Box Score COLUMBIA, Mo. – UALR baseball (14-19) took down the No. 14 Missouri Tigers (24-13) by a score of 4-3 on Tuesday afternoon.
This was the Trojans' first win over a ranked opponent since defeating No. 30 Oklahoma last season.
“This is a proud, proud day for our program and players,” head coach Chris Curry said. “We as a coaching staff couldn't be more excited and happy to coach these guys, who continue to show a high level of toughness. To come in here and beat the No. 14 team in the country, we're just extremely happy with the effort.”
Kyle Kirk was the Trojans' top hitter as we he went 2 for 4 with two RBIs. Kirk wasn't the only one with multiple hits as Drew Merten and Mitchell Scheuler each had two of their own.
The Trojans got on the board in the first inning. With one out, Ryan Scott reached on an error by the second baseman, but then advanced to second on a ground out. With two outs, Kyle Kirk singled up the middle, scoring Scott from second to take an early 1-0 lead over Missouri.
Missouri tied the game at 1-1 in the bottom of the fourth inning. With one out, the Tigers hit a double down the right field line, but an error caused the runner to advance to third on the play. Mizzou delivered a sacrifice fly to deep left field to score the runner from third and tie the game.
Missouri took the lead in the bottom of the sixth inning. Brett Peel led off the frame with a single to short. Jake Ring then singled to right field and advanced to second on an error, allowing Peel to score all the way from first. After a failed pickoff attempt at second ended up in center field, Ring came around to score to give Missouri a 3-1 lead.
The Trojans brought the game to within one run in the top of the seventh. Mitchell Scheuler began the inning by singling up the middle. With one out, Scheuler stole his fifth bag of the season. After a Missouri pitching change, Scheuler advanced to third on a groundout to second. Scott knocked his 16th double of the season into left field, allowing Scheuler to score and cut the deficit to 3-2.
UALR tied the game at 3-3 in the top of the eighth. With one out, Drew Merten singled to right center. Jason Prevatt came on to pinch run for Merten as Missouri went to the bullpen for the third time. Sam Vogel then singled, pushing Prevatt over to second. Scheuler then singled down the left field line to bring home the tying run from second.
The Trojans answered one more time in the top of the ninth. Hayden Martin singled to left field to lead off the inning. Tanner Rockwell delivered with a one out single to right, advancing Martin to second. With one hit in the game already, Kirk came through with his second hit of the game, scoring Martin from second to take a 4-3 lead.
Cameron Allen came on to close out the game after Reed Willenborg tallied his best outing to date. Willenborg exited the game after throwing a career-high of eight innings and seven strikeouts. All three of Missouri's runs were unearned.
“Reed Willenborg has continued to work and get better. We kind of saw this coming of him with the outing at UCA, the start against Stephen F. Austin and the start at Louisiana Tech. Tonight, he came out and had a career night, and I hope there's more to come. We've been missing someone in the midweek games to come out, give us a start and keep us in the game.”
Allen got the first Missouri batter to ground out to first before allowing a single to right field. The Tigers singled once more to put runners on the corners with one out. Mizzou flied out to right, but the runner on third didn't advance. With two outs, Missouri grounded out to second to give UALR the win.
“Anytime these hitters are in the game and they feel like they have a chance to win, they do what they need to do. I think the juncture of the game was when Missouri took a two-run lead in the sixth inning, and we answered with runs in the seventh, eighth and ninth. That's resiliency, and that's championship-winning baseball. If we continue to play like that, we're going to be right in the middle of things. It's a proud win for Little Rock and UALR.”
UALR will now face off with the second-place Georgia Southern Eagles in a three-game conference series starting on Friday at Gary Hogan Field.
