April 20, 2010

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ST. LOUIS - Saint Louis chipped away at an early 8-0 deficit and pulled to within two at one point, but Missouri State held on for a 9-6 victory Tuesday in non-conference baseball action at The Billiken Sports Center.

The loss dips the Billikens to 19-19 overall, while Missouri State moves to 14-20.

J.D. Dunn registered his fifth home run of the year in the second, while Danny Brock and Zach Miller also had two hits apiece for the Billikens.

Missouri State lit up the scoreboard early and often, chasing SLU starter Mike Schrader from the game after just 1/3 of an inning. Curt Courtwright provided the pop in the first with a three run homer.

MSU scored two more in the in the top of the second on a pair of sacrifice flies before SLU would go to work and score the next six runs of the game.

In the bottom-half of the second, Dunn put the Billikens on the board with his homer to left. Following a scoreless third, SLU pushed across a run in the fourth. Fernandez reached on a leadoff walk, and later scored on a Miller double to left-center field.

In the fifth, Fernandez knocked in a pair of runs with a two-out single to cut the Billikens' deficit in half at 8-4. Cotter plated Connor Gandossy with a single in the sixth, and Myers made it interesting with his conference-leading 15th homer run in the seventh to make it 8-6.

However, Missouri State plated a run in the ninth, and MSU reliever Grant Gordon did not allow a hit over the final 2-2/3 innings to lift the Bears to the win.

Andrew Buckham pitched well in relief for SLU, allowing just one run on three hits over 5-1/3 innings. Jon Levin retired the only two batters he faced in the top of the ninth.

The Billikens resume Atlantic 10 Conference play this weekend against Massachusetts in Amherst. Game one of the three-game set is slated for Friday at 2 p.m., with game two scheduled for 11 a.m. The series finale is set for 11 a.m. Sunday.