Game 1 Box Score | Game 2 Box Score | Highlights | Season Stats | MVC-Only Stats
 
SPRINGFIELD – With the wind blowing out at Killian Stadium, visiting Evansville muscled up for four home runs and 21 total hits here Friday to earn a doubleheader sweep of Missouri State, 3-1 and 11-7.
 
The Bears (26-16, 11-7 MVC) were held to four singles in game one, but had the Purple on the ropes in game two, taking a 7-6 lead into the top of the seventh before UE cleared the fence twice in the final inning to steal the win.
 
Kyana Mason had three hits on the day to lead MSU, which set a season high for walks in the second game by receiving 14 free passes from Evansville (15-25, 6-12 MVC) pitchers.
 
The same teams play again Saturday at 11 a.m. with a free Easter egg hunt and softball clinic (ages 12 and under) immediately following the game.
 
 
Game 1
Evansville 3, Missouri State 1
 
Evansville scored three runs in the third inning off MSU starter Steffany Dickerson (17-7) and held off a late surge by the Bears to win the opener, 3-1.
 
Dickerson went the distance and faced just five over the minimum, striking out three and walking none. She also led all players with a 2-for-3 day at the plate, helping the Bears to their only run of the game.
 
Evansville's third-inning fireworks started with an MSU throwing error, followed by a base hit from Eryn Gould that brought Toni Galas home after a controversial obstruction call was made on Bears' shortstop Daphne Plummer. Darby Joerling then came up with a sensational diving play in centerfield for the first out of the inning, but the Aces responded with a two-run blast by Lindsay Renneisen to left, her seventh home of the year, to make it 3-0.
 
After Missouri State put two on with two outs in the bottom of the first, Evansville starter Emily Lockhart (6-12) set down 11 straight Bears before Dickerson's single in the fifth. Alex Boze then singled home pinch runner Abi LaValley to make it a 3-1 game.
 
Dickerson reached again in the seventh with a one-out single to left, but Boze bounced into a game-ending double play in just the fourth home loss of the season for Missouri State.
 
Lockhart struck out seven and walked two in a complete-game performance.
 
 
Game 2
Evansville 11, Missouri State 7
 
In a wild second game, Missouri State racked up the fifth-most walks in the NCAA this season with 14 free passes issued by Evansville pitchers, but the Purple Aces smacked two home runs in the seventh inning to escape with an 11-7 victory.
 
Bailee Bostic's solo home run to start the top of the seventh tied the game, 7-7, before Haley Woolf cracked a two-out grand slam to left for her fourth homer of the year in what proved to be the game winner.
 
Dickerson (17-8) came out of the bullpen in the fifth and was tagged with her second loss of the day, striking out two batters in 1.1 innings but allowing four hits and a pair of walks. She gave way to Bailey Greenlee with no outs in the seventh. Greenlee retired two hitters, including a strikeout, but issued an intentional walk then a single to Katie McLean to load the bases ahead of Woolf's long fly ball into the jet stream.
 
The Bears, who erased a three-run deficit in the fourth with a five-run inning, stranded 12 runners in the game, matching a season high.
 
Evansville built a 4-1 lead through two-and-a-half innings before MSU batted around in the bottom of the fourth to take a 6-4 lead. A bases-loaded walk by Kelly Metter made it a 4-2 contest. Pinch hitter Hope Hamilton then tattooed a ball to left field for her first career homer – a three-run shot – to put the home side ahead by two.
 
MSU reliever Madison Hunsaker was tagged with a pair of earned runs in the top of the fifth to tie the game, but Hunsaker redeemed herself in the bottom of the frame when she drew a bases-loaded walk to give the Bears a 7-6 advantage.
 
That lead held until the final frame when the Aces scored five times on four hits in the seventh to win it.
 
Mason had two hits to lead the Bears while Metter and Dickerson each walked three times.
 
Gould went 2-for-4 with 2 RBI for Evansville, including her eighth home run of the season on a 3-2 pitch in the top of the first. She was one of seven Evansville players to rack up multiple hits in game two as part of a 16-hit barrage.
 
Lockhart (7-12) retired seven of the nine hitters she faced to close out the game and pick up her second win of the afternoon.