Doug Still pitched a five-hit complete game shutout on Saturday afternoon at Santa Ana Star Field, as the Missouri State Bears won the rubber match 9-0 to avoid a road sweep at the hands of the University of New Mexico Lobos.
Still was masterful from first pitch to the final out, by locating his pitches down in the zone and getting ahead of many Lobo hitters.
“He really located it,” UNM coach Ray Birmingham said of Still via GoLobos.com. “He found the holes in our swing and he just stayed right there. But I’m glad we still took the series from a good team. We got out of it what we wanted. You take two of three from Missouri State, you should be happy. But after we took the first two – we were greedy. We wanted all three.”
Shortstop Jeremy Eiermann led the Missouri State offensive attack with four hits in four at-bats, including a RBI double in the top of the first inning to put the Bears up 1-0. Eiermann would extend the Missouri State lead to 4-0 with a two-run home run in the third inning on the first pitch of his at-bat.
DH Danny Collier and centerfielder Luis Gonzalez had two hits apiece for the Lobos, but UNM failed to get anything going against Still.
Johnathon Tripp was tagged for the loss after allowing five earned runs over six innings of work. It is the first loss of the season for the redshirt senior from Spring, Texas.
Despite the loss, the weekend series against a talented Missouri State team was a success for the Lobos, with lopsided wins in each of the first two games of the three-game matchup.
The Lobos head to Manhattan, KS on Tuesday to take on the Kansas State Wildcats in a doubleheader before returning home for a three-game conference series against UNLV.
