Matadors Drop Series Finale at Missouri State

SPRINGFIELD, Mo.---Senior Albee Weiss homered for a career-high 12th time this season but it would not be enough as Missouri State defeated CSUN Baseball (9-14) 8-2 on Sunday afternoon at Hammons Field. Weiss' home run total is the most for a Matador in a single season since 2010. The Matador slugger also notched his 34th career home run, tying Denny Vigo for sixth all time in CSUN history.

The Bears would be led on Sunday by Jeremy Eierman who drove in seven of his team's eight runs. After Matt Acosta retired six of the first seven batters of the game, Acosta ran into trouble in the third. Two of the first three Bears batters reached on singles before Eierman belted a three-run home run off Acosta to put his team on top 3-0.

An inning later, Acosta walked Hunter Steinmetz with two runners on base and two outs to load the bases. Eierman stepped to the plate and delivered a grand slam over the left center field wall to break the game wide open and give the Bears a 7-0 advantage.

The Matadors faced strong pitching for the third-straight day as right hander Logan Wiley shut out CSUN through the first five innings. However, the Matadors had base runners in three of those frames but were unable to push across any runs.

CSUN threatened in the top of the first inning after Joey Cooper hit a leadoff single and Weiss was hit by a pitch. Wiley though received a timely 4-6-3 double play to end the frame. Wiley pitched around a two-out single in the second, and stranded a runner at first base in the top of the fifth.

Finally, the Matadors broke through in the sixth inning, ending Wiley's shutout bid. Trevor Casanova worked the count full before stroking a single up the middle. Two pitches later, Weiss hammered a two-run shot over the left field wall to bring the Matadors within 7-2.

Wiley pitched his final scoreless frame in the seventh, working around a two-out base runner. On the day, Wiley went 7.0 innings and allowed five hits.

CSUN's bullpen entered in the fifth and held the Bears to one run over the final four innings. Isaiah Nunez allowed a run over 2.1 innings including retiring seven of eight batters at one point. Blake Schriever recorded the final two outs of the seventh as he left the bases loaded in the frame. Theron Kay came on in the eighth, and sat down three of the four batters he faced in a shutout inning.

For Missouri State, Nate Witherspoon worked a clean eighth and Matt Russell tossed a scoreless ninth to secure the series sweep.

The Matadors will have one more tune up before the start of Big West play next weekend. CSUN will host CSU Bakersfield, looking for the season sweep, in a non-conference contest on Tuesday at Matador Field. First pitch is slated for 2 p.m. The game will air live on the CSUN Sports Network presented by Dignity Health with Ross Porter on the call. Coverage will start at 1:45 p.m.

Matadors Drop Series Finale at Missouri State

Next Event

Team Stats

Joey Cooper

Trevor Casanova

Albee Weiss

Riley Conlan

Players Mentioned

Matt Acosta

Trevor Casanova

Joey Cooper

Theron Kay

Isaiah Nunez

Blake Schriever

Albee Weiss