NORMAL, Ill. -- The Missouri State baseball team was plagued by mistakes in the first three innings and could not overcome Illinois State’s early four-run lead in an 8-3 loss Sunday afternoon at Duffy Bass Field in Normal, Ill.

    The Bears dropped to 27-18 overall and 8-6 in Missouri Valley Conference play after taking the first two games from the Redbirds (28-15, 8-7).
   
    The first three innings set the tone as ISU scored in two of them without the benefit of a hit while the Bears wasted a golden opportunity in the third on the way to a 4-0 deficit.

    In the first, ISU’s Chad Hinshaw was hit by a pitch and scored by stealing second and gaining two extra bases when Luke Voit’s throw down went into center field and Aaron Conway bobbled it there to allow the run to score.

    Then in the top of the third, the Bears had runners on second and third with nobody out before getting a runner thrown out at home on a failed squeeze attempt before grounding into a double play with the bases loaded to end it.

    In the home half, the Redbirds took advantage of four walks, an error and passed ball to tack on three more unearned runs, ending Grant Gordon’s day after 2.2 innings in favor of Jake Powers, who got the final out to keep the score at 4-0.

    The Bears rallied in their next two at bats, getting a two-run double from Voit in the fourth after Travis McComack singled and Derek Mattea walked with two outs, and pulled to a 4-3 deficit in the fifth when Kevin Medrano singled, stole two bases and scored on a Spiker Helms ground out.

    The Redbirds opened the sixth with four consecutive singles, the fourth a sacrifice turned base hit that Powers threw wildly to first to let a run score to put the Bears behind 6-3.

    Ryan Court’s RBI single ended a streak of three consecutive two-out base hits for the Redbirds in the seventh, and he added a two-out RBI triple in the eighth after a bad hop prevented the Bears from making the third out a batter earlier, making the score 8-3.

    Gordon (3-5) suffered the loss despite allowing no earned runs on one hit in 2.2 frames. Powers tossed three innings, Clay Murphy threw two and J.C. Casey pitched the final out. ISU’s J.D. Learnard improved to 6-2 with 6.1 innings.

    The Bears return to action at home next weekend with a three-game series against Bradley beginning at 1 p.m. Friday.