EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Missouri State scored two runs in the eighth inning Friday to turn a tie game into a 5-3 victory in the opener of a four-game Missouri Valley Conference series at Evansville.

The Bears (13-10, 3-2 MVC) picked up their seventh win in the last nine games thanks to late RBI hits from Jaden Rolffs and Mason Hull to back up solid pitching performances from Logan Wiley and Trey Ziegenbein.

Missouri State jumped on the Purple Aces (18-13, 3-5) early, with Drake Baldwin driving home Cam Cratic with a first-inning single and Walker Jenkins smacking his first MSU homer in the second, a two-run shot over the right field wall that made it 3-0 Bears.

Evansville's Shane Gray, the reigning MVC Pitcher of the Week, settled in after that, facing the minimum 15 batters in his final five innings, allowing the Aces to pull even at 3-3 thanks to a two-out double from Kenton Crews in the third and two-run Tanner Craig homer in the sixth.

Gray exited after the seventh and the MSU offense regained steam in the eighth. Grant Wood led off with a single and scored on a Rolffs double into the left field corner before Hull singled to drive in Greg Ziegler, who pinch ran for Rolffs, to make it a 5-3 game.

Wiley tossed 6.1 innings for the Bears and struck out six before giving way to Ziegenbein (5-0), who allowed just one of the nine batters he faced to reach while finishing the game for the win.

The Bears and Aces play a doubleheader Saturday. Game one starts at 1 p.m.