COLUMBIA, Mo. – No. 18 Mizzou Baseball dropped the rubber game of a three-game series with Arkansas, 9-8, Sunday afternoon at Taylor Stadium. Arkansas scored three runs in the second and four in the fourth to put the game away, despite a late Mizzou rally. Mizzou falls to 21-3 and 4-2 in SEC play while Arkansas goes to 20-5 and 5-1 in SEC play. Arkansas hit three homers off Mizzou pitching Sunday to clinch the series win.
Mizzou junior RHP Andy Toelken (Green Cover Springs, Fla.) took the loss after pitching 1.0+ innings, allowing four hits and three runs. Mizzou’s offense was led by junior Nelson Mompierre (Miami, Fla.) who had a pair of hits, including a double, and junior OF Trey Harris (Powder Springs, Ga.) drove in three runs and scored another in the loss
Toelken worked around a two-out catcher’s interference in the first inning and Mizzou got on the board in its half of the first, getting a bases-loaded sacrifice fly from Brian Sharp (Liberty, Mo.) after a nine-pitch at-bat as he flew out to the track in right center.
Arkansas got that run back in the second on a solo homer from Dominic Fletcher on a 2-1 pitch to open the inning. That kicked off a five-hit, three-run inning for Arkansas, knocking Toelken out of the game in favor of RHP Cole Bartlett (Williamsburg, Ind.).
After Bartlett got through the first two batters in the fourth inning, Arkansas got a pair of two-out hits and a big error to extend the lead to 4-1. Grant Koch then hit a three-run homer to put the Razorbacks up 7-1. All four runs were unearned following the error on what would have been the third out.
Mizzou got some of those runs back in the bottom half of the fourth on a bases-loaded, two-run single by Harris. Arkansas then got a solo homer from Carson Shaddy in the fifth inning to push the lead back to 8-3. The Razorbacks added another unearned run in the top of the seventh.
Mizzou exploded for four runs in the eighth inning, two coming on RBI groundouts and the next two on a wild pitch on a Kameron Misner (Poplar Bluff, Mo.) strikeout. Robbie Glendinning (Scarborough, Australia), representing the tying run, then nearly tied the game with a ball hit to the warning track in right center for the third out as he just missed tying the game.
Junior RHP Nolan Gromacki (Smithville, Mo.) then pitched the top of the ninth inning and Mizzou tacked on another run in the bottom of the ninth as it looked like it might rally again. Ian Nelson (Lake St. Louis, Mo.) hit a two-out single to pull within one. Connor Brumfield (Columbia, Mo.) then struck out looking with the tying run on second base as Arkansas escaped with the win.
— Mizzou Athletics —