Mizzou snaps winning streak, pitching struggles return against Mississippi State

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Mizzou Baseball followed up its best two pitching outings with its worst of the season.

The Tigers (16-36) surrendered 23 hits and eight home runs in a 25-7 series-opening loss against Mississippi State (32-20), ending their streak of three consecutive wins.

After giving up just one earned run on four hits over its last 18 innings pitched, Mizzou's pitching staff allowed its most runs in a single game in more than a decade. Collectively, Mississippi State charged MU with 23 earned runs across eight different pitchers.

Brady Kehlenbrink was labeled the losing pitcher. The freshman left-hander surrendered five earned runs on seven hits with four strikeouts over 3.1 innings.

The Bulldogs scored 12 unanswered runs in the first six frames of Thursday night's game, highlighted by five home runs from Reed Stallman (2), Joe Powell and Ace Reese (2).

Then, the Tigers responded with seven straight runs in the sixth and seventh innings, propelled by a pair of three-run home runs from Jackson Lovich (12) and Mateo Serna (8). Lovich has homered in four of his last five games.

However, Mizzou's rally was answered by 13 more unanswered runs from Mississippi State in the final two frames. MU needed three different pitchers to record the last three outs of the game, giving up 10 runs on seven hits in the ninth inning. The Bulldogs hit three home runs in that inning, including two from Hunter Hines in the same frame.

Offensively, Mizzou finished with nine hits, including multi-hit performances from Serna, Pierre Seals and Isaiah Frost. Serna and Lovich ended the contest with three RBI's each, and Keegan Knutson also added an RBI single, which produced the team's first run of the game. However, MU stranded nine runners on base and struck out 13 times.

Up next - MU will strive to even this three-game series on Friday, May 16 at 6 p.m.