Houck’s Gem Not Enough for @MizzouBaseball at No. 3 Mississippi St.

Friday, May 6

Starkville, Miss.

7 p.m.

University of Missouri

24-24, 7-16

Mississippi State

32-14-1, 14-9

Mizzou

Mississippi State

Houck’s Gem Not Enough for @MizzouBaseball at No. 3 Mississippi St.

5/6/2016 10:01:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

STARKVILLE, Miss. – Mizzou sophomore righty Tanner Houck (Collinsville, Ill.) pitched a gem on Friday night (May 6), but a trio of errors came back to haunt Mizzou as No. 3 Mississippi State earned a 4-3 win to clinch the weekend series. Houck went 7.1 innings and allowed just eight hits with five strikeouts. He did not allow an earned run until a sacrifice fly in the eighth inning. He was charged with four runs (only two earned) but was outdueled by MSU's Austin Sexton, who went 8.0+ innings, striking out eight and walking just one and allowing his only two runs on a Jake Ring (Ingleside, Ill.) double.

Mizzou attempted to rally in the ninth, but MSU brought in Daniel Brown to strand the tying run at third for his second save of the year. The loss drops Mizzou to 24-24 and 7-16 in SEC play while MSU moves to 32-14-1 and 14-9 in SEC play. Game three of the series will be Saturday at 4 p.m. on SEC Network+.

After two stellar innings by Houck, Mizzou got to MSU starter Austin Sexton in the top of the third. RF Kirby McGuire (Round Rock, Texas) got it started with a one-out single into left and Connor Brumfield (Columbia, Mo.) walked to put two men on. They advanced to second and third on a wild pitch and Ring's two-run double plated both runs to give Mizzou a 2-0 lead after 2.5.

Freshman 3B Ian Nelson (Lake St. Louis, Mo.) made a pair of tremendous plays in the fourth inning to save runs and keep Mizzou on top, 2-0. The biggest came with two men on a two out as Elih Marrero ripped a liner to third, but Nelson leaped into the air to snag the ball, robbing likely runs and extra bases.

Houck continued to baffle MSU hitters and Mizzou missed a big opportunity to break the game open in the top of the sixth. Mizzou loaded the bases with no outs, but a pop up, a strikeout and a tremendous play MSU 3B Gavin Collins on a slow-roller to third off the bat of Shane Benes (Town & Country, Mo.) stranded the bases loaded.

MSU was finally able to get a run off of Houck in the bottom of the sixth inning, albeit thanks to a pair of Mizzou errors as the run was unearned and scored on a ground ball that was booted at short by Ryan Howard (St. Charles, Mo.). Nelson again made a tremendous play at third base to strand the tying run at third on a ball hit hard to his left that he stabbed, spun and fired to first for the third out.

Another error came back to haunt Mizzou in the bottom of the seventh inning as Nathaniel Lowe ripped a two-out double past Howard at short to score an unearned run to tie the game at 2-2.

MSU then got a leadoff single in the eighth inning from Jacob Robson and then a bunt single put runners on the corners with no outs. A walk then loaded the bases and a sacrifice fly by Ryan Gridley gave MSU a 3-2 lead. MSU added another on a sacrifice fly off of Austin Tribby (Springfield, Mo.) who limited the damage to just two runs as MSU took a 4-2 lead into the ninth.

Mizzou got the first two men on in the ninth and pinch hitter Brian Sharp (Liberty, Mo.) chopped a single through the right side to plate a run, bringing Mizzou within one at 4-3 while putting runners on the corners with one out. But McGuire struck out and Brumfield grounded to third to strand the tying run 90 feet away.

Mizzou and Mississippi State will close their series tomorrow at 4 p.m. on SEC Network+. For all the latest on all things Mizzou Baseball, stay tuned to MUTigers.com and follow the team on twitter @MizzouBaseball and like the team on Facebook and Instagram (Mizzou Baseball).

Postgame Notes

Mizzou now trails the all-time series with Mississippi State, 7-0
Mizzou falls to 6-6 on Friday nights this season.
Senior 1B Zach Lavy singles in the second inning and has now reached base in 19 straight games and owns an eight-game hitting streak
CF Jake Ring hit his 10^th double of the year to plate a pair of runs in the third inning, extending his hitting streak to 10 games, the second-longest by a Mizzou player this season.
He also singled in the sixth inning, giving him 17 multi-hit games on the season. That is the second-most among any Tiger, trailing only Zach Lavy.
RHP Tanner Houck has gone at least 7.0 innings in six of his 12 starts this season and he has gone 6.0 innings in every start this year and all but two of his 27 starts at Mizzou (he went 5.0 in both he did not make to 6.0).
OF Johnny Balsamo singled in his only AB in the ninth inning, his first hit since March 29 against St. Louis at Kauffman Stadium.
Pinch hitter Brian Sharp's single in the ninth was just Mizzou's second pinch hit this season. Mizzou started the season 0-for-25 pinch hitting but is now 2-for-its-last-3.