SPRINGFIELD – Missouri State softball took both games of a Missouri Valley Conference twin bill to sweep visiting Drake here Saturday at Killian Stadium.
 
The Bears (15-9, 6-1 MVC), who have won six of their first seven league games, came out on top, 5-4 in game one before pitcher Madison Hunsaker helped bring out the brooms with a complete-game outing in MSU's 4-1 win in the nightcap.
 
"I'm very proud of our team on being able to come out here and pick up two more important league wins for us," said head coach Holly Hesse.  "Our bats have really started to come around and I was happy to see that continue today with even more consistency up and down our lineup.  Our pitchers, Steff (Dickerson) and Rocket (Hunsaker), were excellent again today at attacking the opposing batters and stepped up to hold a challenging Drake team from gaining much traction."
 
Game 1
Bears 5, DU 4
A pair of four-run innings from both sides in the third canceled each other out before a bases-loaded walk in the sixth brought the winning run across for the Bears in the series opener.
 
The Bulldogs (5-17, 1-4 MVC) were first to the scoreboard with their four-run third inning.  Three straight singles did the damage with a two-out hit from Aubree Beitzinger capping the game's first rally and giving the visitors a 4-0 favor. 
 
Drake's lead turned brief as the Bears countered right back in the home half of the fourth to erase the four-run deficit with a quartet of their own.  After Darian Frost's RBI single produced the opening run, Tess Weakly and Kelly Metter connected on back-to-back home runs to draw the game even.  With Weakly just missing on a grand slam in the first inning, the sophomore slugger barreled up on her next at-bat to smack her second home run of the year while Metter followed with a solo shot equalizer.
 
MSU, who loaded bases in the first and fifth as well, broke through in the bottom of the sixth by showing off its patience at the plate and earning three free passes with the final one putting Darian Frost on with nowhere else to go and allowing Payton Minnis to trot home for the game-winner.
 
Winner of four of her last five decisions, Steffany Dickerson (6-5) went the distance for the sixth time in 2021 and allowed three earned runs while striking out two.
 
Frost reached safely in all three of her at-bats, drawing two walks to go along with her run-scoring hit.  The dingers from Weakly and Metter continued a recent power trend for MSU, who have raked seven home runs in the past seven games.
 
Game 2
Bears 4, DU 1
Missouri State scored four runs off of eight hits while Hunsaker blanked the Bulldogs for six innings en route to a 4-1 victory.
 
Hunsaker (6-2) tallied five strikeouts in her seven innings of work and kept the Drake batters off-balanced by mixing speeds which resulted in the Bulldogs being able to string together just five hits against the lefty hurler.
 
Carrying the momentum over from game one, the Bears got right into their scoring ways in the bottom of the first with consecutive singles from Hunsaker and Krehbiel leading to the first run.  Later in the inning, Weakly added her second straight multi-RBI game with a single to left field and extending MSU's lead to 3-0 in the opening frame.
 
From there, Hunsaker battled with Bulldogs starter Mackenzie Hupke (2-2) as both pitchers matched their counterpart with three consecutive scoreless innings.
 
In the fifth, a leadoff walk from Krehbiel led to the Bears' fourth run as Frost brought her teammate all the way around to score from first on an RBI double that was laced to the gap in right center.
 
The Bulldogs spoiled Hunsaker's spotless outing by scratching their first run of the game across in the top of the seventh.  A two-out triple from Macy Johnson broke up the shutout, but resulted in a fruitless last-ditch attempt as Daphne Plummer gathered a grounder on the ensuing at-bat and fired to first to seal another day-one sweep for the Bears.
 
All eight of MSU's hits came from different players for an all-round attack out of the Bears' dugout.  Freshman Annie Mueller recorded her first extra-base hit as a Bear with a leadoff double in the fourth inning.  Metter extended her hitting streak to four games while adding another walk to her day.    
 
The two teams return to Killian tomorrow morning for the series finale with first pitch scheduled for 11 a.m.