JONESBORO, Ark. (2/21/14) — The Arkansas State baseball suffered its second straight loss of the season Friday night with a 4-3 setback against Illinois State Friday night at Tomlinson Stadium.
A-State (3-2) pulled within 4-3 in the bottom of the seventh inning when Austin Baker reached base with a walk, stole second, advanced to third on a balk and then scored on passed ball to cut the deficit to one run. Matt Burgess also reached base in the inning, but was left stranded.
In the bottom of the ninth, Baker reached with a two-out walk but Burgess struck out to end to the comeback threat and had Arkansas State its second loss of the season.
Bradley Wallace took the loss after giving up four runs in four innings of work. He also had five strikeouts and walked just one to move to 1-1 on the year. For the second straight game, the A-State bullpen was spectacular after tossing six innings of shutout baseball, highlighted by four innings from freshman Bryan Ayers. The 6-2, right-handed pitcher from Vilonia, Ark., allowed just two hits and had four strikeouts on the night.
Illinois State plated a run in the top of the third inning when Paul Dejong drove in a run on a swinging bunt that brought home Daniel Dwyer for the inning's only run. Wallace battled back and got the final out of the inning to limit the damage.
The Red Wolves got the run back in the bottom half of the inning on an RBI single from Burgess that scored Zach George who reached on an error by the shortstop earlier in the inning. Baker was hit by a pitch following George's plate appearance to put runners on first and second with two outs and Burgess followed with his RBI single to tie the game at 1-1.
Illinois State loaded the bases in the top of the fifth with two singles and a walk to bring up Brock Stewart. Stewart hit a two-run double to give the Redbirds a 3-1 lead and chase A-State's Wallace with no outs in the inning. Colton Kibler came in relief and struck out a batter before giving up a RBI groundout that gave ISU a 4-1 lead. Coulton Lee came in for Kibler and struck out the last batter of the inning to keep the A-State deficit at 4-1.
In the bottom of the fifth, the Red Wolves led off the inning with a double from Dustin Jones, but Jones was retired when he was thrown out at the plate on a George double. Later in the inning, Stuart Levy plated George with a two-out double to cut the Redbirds' lead to 4-2, but Lucas Feddersen grounded out to end the inning to strand runners at second and third.
A-State had a golden opportunity to break the game open in the bottom of the first inning when the Red Wolves had the bases loaded with one-out, but Ty Michelotti grounded into a 1-2-3 inning ending double play to end the threat. The rally started with a pair of 1-out singles from Levy and Lucas Feddersen and then Derek Birginske drew a walk to load the bases to bring up Michelotti.
Levy went 2-for-4 on the night with one RBI, while Burgess was 1-for-3 with one RBI. Jones, George, Feddersen and Michelotti each had one hit on the night.
Arkansas State will return to the diamond for a doubleheader with Illinois State on Saturday Feb. 22. The first game is set to begin at 1 p.m. with a seven-inning game to follow 30 minutes after the conclusion of game one. For in-game updates follow @AStateGameDay on Twitter and stay up to date with A-State baseball by following the team on Twitter (@AStateBaseball) and Facebook (Facebook.com/RedWolvesbaseball).
