Utah Baseball Falls to Missouri State, 6-2

SAN MARCOS – Utah baseball fell to Missouri State 6-2 in the second game of a tournament hosted by Texas State in San Marcos, Texas on Saturday, February 16.

Erick Migueles, Rykker Tom and Chase Fernlund all had two hits for the Utes. Migueles also had an RBI to go with his two hits.

Migueles singled in the third to get the Utes on the board knocking in Zack Moeller to cut into Missouri State’s lead only trailing 3-1.

Next inning, the Utes kept the pressure on chasing Missouri State’s starter from the game after three straight singles. Chandler Anderson earned an RBI by drawing a bases-loaded walk, but Utah couldn’t get any more runs across the plate with runners in scoring position.

After neither team threatened in the fifth, Missouri State scored one run in the sixth and two runs in the seventh to stretch out their lead to 6-2.

Utah had two runners on in the eighth, but stranded the runners and the Bears went on to win the game 6-2.

Riley Pierce got the Saturday start and went 5.0 IP only giving up three runs on five hits, but he ended up taking the loss on the day. The five innings was a career high for Pierce.

Freshman John Liffrig made his first appearance out of the bullpen and pitched the final three innings and didn’t give up any runs. He came in with runners on first and second in the seventh and both of those runners ended up coming around to score, but after that he was perfect.

Fernlund and Jayden Kiernan both made their first career starts in a Utah uniform. Fernlund finished the afternoon going 2-3 and Kiernan went 1-3 and scored a run.

The Utes will play one more game in San Marcos, Texas against Nevada tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. MT.