PEORIA, Ill. – A walk-off single from Bradley's Stacia Seeton put Missouri State on the wrong side of a back-and-forth contest as the Bears fell, 4-3 to the Braves here Friday afternoon in the series opener.
 
The setback ended MSU's five-game winning streak against Missouri Valley Conference opponents after the Bears swept Southern Illinois (March 24) and Drake (March 27-28) last week.
 
With a fierce breeze cooling things off in Peoria, the two teams traded punches throughout the game with the Bears (16-11, 7-2 MVC) tying things up in the sixth, only to have the hosts play spoiler and steal game one with the walk-off winner.  
 
The Braves (10-10, 3-4 MVC) got a quality start from Grace French (5-3) who battled with MSU starter Steffany Dickerson (7-6) as both pitchers looked sharp in the circle.  Dickerson held the Bradley lineup to just five hits in the contest while French minimized the damage as none of the eight hits she allowed went for extra bases. 
 
An RBI groundout led to the game's opening run in the bottom of the third as Bradley put two runners on before Lucy Mead came across to score on the small-ball play.
 
Missouri State countered in the following frame with a two-run fourth inning.  After a hit and a stolen base in the first, Krehbiel went right back to the well in her next at-bat to set the stage.  She knocked an 0-2 pitch to right center and followed with her second swipe of the game before moving over to third on a Darian Frost single. 
 
With Bears at second and third, Kelly Metter came through with a clutch two-out hit that fell to the grass just past the reach of a diving over-the-shoulder attempt from shortstop Mead and plated both runners to push MSU in front, 2-1.
 
Bradley continued the seesaw contest to retake the lead in the fifth.  A double off the bat of Avry Blume landed at the base of the fence in right and allowed the Braves to score a runner from first after Frost's tag at home plate was deemed not in time.  On the following at-bat, an excuse-me swing turned unfortunate for Missouri State as a ball off the knob of Seeton's bat resulted in a slow roller and allowed the second run of the inning to come across.
 
In the sixth, the Bears got another piece of two-out hitting with Payton Minnis registering the key hit to draw the game even.  Following an error and a walk in front of her, Minnis returned a ball back up the middle to bring the equalizer home.
 
After a quick 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the sixth, MSU looked to break the deadlock in the top of the seventh with the top of the order coming to the plate, but French induced back-to-back groundouts and ended the inning with just her second strikeout of the game.
 
A leadoff single in the decisive seventh inning brought in Madison Hunsaker to relieve Dickerson and the lefty hurler looked to have the threat neutralized after a foul out and a swing-and-miss before Seeton's fly ball landed safely in left field and allowed the game-winning run to slide across on another bang-bang play at the plate.
 
Krehbiel recorded her third two-hit performance of the year and extended her six-game hitting streak.  Metter's two-run single in the fourth gave the senior outfielder her third multi-RBI game of 2021. 
 
MSU kept the Braves defense on their toes with four stolen bases in the game with two from Krehbiel while Ellie McCoy and Skyler Shaw each swiped a base as well.
 
After weather conditions flip-flopped the two-day schedule, the two teams will close out the series with a doubleheader tomorrow (April 3) getting underway at 11 a.m.  Both games will be streamed on ESPN3.