Missouri State

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SPRINGFIELD – A bases-loaded grounder by Darby Joerling with two outs in the bottom of the seventh brought home Bailey Greenlee with the winning run to lift Missouri State (23-14, 9-5 MVC) to a 2-1 win over visiting Southern Illinois here Tuesday.
 
Joerling's grounder was fielded by SIU pitcher Claire Miller (6-3) who snagged the ball and came home with an errant throw to allow Greenlee to score from third and the Bears to celebrate a series win. The teams split a doubleheader in Carbondale on March 12 to set up Tuesday's decisive game.
 
Steffany Dickerson (15-6) picked up the win for MSU as she went the distance, allowing just five hits – all singles -- with three strikeouts and four walks. She recorded her 100^th strikeout of the season in the fifth inning and became just the third Bears' pitcher since 2013 to reach the 15-win plateau.
 
Dickerson also had two hits in the game to lead the MSU offense, including a base hit up the middle in the seventh that followed Greenlee's pinch hit single to center. Payton Minnis was hit by a pitch two batters later to load the bases for Kyana Mason with one out. Mason hit a short fly ball to left for the second out, but Joerling came up big moments later to send the Bears home happy.
 
"I can't say enough for how hard our team competed today," said MSU head coach Holly Hesse. "Everyone battled in the seventh inning, Erin (Griesbauer) had a fantastic at-bat in the fifth to give us a chance to score a run, and Steffany Dickerson was composed and in command all day against a great team."
 
Southern Illinois (23-10, 8-4 MVC) had base runners in every inning but the second, but MSU's defense rose to the occasion in every frame but the third. Kyleigh Decker's leadoff walk led to the game's first run after she was bunted over to third ahead of an RBI single by Susie Baranski.
 
SIU had runners at second and third in the fourth with one out, and a runner at third with one out in the seventh. But key plays by Daphne Plummer in both instances got the Bears out of trouble.
 
MSU tied the game in the bottom of the fifth after a one-out single to left by Dickerson brought up DP Erin Griesbauer. After a 13-pitch at-bat, Griesbauer moved pinch runner Abi LaValley over to third with a ground ball out to bring up Minnis. The MSU freshman second baseman delivered with a single up the middle to knot the score, 1-1.
 
Mason followed with MSU's third hit of the inning to chase SIU starter Brianna Jones who faced 19 batters and struck out just one Bear in 4.2 innings of work.
 
The Bears, who out-hit the Salukis 6-5, were 8-of-14 in advancement opportunities on the day with seven runners left on base.
 
Missouri State wraps the mid-week home stand Wednesday at 5 p.m. against Tulsa (26-12) with first pitch at Killiian Stadium set for 5:02 p.m.