Scranton: Missouri State is in a late-season swoon. It can’t afford more letdowns.

Trouble is, the Bears have looked anything but an NCAA Tournament team over the last two weeks, dropping seven of their last eight. It’s pretty much been an across-the-board struggle, be it timely hitting or throwing strikes. 

The pitching staff, which hasn’t produced consistently, continues to scuffle. Even the once-mighty offense has sprung leaks of late, perhaps bowing to pressure to produce while pitching struggles, averaging just 4.3 runs in the seven losses. That’s less than half what it was averaging prior to a 10-5 home loss to Western Kentucky on April 19 that kicked off the stretch of poor results.

A clearly frustrated team sped to the locker room faster than Kentucky Derby winner Golden Tempo after the game. Coach Joey Hawkins stuck around to address the concerns about his team that could have pretty well clinched its at-large fate with a series win.

“The effort this weekend wasn’t good enough,” Hawkins said. “When you look at the six remaining league games, we got to take care of business and get into that conference tournament on a high note. 

“There’s a path,” Hawkins added of getting to postseason as an at-large from a strong CUSA. “There’s a path, but if you want to talk about that stuff? You better back it up with your play. Right now, we’re not playing postseason championship baseball. So, the opportunities are there, but the margins get slimmer the more you play like we did today.”

The pitching, which has been unsteady most of the season, saw big struggles after Jason Schaaf threw seven strong innings in the series opener. Most concerning are freebies being issued, including a season-high 10 walks and two hit batters in the finale. Six of those free passes came around to score.

In the middle innings, after the Bears scored in back-to-back innings to cut the deficit to two runs, Missouri State walked or hit the Jacksonville State leadoff man in five consecutive innings. It was maddening to watch as a 4-2 Gamecocks’ lead grew to 8-4.

“Today was pretty black and white,” Hawkins said. “We were chasing ourselves all game. And, you’re never gonna win games letting the lead off guy get on, seven out of nine times. That’s a terrible recipe for success, and we gotta make an adjustment on that pretty quick.”

Asked how to fix a leaky pitching staff this late in the season, Hawkins admitted solutions aren’t easy to locate.

“It’s hard. There’s no trades, there’s no waiver wire,” Hawkins said “You are who you are, it’s the roster we;ve got. We’ve just gotta get out of our own way. We gotta be tougher mentally. 

“You know, to come out and grab that first one on Friday, and then have the showing we did the last two days … to me, we just looked like we were on our heels and we were scared to be out there.”

Seven games remain, beginning with a Power 4 opponent on Tuesday at Kansas State visits Route 66 Stadium for an 11 a.m. game – weather permitting. The Wildcats, at No. 66, are a good RPI opponent out of the Big 12. 

The Bears then wrap the home schedule with a series against No. 185 New Mexico State next weekend with three straight 11 a.m. games. Any loss to the worst RPI team on the schedule would send Missouri State’s rating into a tumble. 

The final game of that series, due to a scheduling conflict with the Springfield Cardinals, will be at Mark Worley Field at Meador Park, Missouri State’s home until 2000. Thankfully, Drury has given Meador a  nice makeover in recent years. 

Missouri State will conclude the regular season May 15-17 at Kennesaw State (RPI of 98) and stick around Atlanta for the league tourney that begins a few days later.

It would be a shame to see this Missouri State team, with its outstanding offense, not make it to the NCAA Tournament. The next two weeks will tell a lot and serve as a big moment in Hawkins’ young coaching career.

Headed to the postgame meeting with his team, Hawkins talked about how to bust out of a drought. He’s been through lots of good and bad as a player at Missouri State and as a coach here.

“Ownership and accountability is the first step,” Hawkins said. “You can’t point fingers, you can’t hope it just gets better. You gotta be able to look yourself in the mirror, figure out what you have to do as an individual, and then what we have to do as a team.

“You can’t be scared this time of year,” he added. “That’s the biggest thing. 

If you’re scared, you ain’t gonna get in postseason.”