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After needing late rallies to post comeback victories in each of its first three outings on its current home stand, Missouri State seized the lead in the first inning Saturday at Hammons Field and never looked back, cruising to a 5-0 victory over CSUN behind a combined four-hit effort from Ty Buckner and Jake Fromson that extended the Bears’ win streak to four games.
Buckner (2-2) held the Matadors to three singles over 5 2/3 innings, before Fromson slammed the door shut with 3.1 innings of one-hit relief to lock up the Bears’ first shutout of the season. The duo allowed just three CSUN baserunners to reach scoring position and fanned eight hitters overall.
The Bears (15-6) wouldn’t need to register their 10th come-from-behind win of the season in game two of the series, as Drew Millas launched a two-run homer over the berm in left field to stake Buckner to a 2-0, first-inning lead. MSU stretched the margin to three runs in the second when a hit batsman and a John Privitera infield single set up another scoring chance. With one out, Hunter Steinmetz narrowly beat the throw to first on the back end of a double-play attempt, allowing Matt Brown to score from third for a 3-0 Bears cushion.
Despite allowing at least one CSUN baserunner in each of the first six innings, Buckner was in command throughout. The freshman right-hander navigated his way out of the first by inducing an inning-ending double play following a one-out single by Trevor Casanova. He did the same in the second, getting Alex Hull to strike out, then retiring Kevin Riley on a fly ball to center after Michael Russo singled.
Buckner’s biggest challenge arrived in the third when, after getting the first two batters of the inning, he hit Joey Cooper with a pitch, then issued a walk to Casanova to bring the potential tying run to the plate in the form of NCAA Division I home run leader Albee Weiss. But Buckner calmly escaped the threat by retiring Weiss on a line drive to Steinmetz in center to keep the visitors off the scoreboard.
The Bears faced another two-on, two-out threat following back-to-back walks to Russo and Hull in the top of the sixth. Fromson rose to the occasion, coaxing an inning-ending liner to short off the bat of Kyle Barret, starting a stretch that saw the senior reliever retire the first nine CSUN hitters he faced.
After Ryan Skalnik drew one of his three walks and swiped second in the home half of the sixth, a CSUN error on a Ben Whetstone single allowed an unearned run to cross the plate and push the MSU lead to four runs. Steinmetz delivered his second RBI of the afternoon in the seventh, scorching a double off the wall in right to bring in Privitera for a 5-0 advantage.
Cassius Hamm turned in 4.2 innings of solid relief work for the Matadors (9-13), allowing two runs (one earned) on three hits while striking out three Bears. CSUN starter Wesley Moore (1-4) was tagged with the loss after surrendering Millas’s second home run of the season in his lone inning of work.
On the strength of his three bases on balls, Skalnik reached safely in three of his four plate appearances, complementing two-RBI days by Steinmetz and Millas.
MSU and CSUN will conclude their three-game series Sunday (March 25) with a Noon contest at Hammons.
