Box Score | Season Stats
 
SPRINGFIELD – Going for their first three-game sweep of Northern Iowa since 2006, the Missouri State softball Bears had Sunday's series finale within their grasp, but the Panthers plated the game's last run in a narrow 7-6 UNI win here.
 
The Bears (11-9, 2-1 MVC) rallied from a 2-0 deficit in the opening inning and a 6-3 deficit in the fifth, but the Panthers pushed ahead for good on an RBI double by Daryn Lamprecht in the top of the sixth and held on for the win.
 
Missouri State, which squeaked out a pair of one-run wins over UNI in Saturday's doubleheader, pounded out five extra-base hits in the contest, including three doubles in the bottom of the first.
 
Brooke Snider's two-run, two-out single to right in the top of the first gave the visitors an early 2-0 advantage before the Bears rallied in the bottom of the first to take the lead.  Daphne Plummer and Madison Hunsaker started the early rally with back-to-back doubles before Alex Boze tied the game with the third double of the opening frame for MSU. Tess Weakly then gave the momentum back to the home side with an RBI single to cap a furious opening inning and make it a 3-2 contest.
 
That score held until the fifth when UNI (10-12, 1-2), opened up the biggest rally of the weekend, plating four runs on three hits, a pair of walks and a sac fly to take a 6-3 lead. Taylor Hogan's sac fly to left tied the game before Faith Standerski gave the visitors a one-run lead on a single off Bears reliever Steffany Dickerson. Kamryn Shaffer then opened things up with a two-run double that made it 6-3.
 
However, Missouri State was game for a fight and stormed back to knot things up again in the bottom of the inning. A leadoff single by Plummer was rewarded two batters later on a triple by Olivia Krehbiel. Moments later, Boze smashed a two-run homer into the stiff winds and over the left field fence to tie things up, 6-6.
 
It was Boze's second homer of the week and third of the season.
 
Lamprecht gave UNI the lead again in the sixth, but the Bears had an opportunity in the home half of the seventh. Plummer was hit by a pitch to lead off the final frame as she reached for the fourth time on the day. But a sacrifice bunt attempt by Hunsaker was snagged out of the air by UNI reliver Kailyn Packard who fired to first to double off Plummer and shift the momentum. Krehbiel then got aboard via a walk to bring up the red-hot Boze as the potential winning run, but Packard (7-3) ended it on a strikeout to close out the game.
 
The Panthers scattered nine hits and seven walks, stranding 10 on the afternoon to pick up their first league win.
 
Dickerson (4-5), who picked up both wins on Saturday, was tagged with the loss, despite striking out three in 2.2 innings of relief.
 
Plummer and Boze led MSU's offensive efforts with two hits apiece, while Darian Frost walked twice.
 
Missouri State returns to Valley action Wednesday afternoon at Southern Illinois for a 12 Noon doubleheader in Carbondale. The Bears then return home next weekend for a three-game set against Drake, Saturday and Sunday (March 27-28) at Killian Stadium.