@MizzouBaseball Tops Texas A&M Corpus Christi, 7-6

Thursday, February 23

Corpus Christi, Texas

6:30 PM

University of Missouri

4-1

Texas A&M-Corpus Christi

1-3

MIZZOU

A&M-Corpus Christi

2/23/2017 10:35:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

Samples, Glendinning hit first Division I homers as Bartlett’s pitching keys late rally

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Mizzou Baseball escaped Texas A&M Corpus Christi with a 7-6 win in its first true road contest of the season Thursday night at Chapman Field. Mizzou ran out to a 4-0 lead thanks to the first career Division I homers by Alex Samples (Bridgeport, Texas) and Robbie Glendinning (Scarborough, Australia), but Corpus Christi rallied to take a 5-4 lead before Mizzou tied the game and ultimately took the lead thanks to a pair of bases-loaded walks in the eighth inning.

RS junior RHP Cole Bartlett (Williamsburg, Ind.) earned his second win in three appearances this season after a stellar night on the mound. He went 4.2 innings in relief of starter Tanner Houck (Collinsville, Ill.) and scattered just three hits while striking out three and being charged with just one unearned run. The big spot was pitching out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the seventh inning. Mizzou moves to 4-1 on the season while Corpus Christi falls to 1-3.

After Houck got through the first inning on just 10 pitches, junior DH Brett Bond (St. Louis, Mo.) singled to lead off the top of the second, already his 10^th hit of the season and Samples then launched his first career big fly to right center, giving Mizzou an early 2-0 lead. Glendinning homered just two batters later, another two-run shot to right center.

Houck allowed a single and a walk in the second, but got a strike-out, throw-out double play to end the inning, preserving the 4-0 lead. A key error in the third by Chris Cornelius (St. Louis, Mo.) led to an unearned run scored by the Islanders on an RBI groundout by Itchy Burts.

After pitching around trouble all night, the Islanders got to Houck in the bottom of the fifth as the first four men reached base while they scored three runs to tie the game. Houck issued his third walk with one out in the frame and that ended his day in favor of Bartlett as Houck went 4.1 innings, scattering six hits, three walks with five strikeouts. Four of the five runs he allowed were earned. Bartlett got a double-play to escape the inning, but Corpus Christi took a 5-4 lead after five.

Mizzou tied the game in the top of the seventh inning on a perfect push bunt by Cornelius with runners on second and third for an RBI single as he beat the throw. But with runners on the corners and one out, Kameron Misner (Poplar Bluff, Mo.) struck out and then Bond grounded out to first to strand the go-ahead run at third.

Corpus Christi then loaded the bases with no outs in the seventh inning after a controversial bunt base hit that C Nelson Mompierre (Miami, Fla.) picked up when he thought it rolled foul, but the home plate umpire ruled it fair to load the bases. Bartlett responded nicely though, getting a big 1-2-3 double play and then a strikeout to get out of the jam unscathed.

Mizzou used the momentum from that pitching job by Bartlett to regain the lead in the topo of the seventh. A key play was a strikeout by Trey Harris (Powder Springs, Ga.), but Corpus Christi's catcher threw wide of first on the dropped strike three. Mizzou loaded the bases from there on a walk by Glendinning and Brumnfield drew the bases-loaded walk to give Mizzou a 6-5 lead. Cornelius then drew a bases-loaded walk in the next at-bat to extend the lead to 7-5.

Texas A&M CC took an advantage of an error in the ninth on what would have been the final out, getting an RBI single to cut the lead to 7-6. Bartlett then retired Brian Deaver on a fly out to left to seal the win, stranding the tying run and go-ahead run in scoring position.

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Quoting Bieser

Opening Statement…
"Well, it was a tough one. We were fortunate to come away with a win tonight. We really showed some resiliency. We had three errors again tonight – that is just not consistently good baseball. We walked too many guys. It's not the best game that we could play, but any time you can walk away with against a quality program on the road, you have to be extremely happy."

On Cole Bartlett…
"Well, we all know that he ended that game right there with the bases loaded, nobody out (in the seventh inning). He made some big pitches to get us through that inning and that really turned the tide of the game. We were able to scrape a cross a few runs there and that was the difference in the game. Cole Bartlett came in and kind of took the bull by the horns, taking this game under his belt. That's what allowed this team to stay in the game. We got back in the game and got the lead and he wasn't going to let it up."

Notes

Mizzou now leads the all-time series with Texas A&M CC, 2-1. All three meetings have come since 2015. The two will meet again Saturday at 6 p.m. in the Kleberg Bank Collehe Classic.
Mizzou is now 18-4 in the first two weekends of play over the last three seasons.
Mizzou has now won its last three road openers, dating back to the 2015 season.
Junior Alex Samples hit his first Division I homer on Thursday, a two-run shot to right center in the second inning.
Junior SS Robbie Glendinning also hit his first career homer in the second inning, also a two- run shot.
Freshman Kameron Misner tallied his team-leading fourth multi-hit game of the season on Thursday.
Junior Brett Bond tallied his second three-hit game of the season on Thursday.
Mizzou tallied 13 hits on Thursday, moving the season total to 69 through five games (13.8 average).
RHP Cole Bartlett has two wins in three appearances already this season after posting three all of last year (31 appearances).
Mizzou turned a season-high four double plays on Thursday.
After posting a 2.60 ERA over 17.1 innings in the opening weekend of action, Bartlett extended the Mizzou bullpen's shutout inning streak to 8.2 consecutive innings. The bullpen this year has a 2.05 ERA in 22.0 innings (just five earned runs). Mizzou's bullpen has allowed just 17 hits in 22 innings of work this season.