WARRENSBURG, Mo. -- Minnesota State (38-9) fell 2-1 by way of walk-off at the hands of Southern Arkansas (29-14) in its second game of the NCAA DII Baseball Central Regional Tournament, Saturday.

Sophomore right-handed starting arm Nick Altermatt was lights out for the Mavericks in their second game of the tournament, but the bats supplied little support as the Muleriders prevailed.

After Austin Baker led off the bottom half of the first with a double, he later scored making it 1-0 on an RBI groundout to the left side from Jacob Martinez. After one inning at Crane Stadium, the Muleriders led the Mavericks by one.

Senior first baseman Ross Indlecoffer tied the game at one by opening the second inning with his seventh home run of the season out to left field.

The Muleriders mounted a ninth-inning rally that led to a bases-loaded jam with one out. Zach Muldoon was a hero for SAU, hitting a chopper to third slow enough to allow Baker to score his second run of the game which was the game-winner.

MSU outhit SAU 11-3 in the evening affair. The Mavericks finished with the game's only pair of errors. The Mavericks left 12 runners on base while the Muleriders left three.

Earning the SAU win was relief arm Remy Bilodeau. The right-handed pitcher pitched a shutout ninth for the Muleriders with two hits given up and a strikeout. The Muleriders starting pitcher was right-hander Zach Smith, who threw eight complete frames and finished with a no-decision in the game. Smith gave up one run and nine hits, walked three and struck out a pair.

As MSU's only arm in the game, Altermatt fell to a 5-2 record with the loss. He pitched 8.1 innings of two-run (one earned) baseball while allowing three hits, walking one and striking out eight along the way.

The Mavericks will take on the Reddies of Henderson State in an elimination game Sunday at 3:00 p.m.

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