MVC Tournament Central | Season Statistics

SPRINGFIELD – Missouri State claimed its fifth Missouri Valley Conference Tournament championship Sunday afternoon with a 13-3 victory over top-seeded Southern Illinois in the winner-take-all title game after the Salukis forced the issue with a 9-6 win in Sunday's first contest at Hammons Field.

The Bears (30-27) will head to their 12th NCAA Tournament in the school's Division I era in first since 2018 with the league's automatic bid and find out their destination Monday, May 30, at 11 a.m. when the NCAA Selection Show airs live on ESPN2. MSU will also host a watch party at Buffalo Wild Wings (900 E Battlefield Road).

Mason Greer was named the tournament MVP and was joined on the all-tournament team by fellow Bears Drake Baldwin, Grant Wood, Walker Jenkins, Cam Cratic and Riyan Rodriguez. Baldwin also earned the league's Elite 17 award as the player with the highest cumulative grade point average that participated in the title game.

Missouri State also won the Valley Tournament in 1996, 1997, 2015 and 2018.

Game 2 Recap (Missouri State won, 13-3)
Southern Illinois' first four batters reached safely but it was all Missouri State after that as the Bears routed the Salukis for the title.

Greer's two-run triple tied it in the bottom of the first, Cratic added the go-ahead sac fly, and Jenkins and Baldwin hit RBI singles the next inning for a 5-2 lead.

Jenkins hit a solo homer in the fourth and the Bears piled on four more runs in the sixth with Mason Hull's 14th homer of the year capping the rally for a 10-2 advantage.

Making his 16th start of the season - fourth in school history - and second of the tournament, Adam Link when six innings for the win, with Eric Loomis, Ty Buckner and Jake McMahill tossing the final three frames while the staff did not walk a batter.

Will Duff's three-run homer in the seventh was the icing on the cake, the Bears' 20th long ball of the tournament and 99th this season.

Missouri State piled up 13 hits struck out just two times.

Game 1 Recap (Southern Illinois won, 9-6)
Southern Illinois got two home runs apiece from Pier-Olivier Boucher and Nick Hagedorn to account for the majority of an 8-0 lead after four innings on the way to forcing the winner-take-all championship game.

A Jenkins RBI single in the fourth put the Bears on the board and SIU scored in the sixth to make it 9-1 before Dakota Kotowski hit a two-run homer in the eighth and Cratic added a three-run shot in the ninth for the final margin.

Kotowski's 23rd homer of the season and 43rd in his career moved him up to sixth on MSU's season list and seventh on the career chart. Cratic's fourth round-tripper of the tournament gave the Bears 17 in five games.