COLUMBIA, Mo. – The Missouri Tigers walked off with an 8-7 win over the High Point University baseball team on Friday night in Columbia, Mo. Senior Sal Pezzino homered in the top of the ninth to tie the game 7-7 but Mizzou answered with a walkoff single in the bottom half of the inning to win the game.
Redshirt-sophomore Jaime Schultz took the loss, falling to 1-2 this season. He entered the game with one out in the ninth inning and walked the first two batters he faced. MU catcher Ben Turner singled to leftfield to win the game for the Tigers, 8-7.
“This is a tough way to lose a ballgame,” said head coach Craig Cozart. “Missouri is a quality team and we played pretty poorly for the first four innings tonight. While the quality of play wasn’t great for us tonight the effort was outstanding. If we come out tomorrow with the same effort and clean up our execution we will even up the series.
Pezzino tied the game 7-7 with a solo homer to lead off the ninth inning. Pezzino took the first pitch of the ninth inning from MU reliever Jake Walsh over the rightfield wall to knot the score at 7-7.
Walsh picked up the win for Missouri, throwing 1-1/3 innings of relief. He allowed one run on two hits with one strikeout. It was his first decision of the season.
Blake Brown led off the fifth inning with a single through the right side for the Tigers. The rightfielder stole second base and took third on a throwing error by HPU catcher Josh Spano. Brown trotted home on a single by Scott Summerfeld. With MU up 6-4, Cozart went to the bullpen, bringing in Goodman to replace Avidon. Goodman quickly got the first two outs before Dillon Everett reached on an error, advancing Summerfeld to third base. Dillon Everett took off for second, getting caught in a run down, allowing Summerfeld to score and put Mizzou up 7-4.
Sean Wilson cut the lead to 7-6 with a double to leftfield to score Spano and Dane McDermott. Wilson’s second double of the game knocked MU starter Rob Zastryzny out of the game. Dusty Ross came out of the Tiger bullpen, stranding Wilson at second and holding on to the one-run lead.
Zastryzny allowed six runs on nine hits in 5-2/3 innings for the Tigers.
The Tigers took a 5-3 lead in the third inning, knocking in four runs on four hits with the help of one HPU error. Avidon walked the leadoff hitter, Brannon Champagne, and the next two MU batters reached on infield singles to load the bases. Missouri leftfielder Dane Opel cleared the bases with a double down the rightfield line.
Avidon allowed seven runs, six earned, in four innings of work. He walked two and struck out four in the outing.
Wilson finished the game 3-4 with two RBI and two runs scored. Pezzino was 2-5 with two RBI and a run scored and Ryan Retz collected three hits and one RBI.
High Point (12-8) will send junior Matt Armstead to the mound on Saturday to try and even the series. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m.