Mizzou Takes Series with Saturday Win

MANHATTAN, Kan. – Missouri’s Greg Folgia homered twice and drove in five runs as the Tigers downed Kansas State, 11-6, Saturday afternoon at Tointon Family Stadium. With the loss, the Wildcats fell to 28-11 overall and 7-7 in Big 12 play. Missouri, which took the series with the win, improved to 21-19 overall and 8-9 in conference action.

Kansas State dropped its second home series of the season and did so by allowing 10 free passes to Missouri batters that constantly came back to haunt the Wildcats.

Missouri used a five-run fourth inning and a four-run sixth to erase an early 5-0 K-State lead through two innings of play. Much of the Mizzou comeback was due to the performance of Folgia, who only had two hits, but made both of them count as he hit a pair of multi-run homers to tally five of the Missouri 11 RBI.

The lone bright spot for Kansas State was Justin Bloxom, who had his third four-hit game of the season after a 0-for-4 outing on Friday. Jordan Cruz also recorded a multi-hit contest, going 2-for-4.

Kelly Fick (2-3) earned the win as he entered the game with the scored tied in the fifth inning and was able to work around a leadoff double that sent the Missouri bats back to plate. The Tigers would go on to score four the next half inning and never looked back.

Kyle Hunter (0-2) was saddled with the loss after being credited with all four Tigers runs in the sixth. Hunter did pitch well in the fourth and fifth innings, but gave up back-to-back one-out hits to fuel the Tiger sixth inning.

After a disappointing finish to Friday-night’s contest, K-State came out and scored four runs in the first inning, all coming with two outs. Nick Martini was hit by a pitch and moved to third on a single by Bloxom. Following a passed ball that moved Bloxom to second, Jason King singled up the middle to put K-State up 2-0.

Drew Biery was next and hit his first triple since 2006 to drive home King before Cruz singled to center field to plate Biery and cap the scoring.

The Wildcats came back to score another run in the second without recording a hit when Dane Yelovich was hit by the first pitch of the inning, stole second, went to third on a groundout and scored on a Carter Jurica sacrifice fly.

But as quickly as K-State took a commanding five-run lead, Missouri came back to plate six runs over the next two innings, including five in the fourth frame.

In the third, K-State starter Lance Hoge walked Conner Mach with one out and, following a groundout, Austin Holt hit a double off the center-field wall to get the Tigers on the board.

Hoge then walked the leadoff man in the fourth and immediately surrendered a homer to Folgia to get Mizzou within two at 5-3. Hoge was then lifted for James Allen, who struggled as he walked a batter, allowed a RBI single to Steve Gray and then hit a batter to load the bases.

Hunter, the third K-State pitcher of the inning, came out of the bullpen and was greeted with a pair of sacrifice flies, giving Missouri a 6-5 lead.

Adam Muenster tied up the game in the bottom of the fourth with his second home run of the season, but that homer proved to be the last run for the Cats in the contest.

Michael Liberto started the Missouri sixth with a one-out double and Holt followed with a single to center field to take back its one-run lead.

After a groundout and a hit-by-pitch, Folgia put the game away with his second homer of the day, a three-run shot just inside the left-field foul pole that put Missouri up 10-6.

The Wildcats conclude their series against Missouri with a 1 p.m. first pitch on Sunday at Tointon Family Stadium.