Missouri Baseball Falls 10-3 to San Diego State
Just a day after Missouri softball recorded their first loss of the season to the San Diego State Aztecs, Missouri baseball followed suit with their second.
What began as rough starts from both pitchers ended up as a pitchers duel for a good portion of the game. Unfortunately for the Tigers, they were already losing by this point. Six of the runs were scored against Missouri came in the first three innings.
Missouri took advantage of Chris Canada's pitching in the first inning, but not with their bats. After multiple high strike-out Missouri practiced patience to earn two walks and a hit by pitch to load the bases. A wild pitch then allowed the Tigers to take the first lead. A very brief lead.
But Missouri's Bryce Mayer had a much worse start to the game. Shortly after loading the bases, the Aztecs Colby Turner hit a bases clearing double down the left field line to put SDSU up by four early in the game.
Canada seemed to recover after the first inning, but Mayer was not able to. He followed up a four-run first with two more runs in the second before he was finally able to get out of it.
Apparently, Canada didn't recover enough. He gave up another run in the third, so the Aztecs switched him out for a faster-throwing Jacob Riordan. Which didn't go well originally and SDSU let in another run.
It did work out well for them in the long run. Riordan pitched 4.2 scoreless innings, striking out six and giving up five hits. The Tigers were able to put on some baserunners, but couldn't seem to get them home. Missouri went five innings without scoring a run.
Missouri had a chance to switch the momentum with two on and left fielder Thomas Curry up to bat, but weren't able to pull through. Where the players left on base didn't hurt Missouri in the game against CSU Bakersfield, they really hurt in this game. Missouri stranded 12.
Mayer's pitching after the disastrous second got the job done. He tossed three scoreless frames, retiring 12 straight batters. Missouri swapped Mayer out for Kaden Jacobi, who gave up four runs before the Tigers went back to the bullpen three more times.
Josh McDevitt and Victor Quinn both made their Tiger debuts. McDevitt struck out three batters in one inning of work with a walk and a hit, while Quinn also put up a scoreless frame.
With runners on and two outs, Missouri frequently wasn't able to get the final out. The Tigers allowed six runs to score while they were in that situation. Missouri just wasn't able to stop the bleeding with the Aztec's offense, allowing three doubles and a triple in the game.
In their loss, Missouri was only able to get off six hits compared to San Diego State's 11. The Tigers also continued to struggle with striking out, piling up 11 in 31 at-bats.
On the bright side, Missouri was finally able to record their first game of the season without an error committed.
Missouri drops to a 3-2 record and will look to redeem themselves against UC San Diego in their doubleheader on Feb. 24 at 3 p.m. CT and 6:30 p.m. CT.
