Missouri wins epic 14-inning contest

The Missouri Baseball team waited until what could have been its last game of the season to play its longest.

The Tigers beat the University of California-Irvine 5-4 in 14 innings on Saturday to continue their tournament run. Today at 1 p.m., Missouri will face UCLA, which lost 6-0 to Pepperdine on Saturday.

Missouri’s season-saving game lasted just under five hours.

After losing 3-2 to Pepperdine on Friday, the Tigers (32-26) fell behind Saturday when UC-Irvine scored the game’s first run in the bottom of the fourth inning. Missouri answered in the next half inning, tying the game at one on a two-out solo home run by junior Gary Arndt. It was Ardnt’s fifth home run of the year.

The game remained tied until the top of the seventh when Arndt drove in his second run of the day. With runners on the corners. Arndt dropped down a bunt and, on a play at the plate, sophomore Brock Bond slid around the attempted tag of catcher Aaron Lowenstein to score the go-ahead run.

Missouri led 2-1 heading to the bottom of the eighth inning, but a two-run triple by UC-Irvine’s Cody Cipriano gave UCI the lead. Cipriano also scored on the play on a throwing error, giving the Anteaters a 4-2 lead.

The Tigers rallied to tie the game at four with two runs in the top of the ninth. Junior Hunter Mense and Bond opened the ninth with a pair of singles. An error by UCI allowed Frey to reach safely and Mense to score, pulling Mizzou within one. Arndt then grounded into a double play, but Bond scored on the play to tie the game heading to the bottom of the ninth.

The Anteaters (36-24) had the winning run on third with one out in the bottom of the ninth, but senior Travis Wendte forced UCI’s Taylor Holiday to ground into a double play to end the inning.

After four scoreless frames in extra innings, the Tigers finally broke through with the run in the 14th on a base hit by Ryan Lollis.

Junior Nathan Culp pitched 7 1-3 innings, allowing four runs on six hits. Wendte did not allow a run in five innings in relief, striking out five. Senior Taylor Parker finished the final 1 2-3 innings and did not allow a run. The Tiger pitchers had just two walks and both were intentional passes.

The Tigers will take on UCLA, which lost to Pepperdine Saturday, at 1 p.m. today. If they win today, the Tigers would be back in action later this afternoon at 5 p.m. taking on Pepperdine.