Box Score

In what amounted to a back-and-forth affair, the Dallas Baptist Patriots (17-9) hung on Sunday for a 10-6 win over No. 29 Missouri State (21-8) to win their fifth straight weekend series in 2012. Stuart Pudenz (2-0) picked up the win as the Patriots scored four runs in the eighth inning to break open the game off Bear reliever Grant Gordon (4-1). RJ Talamantes, Landon Anderson, and Austin Elkins all collected three hits and Michael Miller had two hits and four RBI.

On the day, Missouri State had three errors, including two in the decisive eighth inning - one by Gordon on a sacrifice bunt and one by leftfielder Patrick Drake, who had come in the inning before as a pinch runner. DBU had one error as Jaime Garrido lost track of a pop fly in the high sky - an area that troubled fielders throughout the game.

Missouri State held a 2-0 lead into the bottom of the third inning before DBU scored four runs with two of them coming on a Miller two-RBI single through the left side. The Bears, however, would tie the game in the next half inning as they pushed across two runs. The Patriots would score two more in the sixth after loading the bases with nobody out to increase their lead back to two runs. Juart oel Hutter walked to plate a run in that inning and Anderson picked up a sacrifice fly. DBU would leave the bases loaded, though, and that almost came back to haunt them as MSU scored single runs in the seventh and eighth innings.

Their run in the eighth was credited to Michael Smith, who entered the game in relief of starter Andrew Elkins after Elkins threw 4.1 innings and allowed four runs on six hits and struck out four. Elkins threw 76 pitches in the start, his highest total of the year, but has yet to get through the fifth inning of a start. Smith allowed two runs in his 2.2 innings, one of which came in after he had handed the ball to Pudenz and which tied the game at six in the eighth.

The Patriots would explode for four runs in the eighth with help from the two MSU errors. Anderson singled to right to open the frame and advanced to second as Jaime Garrido reached on the error by Gordon on a sacrifice bunt attempt. Duncan McAlpine then singled to third on his sacrifice bunt attempt and the Patriots had the bases loaded with nobody out. That's when Miller opened the game up with a single to left that scooted under the glove of Drake to clear the bases and score the winning runs for DBU. Austin Elkins would then triple to left two batters later to tally the final run for the Patriots.

The Patriots will return to the field on Tuesday night as they head across town to face TCU in Fort Worth. That game is slated to begin at 6:30 with starters for both sides to be announced. The pregame show will begin on dbupatriots.com at 6:10.


Miller Postgame Interview

Coach Heefner Postgame Interview