Game 1 Box Score | Game 2 Box Score | Season Stats
 
CARBONDALE, Ill. – Missouri State earned a dramatic 5-3 win in its Missouri Valley Conference softball opener against Southern Illinois here Tuesday afternoon, before dropping the second game of the twin bill, 11-2, to the Salukis.
 
The series was originally slated for Wednesday, but was moved up a day earlier to accommodate anticipated rain in the Carbondale area the rest of the week.
 
"Game one was really a gut check performance by Steffany Dickerson in the circle, and excellent focus by our batters late in a close ball game," said MSU head coach Holly Hesse. "We had a rough first inning in the second game which put us in a hole that we weren't able to recover from. The thing I liked is we never stopped competing, and our young players really got a full dose of Missouri Valley Conference softball."
 
The game one victory by Missouri State extended its win streak to six games at the time, the club's longest since 2015. It was also the third time this season the Bears have won a game in their final at-bat.
 
Missouri State will step out of Valley play Thursday for a single game at Southeast Missouri State at 4 p.m., before resuming MVC games at home Saturday and Sunday against Loyola.
 
 
Game 1
Missouri State 5, Southern Illinois 3
 
A two-out, two-run single up the middle by freshman Rachel Weber in the top of the seventh lifted the Bears to a 5-3 comeback win in game one.
 
Weber's game-winner followed an RBI single by Steffany Dickerson that tied the game two batters earlier. Dickerson (8-3) pitched her third complete game of the season and struck out five, including a noteworthy strikeout against Katelyn Massa to end the game and lift MSU to its sixth straight victory.
 
The late-inning heroics were set up by a leadoff walk in the seventh by Darby Joerling and sacrifice bunt by Kyana Mason that the Salukis bobbled to put the first two runners on for the Bears.
 
Earlier, Southern Illinois jumped out in front on a two-run homer by Ashley Wood in the first, but the Bears made adjustments the second time through the order and tied things up in the third. RBI singles by Daphne Plummer and Madison Hunsaker pulled the visitors even, 2-2, after a leadoff walk to Joerling started the rally.
 
The Salukis then retook the lead, 3-2, in the bottom of the third after stringing together three straight singles. Massa's hit to left pushed SIU back on top with what would be scored an RBI double.
 
But Dickerson and the Bears settled in from there, keeping the Salukis off the scoreboard for the final four innings, in a game in which both teams tallied eight hits.
 
 
Game 2
Southern Illinois 11, Missouri State 2 (5 innings)
 
SIU pounded out nine hits and smacked four home runs to cruise to an 11-2, five-inning victory over the Bears in game two
 
The nightcap started off well for Missouri State with Dickerson picking up where she left off in the opener. After an infield hit by Mason and a wild pitch, Dickerson slammed a double to left center to put the Bears on top 1-0 in the opening inning.
 
But the Salukis responded with a vengeance, mounting a seven-run, five-hit attack in the bottom of the first to take a commanding lead. SIU got on the board first with a three-run home by Wood, her second of the day, then tacked on another tally with a double by Massa. Bailey Greenlee relieved Bears' starter Erin Griesbauer, but after retiring the first batter she faced, Jordan Spicer added another SIU home run to make it 7-1.
 
Massa tallied another RBI single in the second to make it an 8-1 game.
 
The Bears added a single tally in the third on a groundout by Hunsaker that brought Mason home from third.  However, Southern Illinois smacked another couple of homers in the home half of the fifth to end the game on the run rule, 11-2.
 
Mason finished 2-for-3 to lead MSU's five-hit performance, while MSU's 1-2-3 hitters combined to go 4-for-9.
 
Jenny Jansen led the Salukis with a 3-for-3 performance with a home run.