The Missouri State baseball team surrendered a six-run third inning to Creighton and never got enough offense to come back as the Bluejays salvaged the final game of the Missouri Valley Conference series with an 8-4 win Sunday afternoon at Hammons Field.

The Bears fell to 14-5 overall and 2-1 in MVC play, while CU improved to 14-6 and 1-2 in the league.

Creighton’s big third inning nearly wasn’t as the Bluejays had plated just one run with two outs on the board. CU loaded the bases with no outs but MSU starter Aaron Meade (3-1) got a double play ball to leave just a runner on third with one run in. Darin Ruf singled home the second run and Meade then walked a batter and hit two more before a three-run double by Joe Servais accounted for the 6-0 lead.

Missouri State got two runs back in the bottom of the third by stringing together three consecutive two-out hits. Brayden Drake extended his hit streak to 15 games, the longest such MSU streak since 2005, with a dribbler in front of the catcher that scored Chris Playter from third, and Ben Carlson singled in Nolan Keane to make it a 6-2 game.

The Bears took advantage of two walks and a CU fielding error to cut one more run off the lead in the fourth, but the Bluejays held the MSU offense in check after that and got a two-run homer from Vicente Cafaro in the seventh to move ahead 8-3.

Ryan Mantle led off the eighth with his first home run of the season, and Ben Woodbury and Keane opened the ninth with consecutive singles before ambidextrous Pat Venditte (2-2) reliever retired the next three batters in order for the victory after 5.1 innings of relief.

Missouri State stranded 11 runners in the game, while four pitchers combined to hit six Bluejays.

The Bears begin a two-game set at Southeast Missouri State at 5 p.m. Tuesday in Cape Girardeau.