By: Wichita State
Box Score SPRINGFIELD, Mo.- Wichita State (34-9, 13-2) swept a three-game series at Missouri State (19-21, 4-8) with an 11-6 win on Sunday in Springfield, Mo.
Wichita State wasted no time, scoring in the first inning for only the 10th time in 43 games. Damon Sublett singled through the right side to lead off the game and continued to second on a stolen base. Conor Gillaspie drove in the runner with a looped single to left-center, but was thrown out stretching to second.
Matt Brown hit his team-leading seventh homerun to straight away centerfield to put the Shockers up by two in the second inning.
WSU did not let up in the third, as Ryan Jones drew a lead-off walk, advanced to second on a rip from Sublett and scored on a sharp ground ball from Andy Dirks. Danny Jackson cleared the bases with a two RBI homerun that easily sailed 400+ feet over left-center.
Wichita State starter Rob Musgrave retired the first six batters in a row. The junior left-hander struck out the side in the second with 10 pitches. The Carbondale, Kan. native allowed a lead-off double in the third and a second runner got on board via an error. Musgrave struck out Tanner Mattson, then Matt Lawson lined into a double-play that caught Chris Taylor off of first to get the Shockers out of trouble.
The Bears went down in order in the fourth and Gillaspie was busy in the fifth, contributing to all three outs.
Back-to-back homeruns by Jackson and Tyler Weber added three runs in the fifth, making it 8-0. Josh Workman contributed a lead-off homerun in the sixth before reliever Austin Todd retired the Shockers in order.
Missouri State got on the board with five runs in the bottom of the sixth. Mattson walked and Lawson reached on an error before both men moved up a base on a wild pitch. Nolan Keane singled between third base and shortstop to plate Mattson and Kyle Paul hit an RBI single to left to bring Lawson home. Brayden Drake then singled to load the bases with one out and reliever Anthony Capra issued a four-pitch walk to Shane Elenz for the Bears' third run of the frame. Chris Taylor blooped a two-run single to right to score Paul and Drake.
The Shockers answered in the seventh, getting a two-run single from Brown to push the advantage back to six runs.
With two outs in the eighth, Elenz homered over center field, ending 3-for-3 on the day and a triple short of hitting for the cycle.
That pushed it to 11-6, but Noah Krol sat down the Bears in order to close the ninth with two strike outs and a fly out. Capra went 2.2 innings, allowing one earned run on two hits and two walks with four strikeouts. Musgrave (7-0) picked up his seventh win of the year, giving up five runs, but only one earned in 5.1 innings of work. He scattered five hits and walked only one while striking out a season-high seven.
MSU freshman starter Tim Clubb (4-3) suffered the loss allowing five earned runs in three innings.
The Shockers mid-week schedule features Kansas State at home Tuesday at 7 p.m. Wichita State then travels to Arkansas to take on the Razorbacks Wednesday at 7 p.m. in Fayetteville. Both games can be heard live on KNSS 1330 and Wednesday's game will be broadcast on Kansas Now 22.
-Wichita State-
