SPRINGFIELD — Missouri State scored seven times in the bottom of the eighth inning en route to a 12-5 victory in the opening contest of a three-game series with Wichita State Saturday afternoon at Hammons Field. Jeremy Eierman’s sacrifice fly snapped a 5-5 tie and capped a 2-for-3 day at the plate that included a go-ahead two-run homer for the MSU sophomore, who helped the Bears improve to 7-0 in Missouri Valley Conference play with their fourth-consecutive win.
The Bears (25-13, 7-0 MVC) mounted their key rally with some help from three different WSU relievers in the eighth, as eight of the first nine MSU hitters reached base safely. Walks to Hunter Steinmetz and Jake Burger sandwiched a hit batsman to load the bases for Eierman, who lofted a fly ball into shallow left-center field, giving Steinmetz time to score from third with what would prove to be the game-winning run.
Aaron Meyer followed with his third hit of the game—a run-scoring single through the right side of the Shocker infield—before Blake Graham lined an RBI double to right to make it an 8-5 game. After one of WSU’s three wild pitches in the inning plated a fourth run, Landan Ruff squeezed home another for the Bears and Drew Millas drove in his second and third runs of the day with a base hit up the middle.
Jake Fromson (5-3) picked up his second straight win in relief for MSU after striking out four Shockers and holding the visitors to a single run on three hits over his 2 1/3 innings. The win marked the Bears’ 11th consecutive regular-season MVC victory and moved them to within one win of matching both their best-ever opening stretch in Valley play and their longest MVC win streak, both of which occurred in 1994 courtesy of MSU’s 8-0 league start.
But the Bears’ 25th victory of the season would not come easily, as the two clubs combined to trade the lead four times over the game’s first seven innings. The Shockers (18-19, 3-4 MVC) grabbed the upper hand with a two-run second, sparked by designated hitter Willie Schwanke’s leadoff home run.
MSU starting pitcher Jordan Knutson recovered to retire the next two WSU hitters, before Trey Vickers singled to kick off a stretch that would see four consecutive Shocker hitters reach safely. Knutson dealt back-to-back walks to the No. 8 and 9 hitters in the WSU order, Dayton Dugas and Jordan Boyer, then plunked Greyson Jenista with the bases loaded to force home the second run of the inning.
The Bears responded with a run of their own in the bottom of the second, using back-to-back walks and a passed ball to set up Millas’s RBI single.
Shocker starter Zach Lewis would work his way out of trouble in the second, however, stranding a pair of Bears in scoring position to maintain WSU’s one-run lead. The Bears left a total of nine men on base over the first five frames, including the fifth when they stranded runners on every base after an RBI single by Meyer and a bases-loaded walk to Matt Brown handed them a 3-2 lead.
Wichita State promptly answered the MSU rally, striking for two runs in the top of the sixth via the first of Alec Bohm’s two homers on the day—a solo shot to right. A pair of wild pitches on third strikes extended the inning, before a two-out passed ball allowed Schwanke to trot home from third with the go-ahead run.
But the Bears would bounce back with a two-out strike of their own in the home half, using a walk to Burger following what appeared to be a momentum-swinging 1-6-3 double-play ball that erased Steinmetz’s leadoff single. Eierman made WSU reliever Chandler Sanburn pay, driving a first-pitch, two-run shot over the left-center field wall for his 15th home run of the season and a 5-4 MSU lead.
Bohm neutralized Eierman’s blast with his second round-tripper of the day—this one a two-out drive into the Bears’ bullpen in left—to level the score once again.
Millas’s three RBIs represented a career high for the freshman catcher, while his three hits matched his previous personal best as a Bear. Burger (1-for-3) scored three runs and has now crossed the plate 12 times during the Bears’ four-game win streak, while Meyer drove in a pair with his 3-for-5 afternoon.
The Bears and Shockers will meet again Sunday afternoon for a 1 p.m. doubleheader to conclude their three-game set.
