A long-ball barrage by the Bradley Braves at the start of the contest settled the issue early as the Braves rolled to an 8-3 win over Missouri State in an elmination game of the Missouri Valley Conference Baseball Championship Friday afternoon at Hammons Field in Springfield, ending the Bears’ 2007 season.
  The loss dropped Missouri State to 1-2 in the tournament and closed the Bears’ season at 23-34. It was only the Bears’ third losing season in the past 40 years of the program’s history but managed to surpass the previous school record for losses in a campaign, set in 2000 when MSU was 24-33. Bradley’s win advanced the 32-20 Braves into a Friday night meeting against Creighton. At 2-0, the Bluejays are the only team in the meet left without a tourney loss.
  Missouri State, after starting the year with 19 wins in its first 31 games, finished by dropping 22 of its last 26 outings. The Bears tied for eighth in the regular season MVC standings with a 7-17 conference mark.
  Bradley got home runs in each of the first four innings to build a 7-0 lead and the Bears never threatened to get back into the contest. The Braves’ Paul Rice followed a Dan Brewer triple with a two-run blast in the first, and Rice led off the third with a solo round-tripper. Ryan Eigsti homered in the second and Brewer followed a walk with his 10th homer of the campaign in the fourth.
  The Bears got singles from Kyle Paul in the third, Nolan Keane in the fourth, Ben Woodbury in the fifth and Brayden Drake in the seventh. MSU had the bases loaded with one out in the fourth but a strikeout and a popout ended the threat.
  Missouri State got onto the scoreboard with one out in the eighth as Tanner Mattson and Keane hit back-to-back solo homers. That drove Bradley starter Brad Altbach from the mound, ending a string of 20 straight innings in which he had not allowed an earned run. Altbach got the win to climb to 7-2 for the season.
 Missouri State starter Pat Doyle was tagged for four runs and four hits in two innings of work and took the loss, while Tim Clubb relieved and allowed three hits and three runs in an inning and a third.
  The Bears plated their final tally in the ninth on Chris Taylor’s double, a single by Drake and a sacrifice fly by Paul.
  The Braves’ extra-base barrage included four homers, a triple, three doubles and no singles. Ryan Curry’s second double of the game was his 252nd hit as a Brave, setting a new Bradley school mark for career hits.
