A Grand Slam Propels Missouri Baseball to a Series Sweep of Missouri State

One week after the Tigers took a 6-2 win in Springfield, Missouri outscored the Bears 10-6 at home.

A pitching change on Missouri State's part worked in the favor of Missouri. A few more kept it going.

The Tigers worked through eight of the Bears pitchers in the game and hit their way to a 10-6 win for a home and home series sweep. Missouri freshman catcher Mateo Serna's put up half of the runs in the game with two swings of his bat.

After two innings with no hits on Missouri's part, the Bears went to the bullpen for the first time in the game. The Tigers went on to put up three singles and have a hit-by-pitch to bring two runners across the plate in the bottom of the third and run the pitcher off the mound in less than one inning of work.

To continue the offensive performance, junior first basemen Danny Corona stepped up to the plate in the fourth inning and hit his first home run as a Tiger. The solo shot went dead center to put the Tigers up 3-0.

Missouri's next runs also came across with the help of a home run. This one was a grand slam from freshman catcher Mateo Serna that pushed the run deficit to five. He has now homered in back-to-back games against Missouri State.

Senior third baseman Trevor Austin had led off the inning with a double and then back-to-back walks loaded the bases. They all came home with Serna's home run and then the Tigers loaded them once more with two more walks and a fielding error. Sophomore left fielder Brock Daniels brought two home with a single. All of their offensive production came with no outs in the inning.

Missouri went back to work in the bottom of the seventh inning to plate two more runners with a walk, a single and Serna's fifth RBI of the game. Serna reached a career high in runs batted in during the game.

Despite allowing hits in each of the first four innings, Missouri's starting pitcher, junior Bryce Mayer kept the opponents off the board. He recorded his first scoreless start through four innings and put up six strikeouts.

In relief for Mayer, sophomore Daniel Wissler tossed a clean fifth inning and sent the Bears back down in order. He then ran into trouble in the sixth inning with back-to-back doubles, a hit-by-pitch and a single that scored two runs. Wissler cleaned things up again in the seventh inning with three easy outs, before another rough inning that allowed one run.

Junior Xavier Lovett came in to close out the game for the Tigers. He proceeded to help Missouri State scratch back some runs with a runner scoring on a passed ball and a two run homer before he got the final out.

Missouri's record improves to 19-23 on the season, while Missouri State drops to 17-21. Missouri heads to Knoxville to play Tennessee for their weekend SEC series. The Tigers will take the field on Thursday at 6 p.m. CT.