Season Statistics

SPRINGFIELD – Missouri State rallied for a decisive game two victory of Saturday's doubleheader at Hammons Field, topping visiting Southeast Missouri State 9-3 in the nightcap after a 6-3 setback in the series opener.

The Bears moved to 9-8 overall while SEMO is 14-4. The series concludes Sunday at 1 p.m.

Game 1 Recap (SEMO won, 6-3)
Missouri State committed a season-high five errors which led to four unearned runs for the visitors in a 6-3 loss.

The Bears struck first when Mason Hull, Cam Cratic and Will Duff got hits on three consecutive pitches in the second for a 2-0 lead.

SEMO put up five runs in the third courtesy of three hits, a walk and two errors and never looked back, adding a run after a leadoff error two innings later to lead 6-2.

Dakota Kotowski swatted his ninth homer of the season in the sixth for the final margin. The Bears had one final chance with the bases loaded and one out in the eighth before SEMO's Kyle Miller coaxed a foul out and a strikeout en route to the save.

Adam Link (2-2) went five innings and allowed two earned runs with five strikeouts, while the bullpen tossed four scoreless frames to end the game. Riyan Rodriguez struck out six in his three innings of relief.

Cratic, Duff and Baldwin each tallied two hits and an RBI.

Game 2 Recap (Missouri State won, 9-3)
Missouri State pounded 17 hits and Trey Ziegenbein (3-1) tossed a career-high 4.2 innings of shutout relief to help the Bears overcome a 3-1 deficit midway through the contest.

Cratic, Duff, Spencer Nivens and Grant Wood all had multiple hits and two RBI, and Wood extended his reached base streak to 17 games.

Missouri State overcame two separate deficits in the first five innings, with Duff driving in Nivens for a 1-1 tie in the third and the Bears scoring on a Nivens RBI ground out and wild pitch for a 3-3 score after five innings.

Cratic's go-ahead RBI single drove in Kotowski in the sixth and put MSU ahead 4-3, and the senior added another RBI single in the eighth, which was followed by a Wood two-run double, Nivens RBI single and Duff RBI double for a five-run frame.

Ziegenbein allowed just two hits and struck out five in relief of starter Reece Lang, adding to a scoreless streak for the MSU bullpen that now sits at 22.1 innings dating to March 8.