadium to give the Purple Aces a 4-1 win in the opener of the Missouri Valley Conference series.
Deverman (6-1) struck out six against four hits and two walks to out-duel MSU ace Brandt Thompson (5-1), who completed six inning swith seven strikeouts while yielding three runs on five hits in his first losing decision of the season.
The Bears (17-23, 6-10 MVC) broke up a scoreless tie in the fifth as Nick Rodriguez hit a leadoff single to extend his streak of reaching safely to 21 games and scored on a Dylan Leach single.
Evansville’s leadoff man was hit by a pitch in the bottom half and came around to score the tying run, and the Aces (23-18, 11-5) used a solo homer followed by a single and RBI double to make it 3-1 after six.
The Aces opened the seventh with a double that later scored to make it 4-1.
No MSU batter recorded multiple hits. Stephen Schissler and Reed Metz each tossed scoreless innings in relief. The last seven outs recorded by Schissler in his last two appearances have been strikeouts.
The series continues at 2 p.m. Saturday.
