The Western Illinois baseball team outhit Mizzou, 10-9, Sunday (March 8), for its best offensive production of the three-game set, but it wasn’t enough in a 7-4 decision.
Ten hits also tied the finale at Memphis (March 1) for the most recorded this season. Trenton Bauer, Toby Allred, and Luke Schwartz tabbed two hits each.
It didn’t take long for the Leathernecks to get on the board; just four at-bats, in fact, as Bauer smacked a 2-RBI shot over the center field wall. It marked his second home run of the season as well as Western’s second of the set, but it also went down as the team’s only scores until the sixth inning.
The Tigers returned the favor with a 2-RBI homer in the bottom of the first, and things sat tied at 2-2 until an RBI double gave Mizzou the lead. Before the go-ahead score in the fourth, junior lefty Jace Warkentien retired eight straight hitters, including three consecutive swinging strikeouts to end the second. He finished his appearance with six hits, five runs, and four strikeouts before Austin Edwards relieved him in the home-half of the sixth.
Western trailed by one, 5-4, at the middle of the eighth frame.
The Leathernecks will make their home debut in Alfred D. Boyer Stadium next Tuesday at 3 p.m. Clarke will be the first 2020 opponent to visit Macomb.
***Report Courtesy of Western Illinois University***
