Friday, March 23
Springfield, MO
1:00 p.m.
California State University at Northridge
9-12
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Missouri State
14-6
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9
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CSUN
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Missouri State
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Photo by: Samuel Ware
Missouri State Rallies Past CSUN
3/23/2018 4:14:00 PM | Baseball
SPRINGFIELD, Mo.---CSUN Baseball took a two-run lead into the eighth inning but Missouri State scored three times in the frame and held on for a 3-2 win on Friday afternoon at Hammons Field. Junior right hander Walker Armstrong tossed a pitching gem as he allowed three runs and no walks over eight innings to go along with a season-best nine strikeouts. Alex Hull came off the bench and delivered two hits while Albee Weiss drove in his 32nd RBI of the season.
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In what turned out to be an old-fashioned pitcher's duel, Armstrong and Dylan Coleman took turns recording zeroes on the scoreboard. Along with Armstrong, Coleman went eight innings and struck out 11 batters while surrendering just two runs on four hits.
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Scattering nine hits on the day, Armstrong got into trouble in the second inning but a timely defensive play behind him ended the threat. With runners at first and second base and two outs, Logan Geha stroked a single to right field. Jack Duffy tried to score from second on the play, however Joey Cooper delivered a strong throw to home plate. Trevor Casanova applied the tag on Duffy at the plate just in time for the third out.
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Armstrong worked around a two-out single in the third and a fielding error in the fourth to keep the Bears scoreless. He would also retire eight-straight batters over the middle innings.
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On the flip side, Coleman was just as brilliant on the mound. Coleman sat down 15 of the first 16 batters of the game including stranding Justin Toerner at second base in the second inning. At one point, Coleman retired 11 consecutive batters as the game remained 0-0 going to the sixth.
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Finally, the Matadors strung together hits in the sixth against Coleman to break up the scoreless contest. Brandon Bohning kicked off the frame with a single to right, and he later moved up to second base on a passed ball. After Cooper flied out, Bohning advanced to third base on a Coleman wild pitch. Casanova would draw a walk before Weiss roped a single to left to plate Bohning.
Alex Hull followed with a bunt single to move the runners up a base, but a run would come in on the play after a throwing error from Matt Brown. Coleman worked out of further trouble by retiring Nolan Bumstead to end the inning.Â
Armstrong pitched his way into the eighth inning with a 2-0 lead but the Bears were far from done. After consecutive singles to start the frame, Jeremy Eierman hit an RBI double to cut the CSUN lead to a run. Armstrong retired the next batter but Ben Whetstone came up with the hit of the day, a two-run single that gave Missouri State a 3-2 advantage. The Matador right hander rallied to retire the next two batters in a row to keep CSUN within a run heading to the ninth.Â
In the top of the ninth, the Matadors would not go away quietly as Hull and Bumstead reached on back-to-back one-out singles. However, Bears' reliever Connor Sechler sat down Michael Russo on a groundout and Kevin Riley on a fly ball to save the game for his team.Â
With a single in the second, Toerner has now reached base safely in 10 consecutive games. Weiss has also hit safely in seven-straight games, and the slugger has driven in six runs on the Matadors' road trip.Â
CSUNÂ continues a three-game series with Missouri State on Saturday. First pitch is slated for noon (PST).Â
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Coleman,D. (4-1)
L: Armstrong, Walker (1-1)
S: Sechler,C. (1)
Batting:
RBI: Weiss, Albee 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Casanova, Trevor 1 ; Bohning, Brandon 1
SB: Toerner, Justin 1
Batting:
2B: Eierman,J. 1
RBI: Eierman,J. 1 ; Whetstone,B. 2
Base Running:
RUNS: Steinmetz,H. 1 ; Eierman,J. 1 ; Privitera,J. 1
Game Leaders
AB
4
R
0
H
1
RBI
1
AB
1
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
AB
4
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
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