COLUMBIA, Mo. - Western Illinois (0-10) reliever Chandler Fochs was given the ball midway through the second and proceeded to shutout the Missouri Tigers (7-5) for the final seven frames in a 7-3 setback on Friday (March 6) night.
"Chandler did an excellent job tonight, to say the least," said head coach Andy Pascoe. "To come in and go seven innings against a solid offense like that is not an easy thing to do; he kept them off balance by throwing multiple pitches for strikes and really saved our bullpen for the rest of the weekend. The most exciting part for me was the competitiveness he showed and how much he wanted the baseball. I'm really proud of how he competed tonight."
The right-hander struck out two while limiting the opposition to four hits en route to a career-high seven innings.
The Tigers used a pair of Leatherneck errors, and a two-run shot to push ahead 7-0 in the first two innings in the home opener at Taylor Stadium.
Western was being held to one hit and shut out through the first five frames until Drue Galassi cranked his second home run of the season to make it 7-2.
An error from the hot corner brought in Luke Schwartz in the eighth and made it 7-3. Alex Dorethy followed with a two-out double to put runners on second and third, but a pitching change from Missouri put a close to the two-out rally.
The Purple and Gold aim to take game two of the series on Saturday (March 7) with first pitch at 2 p.m.
