Game 1 Box Score | Game 2 Box Score | Season Stats | MVC-Only Stats
 
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – Missouri State collected 10 hits and got a quality pitching outing from Steffany Dickerson in a one-sided, 7-1, opener to Friday's MVC softball doubleheader here before the home standing Indiana State squad held off a late surge by the Bears to win game two, 2-1.
 
MSU (29-20, 13-11 MVC) also got three hits apiece from Dickerson and Daphne Plummer on the day with the sophomore tandem combining for five RBI.
 
"I thought we really attacked the ball in the first game and put pressure on them for seven innings," said MSU head coach Holly Hesse. "We barreled up some balls in game two, but just hit them right at them. Eventually they put up a couple of runs, and we really didn't threaten until the last inning, but I was proud of the way we went down with a fight."
 
Revised
The Bears and Sycamores are scheduled to play the final game of the series Saturday at 3 p.m. (Central) at Price Field in the regular-season finale for both teams. MSU is seeking back-to-back 30-win seasons for the first time since reeling off three straight NCAA Tournament appearances from 1996-98.
 
 
Game 1
Missouri State 7, Indiana State 1
 
Plummer went 3-for-4 with three RBI, and Dickerson went six strong innings in the circle to lead Missouri State to a convincing 7-1 victory in game one.
 
The Bears expanded an early 3-1 advantage by manufacturing four runs on five hits in the fourth inning to put the game out of reach. Alex Boze and Darby Joerling started the outburst with base hits before Kyana Mason sacrificed them into scoring position. Payton Minnis then blasted a two-run single to left to put the Bears ahead, 5-1.
 
Minnis advanced to third on the play after an errant throw by ISU left fielder Bailey Martin. Plummer then made it a 6-1 game soon after by smashing a double down the right field line to score Minnis. The Bears tacked on another run two batters later with a base hit to left by Dickerson to give MSU a 7-1 advantage.
 
Dickerson (19-10) pitched around runners in scoring position in the third, fourth and fifth innings. She got key strikeouts in each Sycamore rally in that span, including an inning-ending K of ISU cleanup hitter Amanda Guercio with the bases loaded in the fifth. The sophomore right-hander finished with four strikeouts for the game, allowing seven hits, no walks and run before giving way to Bailey Greenlee for a 1-2-3 seventh.
 
Dickson got the game's scoring started by helping her own cause in the top of the second, blasting a 1-1 pitch from Gabbi Schnaiter over the left field wall for her fourth homer of the season to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.
 
Indiana State retaliated in the home half of the second on Guercio's fifth home run of the season. Her one-out blast to straight-away center on a 2-0 pitch tied the game, 1-1.
 
The Bears broke on top for good in the third, sending eight batters to the plate and bringing two runs across to lead 3-1. Joerling started the rally with a leadoff walk before Mason reached on a bunt single. Minnis sacrificed both runners up 60 feet in advance of Plummer's two-run single that gave MSU a two-run cushion.
 
Mason finished 2-for-3 for Missouri State, giving the third baseman her 63^rd hit of the season and tying teammate Plummer's 2018 season total for the most hits by a Bear in a season since 1997.
 
Indiana State got two hits apiece from Guercio and Leslie Sims. Tessa Sims pitched 4.0 innings in relief for ISU, allowing two earned runs with three strikeouts, while Schnaiter (9-14) took the loss.
 
 
Game 2
Indiana State 2, Missouri State 1
 
Down by two in the last inning, Missouri State loaded the bases, scratched across a run and had Indiana State on the ropes. But the Sycamores retired the final two MSU hitters of the day with the game in the balance to squeak past the Bears, 2-1.
 
The visitors left seven runners on base and scratched five hits. Erin Griesbauer (7-8) took a hard-luck loss after pitching 4.1 innings and giving up just one earned run. She walked two, struck out three and gave up five hits. Dickerson (1.0 IP) and Greenlee (0.2) set down the final five ISU batters in the fifth and sixth to keep the Bears within striking distance down the stretch.
 
Dickerson led off the MSU seventh with a base hit to right. Two batters later, Rachel Weber reached on a single ahead of a walk to Boze loaded the bases with one out. Indiana State then made a pitching change to bring Arielle Blankenship out of the bullpen to spell starter Abbey Kruzel.
 
Blankenship walked Joerling on five pitches to force home a run and make it a 2-1 game. With the bases still loaded and the ISU infield drawn in, Mason hit a hard grounder to short that the Sycamores brought home to gun down Weber on a force play at the plate for the second out. The ISU reliever then got Minnis to ground out to short on a bang-bang play at first base to end it.
 
Kruzel (1-4) picked up her first win of the campaign after going 6.1 innings with two walks, no strikeouts and five hits.
 
The Sycamores (17-33, 5-20 MVC) broke up the scoreless game in the fifth, plating two runs off Griesbauer in what would be the winning rally. A leadoff double by Mallory Marsicek set the table for No. 9 hitter Bailey Martin who hit a grounder to third that Mason fired behind the lead runner. However Minnis mishandled the throw, putting the first two runners aboard after the error. Two batters later, pinch hitter Mycaela Miller cracked a double off the fence in right field to clear the bases and put the home team ahead, 2-0.
 
Shaye Barton went 2-for-3 for ISU with the only stolen base of the day for Indiana State.