Box Score

SPRINGFIELD, Mo.- Wichita State lost 5-2 to Missouri State in the first round of the Missouri Valley Conference Baseball Tournament.  The Shockers will next play Southern Illinois at 11 a.m. on Thursday.

 

Wichita State suffered its first loss to the Bears since 2003. Starter Travis Banwart fell to 9-5 on the season, giving up five earned runs on nine hits and one walk, while striking out three.

 

Missouri State reliever Buddy Baumann earned his first win and moved to 1-3.

 

Wichita State took advantage of Ross Detwiler's wildness in the first inning. With one out, Derek Schermerhorn drove one up the middle for a base hit. Detwiler then lost control, hitting Damon Sublett in the back with a pitch and issuing back-to-back walks to Conor Gillaspie and Tyler Weber, pushing across the Shockers' first run.

 

WSU again took advantage of a walk in the second. Dusty Coleman led off the inning with the free pass and Blake Hurlbutt laid down a sacrifice bunt, advancing the runner to second. Coleman moved up on a ground ball from Andy Dirks and came around with a Gillaspie double. Sublett continued with a single to shallow right field, but Gillaspie was thrown out at home to end the inning.

 

The Shockers may have chased away starter Detwiler in three innings, but it was all Missouri State from there.

 

“They out-played, out-pitched and out-performed us,” said head coach Gene Stephenson. “They got hits when they needed them the most.”

 

The Bears got one back in the top of the third after a lead-off triple by Kyle Paul. Ben Carlson drove in the run with a single through the right side.

 

MSU's Josh Mazzola got to third on a sacrifice bunt and fly ball, after a single in the right-center gap. But Banwart struck out Paul to leave the runner stranded in the fourth.

 

Missouri State came back to knot it at two in the fifth. Carlson was hit by a pitch and Ben Woodbury laid down a bunt that rolled in between home and the pitcher's mound for a base hit. A sacrifice bunt moved both runners to scoring position and Carlson crossed on a ground ball by Nolan Keane.

 

The Bears roughed up Banwart with three singles in the sixth inning before Noah Booth took over on the mound. The third single, a line drive by Paul, gave MSU its first lead, 3-2. Booth came in and struck out Carlson, but gave up consecutive singles that allowed two more runs before getting Keane for the third out.

 

Andy Womack pitched two solid, hitless innings at the end of the game and struck out three of the seven batters he faced.

 

-Wichita State-