SPRINGFIELD – For the second straight night, the Missouri State baseball Bears scored in the bottom of the ninth inning to beat Bradley, this time getting a walk-off single from Mason Hull for a 4-3 victory in game two of Friday's doubleheader at Hammons Field.

The Bears moved to 10-9 overall and 2-1 in Missouri Valley Conference play, striking out 25 BU hitters in 16 innings, while Bradley is 7-11 and 1-2 in league games.

The Braves won the opener 10-1, and the teams conclude their four-game set Saturday at 1 p.m. at Hammons Field.

Game One Recap – Bradley 10, Missouri State 1 (7 innings)
Bradley's Matt Hamilton tossed a complete game and Connor O'Brien went 3-for-4 with four RBI to lead the Braves to the 10-1 victory.

The Braves turned an error into a run in the top of the first and the Bears tied it with three consecutive two-out singles in the second, the last off the bat of Blake Mozley to drive in Drake Baldwin for the 1-1 tie.

MSU starter Matt Russell (1-1) retired eight in a row from the first to fourth innings and struck out a career-high 10 batters in six frames to become the first Missouri State hurler with double-digit Ks since April 2019.

The Bradley bats woke up with four singles in the fourth for a 3-1 lead and added two more runs in the fifth before O'Brien's three-run homer was the big blow in a five-run seventh for the 10-1 final.

Hamilton (2-0) allowed just two MSU baserunners after the second inning.

Game Two Recap – Missouri State 4, Bradley 3
Hull's first hit of the season could not have been more timely, as the junior pulled a single through the left side to bring Landen Wood home from second as the winning run. Jaden Rolffs and Greg Ziegler each walked to set the stage, with the speedy Wood pinch-running for Rolffs.

Rolffs belted his seventh home run of the season to tie the game at 3-3 in the seventh, sending a two-run shot out of the stadium in left field with his fourth round-tripper in the last five games.

Bradley grabbed a 3-1 lead in the top of the seventh after loading the bases with nobody out, ending a long scoreless stretch for both sides.

Rolffs walked and scored on Dakota Kotowski's sacrifice fly for a 1-0 lead in the second, and BU evened the score on Keaton Rice's two-out RBI single in the third.

Jared Viertel struck out a career-high seven batters in four innings in the start, and Trey Ziegenbein (4-0) tossed three scoreless innings to pick up the win in relief.