Box Score | Season Stats
 
CLEARWATER, Fla. – Boosted by a complete-game shutout from pitcher Steffany Dickerson, Missouri State picked up its first win of the season here Sunday morning with a 3-0 victory over Baylor to close out the NFCA Division I Leadoff Classic. 
 
The Bears (1-4) scored a run in the second and two more in the third, while Dickerson struck out seven and walked just one in a complete-game effort. The junior right-hander was also named to the all-tournament team.
 
The matchup paired the two longest-tenured coaching staffs in NCAA Division I.
 
Coach Holly Hesse's squad broke open the scoring in the bottom of the second after Dickerson helped her cause with an RBI single.  Madison Hunsaker led off the inning with a single and pinch-runner Hannah Heinrichs tallied her first run of the year on Dickerson's two-out hit.
 
Missouri State kept up the pressure in the third, scoring a pair off Baylor starter Sidney Mansell.  Bailey Greenlee reached on an error to open the inning and came around to score on Daphne Plummer's RBI single.  An errant Baylor throw allowed Tess Weakly to reach, and the freshman first baseman raced home moments later on a wild pitch to increase MSU's lead to 3-0.
 
Baylor (2-2) put the pressure on MSU in the fifth.  After a leadoff single, Maddison Kettler was ruled out of the box to take away a hit.  Dickerson then worked her way out of a bases-loaded jam with an emphatic strikeout to end the scoring threat.
 
Plummer, Weakly, Hunsaker, and Dickerson provided the hits for Missouri State with Plummer and Dickerson collecting their first RBIs of the new season. 
 
Dickerson allowed just one earned run in 14.0 innings of the season-opening tournament while facing some of the top hitters in the nation.
 
Missouri State is back in action with the North Texas Invitational in Denton, Texas, Feb. 14-15.  The Bears begin the tournament with Friday games against Creighton (2 p.m.) and Abilene Christian (4:30 p.m.) before playing UT Martin and host North Texas on Saturday.