Season Statistics | Highlights

SPRINGFIELD – Missouri State overcome a five-run deficit for the second time this season in Friday's home-opening win against Indiana, scoring seven runs in the fifth inning and getting a two-run homer in the eighth from Dakota Kotowski for a 9-7 victory over the Hoosiers at Hammons Field.

Trailing 5-0 in the fifth, Mason Hull kick-started the MSU (5-4) offense with a one-out double, Kotowski followed with a single and Mason Greer launched a three-run homer that landed on the roof of the Bill Rowe Training Facility beyond the right-center field wall for a 5-3 score.

The Bears then loaded the bases with two out in the frame and got an RBI single from Grant Wood and a bases-loaded walk from Cam Cratic before Hull's two-out single for a 7-5 lead. It was the second time this season that Hull recorded two hits in the same inning.

Indiana (2-6) got solo home runs in the seventh and eighth frames to pull even before Kotowski launched his Missouri Valley Conference-leading sixth home run of the season off the scoreboard in left-center for the 9-7 final.

Riyan Rodriguez steadied the game on the mound by tossing 3.2 innings in relief of Adam Link, striking out six and giving up a run on two hits. Trey Ziegenbein (2-1) pitched the last two innings and was credited with the win.

Missouri State's other five-run comeback this season was Feb. 27 against Cal Poly, when Bears trailed the Mustangs 5-0 in the sixth inning of an 8-5 win.

Game two of the series is set for 2 p.m. Saturday.