EVANSVILLE, Ind. -- The Missouri State baseball team suffered a 5-4 defeat at Evansville Saturday, dropping its first Missouri Valley Conference series of the season and losing its first series overall since March 11-13 at Southern Miss.

    The Bears are now 24-17 and 6-5 in league play, while they have lost consecutive games for the first time since dropping five in a row from March 9-15. Evansville improved to 24-15 and 5-6 in the MVC.

    Missouri State trailed by multiple runs on three separate occasions and cut the lead to one each time in the game, but a pair of throwing errors led directly to Evansville runs and the Bears grounded into a game-ending double play with the bases loaded to end a frustrating afternoon.

    The Bears had a runner thrown out at the plate to end the third before Evansville grabbed a 2-0 lead in the bottom half, scoring on Trentt Copeland’s one-out single and later on a throwing error on a steal of third.

    Tyler Paxson made the score 2-1 with a sacrifice fly in the fourth, but a bloop single and Eric Stamets’ two-out double gave UE the run back in the bottom of the inning.

    Evansville pushed the lead to 4-1 in the fifth, scoring on a wild throw from Kevin Medrano after the junior second baseman cut off the throw to second on a double steal and fired high at home.

    Brent Seifert launched his eighth homer of the year in the sixth, a 400-plus foot shot to left that plated Spiker Helms and made the score 4-3, but UE answered again with an RBI triple by Jared Baehl for a 5-3 score in the seventh.

    Luke Voit hit a two-out RBI single in the eighth to pull the Bears within a run once more before they stranded runners on the corners, a precursor to an even bigger scoring threat in the ninth.

    Derek Mattea opened the MSU ninth with a walk, Aaron Conway was hit by a pitch and Medrano capped a 5-for-5 day with a single to left that loaded the bases with one out. Helms then worked a full count before grounding into the 4-6-3 double play to end it.

    Blake Barber (6-3) allowed two earned runs in six innings in the loss. Pierce Johnson allowed a run over the final two frames for the Bears. Cole Isom (5-4) gave up all four runs in 7.2 innings for the win. Jake Naumann picked up the save for the second straight game.

    Missouri State looks to avoid the sweep at 12 p.m. Sunday.