Box Score | Final Season Stats
 
PEORIA, Ill. – A five-run third inning by No. 9 seeded Indiana State completely changed the complexion of Thursday's Missouri Valley Conference Tournament second-round game here. The Sycamores pounded out 12 hits in the game and held off a late rally by Missouri State to eliminate the Bears, 10-8.
 
Trailing 10-4 in the bottom of the seventh, Missouri State (30-21) got a grand slam from sophomore Kelly Metter to make a game of it. Hits in the inning by Daphne Plummer and Madison Hunsaker set the stage for the late surge. Steffany Dickerson lined into a 9-5 double play in which Plummer was tagged out on an over-slide at third, however Rachel Weber redeemed MSU's rally moments later with a double to left. Alex Boze then walked to load the bases for Metter who smacked her third home run of the season.
 
Metter also matched her career high for RBI (4) in making it a two-run contest.
 
ISU (19-34) closed the door with a strikeout to end it and send the No. 5 seeded Bears home with a loss less than a week after MSU took two-of-three from ISU in Terre Haute.
 
"This is not the way I wanted our season to end, but I'm certainly proud of the fight we showed to the very end," said MSU head coach Holly Hesse. "Our young Bears learned so much this season, and I couldn't ask for a team that fights any harder than we did all season."
 
ISU tallied five runs on five hits in the top of the third to overcome an early 3-0 lead by the Bears. The first four Sycamores to face Dickerson in the decisive inning reached safely before back-to-back doubles by Bella Peterson and Brooke Mann took MSU's All-MVC hurler out of the game. Erin Griesbauer came out of the bullpen to strike out the first two batters she faced and end the inning, but not before ISU gained a 5-3 advantage.
 
The Sycamores tacked on two more in the fourth, stringing together three hits off Griesbauer to lead 7-3. RBI singles from Shaye Barton and Amanda Guercio pushed ISU's advantage to four runs.
 
MSU chipped away in the fifth, capitalizing on the third error of the game for the Sycamores on a leadoff line drive off the bat of Plummer that Martin misjudged. The MSU shortstop would come around to score two batters later on a line drive single by Dickerson to make it 7-4. The Bears eventually loaded the bases before reliever Arielle Blankenship and the Sycamores retired MSU pinch hitter Hope Hamilton on a grounder to second.
 
Indiana State gained separation in the sixth, plating three more insurance runs to earn its biggest lead of the day, 10-4. A clutch, two-out single up the middle by Guercio made it 8-4 before Peterson greeted reliever Bailey Greenlee with a base hit up the middle to push the Sycamores up by six.
 
Guercio and Peterson accounted for two hits apiece for ISU, while Leslie Sims went 3-for-5 with three infield singles as part of a 12-hit barrage from the Sycamores.
 
Early in the game, it looked as if Missouri State would meet little resistance from the ISU squad. The Bears jumped all over ISU starter Gabbi Schnaiter for three runs in the first. Kyana Mason cracked her 64^th hit of the season to right on the first pitch of the game. Payton Minnis then bunted the ball over the head of a charging Barton to put the first two runners on. Plummer then attempted to sacrifice the first two runners over, but Schnaiter sailed the throw down the right field line to score two runs, ultimately putting Plummer on third. Madison Hunsaker then brought the MSU shortstop home with a sacrifice fly to left to make it a 3-0 game out of the gates.
 
Dickerson (20-11) pitched a 1-2-3 second before ISU broke loose in the third. She finished with four strikeouts and a walk while giving up six hits and five earned runs.
 
Weber led MSU's offense with a pair of hits. Metter's grand slam was just the second of the season for the Bears, joining Weber whose first career home came at Illinois State on a grand slam against the Redbirds on April 13.
 
Mason's 64 hits is tied for the fourth-most in a season by a Missouri State player and the most by any Bear since 1997.