TERRE HAUTE, IN ? The Indiana State Sycamores were swept away by the Missouri State Bears on Sunday and in the series as MSU recorded a 21-10 victory over ISU on Sunday at Sycamore Field.
Missouri State won all three games of the series and the Sycamores dropped into seventh place in the Valley.
Indiana State (13-29 overall and 6-12 in the MVC) will host Eastern Illinois at 6 p.m. (ET) Tuesday and then host Purdue University on Wednesday, also at 6 p.m. (ET) before hitting the road to Creighton for their next MVC series.
Missouri State jumped out in front of the Sycamores 6-0 after just a half inning of play. The big hit was a three-run home run by Josh Mazzola, his fourth home run of the series and his tenth of the season. The Bears also had a triple, two doubles and two singles in the inning.
Indiana State picked up one in the bottom half of the first as Ryan Strausborger and Brian Ramirez hit back-to-back singles to open the inning. Chris Schmidt moved Strausborger to third on a deep fly out to right and the Sycamore lead-off hitter scored on a Brady Shoemaker sacrifice fly to center.
The Sycamores came storming back in the bottom of the third, scoring five runs on five hits to tie the game at 6-all. Back-to-back doubles by Bronco Lafrenz and Strausborger got the ISU offense going and pushed over the Sycamores second run of the game.
After a walk to Ramirez, Schmidt singled in a run and Shoemaker knocked in another with a sacrifice fly to right field. The big blow for Indiana State came next as Nick Ciolli banged out a two run home run to left, tying the game.
The momentum quickly shifted back to the Bears. Missouri State scored seven times in the top of the fourth, five coming in with two outs, to take a commanding 13-6 lead. The Bears added another in the fifth to up their lead to 14-6.
The Sycamores would not give up, fighting back with four runs in the bottom of the sixth. Strausborger and Ramirez both reached on errors and a Schmidt single loaded the bases. Shoemaker hit his third sacrifice fly of the game to score Strausborger and then Ciolli came to the plate, banging out a three-run home run over the left centerfield fence.
Missouri State got two back in the top of the seventh, one more in the eighth and three in the ninth to push their lead to 21-10.
Nick Ciolli had a pair of home runs to lead the Sycamore offense while Chris Schmidt added three singles, Ryan Strausborger a double and a single, and Bronco Lafrenz a double, and Pascual Del Real and Brian Ramirez had a single each.
Micah Spencer (2-4) suffered the loss for Indiana State, allowing 13 runs on 13 hits before giving way to David Gurbach in the fourth inning. Nathan Inman worked the final two and two-thirds innings for the Sycamores.
