KENNESAW, Ga. – Brock Lucas and Max Knight combined to shut out Kennesaw State after the second inning and Logan Fyffe and Curry Sutherland hit back-to-back home runs for a four-run seventh inning to give Missouri State a 5-3 victory over the Owls Friday at Mickey Dunn Stadium.
The Bears improved to 32-17 and 20-9 in Conference USA play and can secure the No. 2 seed in next week’s conference tournament with a win in Saturday’s regular season finale.
Mo State trailed 3-1 after two innings, with the Owls (24-26, 12-17) hitting a two-run homer in the first and scoring after a leadoff double in the second, while the Bears plated a run in the second on singles by Jax Ryan and Carter Bergman along with an error.
Lucas (6-4) shut down the Owls for the remainder of his career-high 6.2 innings of work, and the offense ended a streak of eight consecutive outs by drawing a pair of walks to begin the seventh to knock out starter Cooper McMullen.
Fyffe then sent the first pitch thrown by KSU reliever Ty Bayer 402 feet over the left field wall for a 4-3 lead, and Sutherland followed with his 15th homer of the season to make it 5-3.
In relief of Lucas, Knight retired the first six hitters he faced with four strikeouts, then worked around a pair of singles before the final out secured his fourth save.
The Bears and Owls finish the series at noon Central on Saturday.
