Baseball gets a win in Arizona

Posted to Sports Blog by JJ Stankevitz at 8:59 p.m., March 1, 2009

Not all was lost for Missouri athletics on Sunday. While the Mizzou basketball team was railroaded in disappointing fashion against Kansas, the No. 15 Mizzou baseball team ended a seven-game losing streak by defeating No. 8 Arizona State 5-2 in eight innings to end a nine-game swing in Arizona. The game was called after eight innings due to time restrictions put in place because of travel arrangements.

After being lit up for six earned runs on 11 hits in four innings in his last start, Nick Tepesch rebounded nicely by tossing 6.1 innings of one-run ball against the Sun Devils. Tepesch struck out a career-high eight batters while allowing six hits and two walks while getting a no-decision on the day.

Arizona State led the game 1-0 through six innings before Missouri scored a combined five runs in the final two innings of the game. A bases-loaded double play allowed Aaron Senne to score the first run of the game for Missouri in the top of the seventh, and that was followed later in the inning by a Michael Liberto single that gave Missouri a 2-1 lead.

The Sun Devils tied the game at two in the bottom of the inning, but a three-run eighth put the game away for Missouri. An RBI double by Ryan Lollis was quickly followed by a two-run home run off the bat of Trevor Coleman to give Missouri a quick three-run lead heading into the bottom of the eighth.

Ryan Clark was brought out of the bullpen to begin the inning, but after walking the first two batters he faced, Clark was replaced by Scooter Hicks, who got the final three outs and the save on a strikeout, flyout and foulout.

The win ended a seven-game losing streak, the program’s worst winless streak since a nine-game skid from April 1-16, 2006. Missouri previously dropped games to Arizona State (Feb. 26, 2-1), Oregon State (Feb. 27, 12-8), and Northern Illinois (Feb. 28, 5-2) at the Arizona State Tournament before defeating Arizona State March 1.