Southwest Missouri State beats Air Force, 17-4

Feb. 17, 2002

Southwest Missouri State, an NCAA regional qualifier last season, scored 13 runs in the first five innings and cruised to a 17-4 win over Air Force in the final round of the Texas-Arlington/Dallas Morning News College Baseball Tournament, Sunday, Feb. 17, in Arlington, Texas.

SMSU won two of the three games in the tournament and improved to 2-1 overall this season. Air Force was 0-3 in the tournament and is 6-4 overall this season.

The Bears hammered out 18 hits while holding Air Force to just seven. The Falcons scored one run in the third inning that made the score 7-1. Bowie Frost doubled to right field and scored on Tony Shockley's single. Air Force did not score again until the eighth inning. The Falcons scored three runs on two hits and three Bear errors. Freshman Steve Winters singled to score Mike Chapados while the other two runs scored on errors and

Shockley and Winters led the Falcons with two hits and one RBI each. Falcon starter Erik Fisher, who pitched with a sore forearm after getting hit with a line drive last week, took the loss. He went two innings and gave up six runs on three hits with five walks and three strikeouts. Jason Pruitt was Air Force's most effective reliever. He went 1.2 innings and did not give up a run on two hits with one strikeout.

Air Force, losers of three straight, continues its seven-game road swing as the team travels to Millington, Tenn., for the annual Service Academies Spring Classic. The Falcons face Navy and Memphis, Friday, Feb. 22, and Villanova, Feb. 23. The consolation game is Sunday, Feb. 24, at 10 a.m. with the championship game following at 1 p.m. Air Force has played in the championship game of the tournament in each of the last three years, winning the title in 1999 and 2001.

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