How Forrest Barnes' 'masterpiece' advanced Missouri State in the MVC Baseball Tournament

Bears head coach Keith Guttin was the first to admit that Forrest Barnes might have had his worst start of the season less than a week ago.

Needing a win with the hope of avoiding the play-in round of the Missouri Valley Conference Baseball Tournament, Barnes was hit around immediately as he exited in 2.2 innings of action while giving up eight earned runs on eight hits at Bradley.

With the lights shining the brightest on the conference tournament stage, Barnes had one of the best games of his career — which might be why Guttin thought his performance on Wednesday night was that much more special.

"Last week was probably his worst start of the year and he just delivered his best," Guttin said. "I just think that says so much about him and his determination to help the team win."

Barnes pitched a complete game while allowing just five hits and one earned run in a 5-1 win over MVC regular-season champion Southern Illinois to advance in the winner's bracket of the MVC Tournament at Hammons Field.

Barnes only allowed five base-runners to get on after allowing his only run of the game with no outs in the second inning. It was his longest outing of the season when his previous longest had been 6.1 innings on May 14. It's the first complete game he's thrown since April 2, 2019, in a win at Southeast Missouri State.

"It was just fantastic," Barnes, an Ozark grad, said. "I was trying to settle into a rhythm the first two innings and after that, I just kind of cruised and everything fell in sync. It was probably the best I've felt all year."

The win puts Missouri State in a winner's bracket game that is currently scheduled for 3 p.m. on Friday. The Bears will play the loser of Thursday evening's game between Dallas Baptist and Bradley.

Aside from Barnes' performance, the Bears also got it done offensively by hitting three home runs which put them at seven over their two games in the tournament.

Mason Hull set the tone by hitting a solo shot in the top of the fourth to tie the game and followed with the go-ahead three-run shot in the top of the seventh. Grant Wood put the icing on the cake with a solo homer to center in the top of the eighth to take the 5-1 lead.

"We're just confident," Hull said. "We believe in every single one of us and we're just confident in the way we're playing."

Barnes' performance, combined with the weather delaying games, plays into the Bears' favor as they get an extra day of rest for their pitching staff when they were already thin and had to play an extra game on Tuesday.

Most of the bullpen should be available when the Bears take the field with typical No. 1 pitcher Adam Link expected to get the start on Friday morning. He threw two innings and just 32 pitches for the Bears in relief in the single-game elimination win over Illinois State.

Riyan Rodriguez threw 54 pitches in three innings of relief on Tuesday with Jake McMahill throwing 21 on Wednesday morning to finish off Illinois State after a weather delay.

Barnes' complete game gave the bullpen even more rest and the rest of the team confidence while the Bears try to put together a special run with the hopes of winning a championship.

"It was a masterpiece," Guttin said. "He just picked up the team and that's one of the better performances you're going to see in this tournament, in my memory, for us."

Wyatt D. Wheeler is a reporter and columnist with the Springfield News-Leader. You can contact him at 417-371-6987, by email at wwheeler@news-leader.com or Twitter at @WyattWheeler_NL. He's also the co-host of Sports Talk on Jock Radio weekdays from 4-6 p.m.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: MVC Baseball Tournament: Missouri State upsets Southern Illinois