Cameron Dulle walked off the mound with his head down while the third-base dugout erupted around him.
The senior from St. Louis has become the Missouri baseball team's fireman, putting out whatever jams coach Steve Bieser has thrust him into. With men on first and second and one way in the top of the eighth Friday night at Taylor Stadium, the Tigers clung to a 3-2 lead over Northwestern, and in came Dulle.
In the biggest spot of Friday night's game, Dulle got right to work. He struck out Anthony Calarco. He fanned Shawn Goosenberg. The inning was over; Northwestern went down weakly in the ninth, facing a dominant Dulle again. That's how Missouri (7-5) held on to beat the Wildcats (4-7) by a score of 3-2.
The right-hander, who tries to "keep it pretty mellow" on the mound, gave no exultation. His teammates couldn't say the same.
"Dugout was loving it," Dulle said.
Dulle faced five Northwestern batters Friday and retired them all, striking out the first four he faced. That included an eventful at-bat to begin the ninth. Left fielder Casey O'Laughlin checked his swing — Bieser maintained he didn't — on two straight pitches, worked the count to 3-0, then watched Dulle quickly pump three strikes by him for a critical strikeout.
"Those pitches needed to be better in the first place," Dulle said, "so I tried to get back to what I was doing, attacking the strike zone."
The righty's great effort stopped a Northwestern comeback that looked more than likely, given the situation and Missouri's struggles in the late innings this season.
It wasn't a comeback that was long in the works, as the Tigers had hardly held a lead. Chad McDaniel sneaked a single through the left side in the bottom of the sixth to match Northwestern's first-inning tally. Then Paul Gomez came up with two men in scoring position in the bottom of the seventh.
"I just wanted to get a pretty good swing on the ball," Gomez said. "Barrel it up."
The senior did just that, lining the second pitch he saw from lefty Quinn Lavelle into left for a two-run double that gave Missouri its first and only lead.
TJ Sikkema kept the Wildcats to one run in seven innings, but Art Joven allowed a run in the eighth and only recorded one out before Dulle came in to slam the door.
Sikkema threw 68 pitches in the first three innings, and Bieser and co. weren't expecting the junior lefty to go too deep in Friday night's contest.
"He was just trying to be too fine, and Coach Corral and I talked about it, and we were like, 'Well, we're probably only going to get five out of him,'" Bieser said.
That soon changed, starting with a quick 1-2-3 fourth from the southpaw. He allowed just one baserunner from the fourth through sixth innings.
"I got my bearings there in the fourth inning, and ever since there it went pretty well," Sikkema said.
He struck out six Wildcats on Friday, and his ERA sits at just 0.68 on the season in 19.2 innings of work.
In his final frame, Sikkema gave the assembled crowd a good-sized scare. He got two outs but then gave up two straight hits, leaving men on first and third. Northwestern's Michael Trautwein chopped a 2-0 pitch to third base, though, and Gomez charged it to get the Wildcats catcher at first on a close play.
Not long after, of course, Gomez was able to deliver for his pitcher again. His clutch double won Friday night's game for the Tigers, but it also meant Sikkema was, deservingly, credited with the win.
Junior transfer LHP Jacob Cantleberry will get the ball for Saturday's 3 p.m. start at Taylor Stadium.
