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SPRINGFIELD – Just when the Missouri State softball Bears looked like they were down and out, they pulled out another cardiac comeback here Sunday, rallying with two outs in the seventh to defeat Indiana State, 5-4, and sweep the Sycamores in the three-game Missouri Valley Conference series.
 
"This club just fights and fights," said MSU head coach Holly Hesse. "They stay in the fight until the fight is over. Daphne just puts a ball in play at the end, and our magic season continues."
 
The Bears (32-16, 17-5 MVC), who entered the seventh down 4-3, got a two-out walk to senior Madison Jones to give MSU a spark of hope in the final frame. Then freshman Daphne Plummer, who finished the series 5-for-7, hit a liner that fell just in front of ISU left fielder Rebecca Gibbs.
 
Jones went to third on the play, but Gibbs threw into second base in hopes of getting Plummer, but her throw sailed into the right field corner, allowing both runners to score on a strange walk-off sequence and extend the Bears' winning streak to four games.
 
Indiana State had just taken the lead in the sixth on a four-run rally. The Sycamores (23-25, 10-13) plated four runs on four hits, including a key two-out, two-run single to center by Mallory Marsicek, who had six hits in the series, that gave the visitors a 4-3 advantage.
 
The Bears played small ball early in the game and rode the arm of starter Holly Kelley to build a 3-0 lead. Kelley gave up just five hits in the first five innings – all singles – before she was chased during ISU's sixth-inning rally.
 
MSU got on the board in the bottom of the first after back-to-back singles from Erika Velasquez Zimmer and Madison Jones set the stage for an MSU scoring opportunity. Plummer sacrificed the runners up 60 feet before Darian Frost scored Velasquez Zimmer with a sac fly to left to make it a 1-0 game.
 
It was déjà vu in the third when Velasquez Zimmer led the inning off with a base hit and Frost brought her home three batters later with a sacrifice fly to right. Plummer, who also reached with a hit in the inning, was stranded in scoring position, but MSU built its lead to 2-0.
 
Kelley helped her own cause in the fourth with a double to right. Fellow senior Allie Alvstad then brought Kelley around to score on a grounder up the middle the Sycamores threw away to give the Bears a three-run lead.
 
After the smoke cleared from the unlikely seventh-inning comeback, Steffany Dickerson (7-5) picked up her second victory of the weekend, giving up just the Marsicek single in her 1.2 innings of work with three strikeouts.
 
Indiana State, which out-hit the Bears on the afternoon, 9-6, got two hits apiece from Leslie Sims and Marsicek. Abbey Kruzel (4-7) took the hard-luck loss for the Sycamores.
   
 
Coming Up Next
The Bears wrap up the regular season next Saturday and Sunday, May 5-6, with a three-game series at Buel Field in Des Moines against the MVC regular-season champion Drake Bulldogs (38-10, 21-1 MVC).
 
"We were hoping to take a four-game win streak into Drake next week, and that's exactly what we're going to do," said Hesse.
 
For all the latest information on the Missouri State softball team, including weather and schedule updates, visit MissouriStateBears.com or follow @MSUSoftball on Twitter.
 
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