SPRINGFIELD – Missouri State played a pair of nine-inning exhibitions with Arkansas State Sunday at Hammons Field, winning the opener 7-5 and scoring twice late for a 3-3 tie in the nightcap.
 
The Bears used 14 pitchers on the day, combining for 28 total strikeouts and 10 scoreless outings.
 
Offensively, Jax Ryan, Jackson Beaman, Bryce Cermenelli and Gabe Roessler each collected multiple hits, while Roessler and Logan Fyffe drove in three runs apiece across the twinbill. Fourteen different Bears had at least three plate appearances in the two games.
 
Game 1 (Missouri State won, 7-5)
Brock Lucas, Owen Slater and Michael Yusypchuk each threw two shutout innings to open the game, and Tyler Charlton fired a scoreless seventh to guide the Bears to a 6-0 lead at that point. The pitching staff struck out 14 ASU batters in the contest, highlighted by six from Yusypchuk in his two innings.
 
Curry Sutherland hit a solo homer in the first, Fyffe added a two-run single in the second, Ryan knocked an RBI single in the fourth and Roessler swatted a two-run bomb in the fifth.
 
The Red Wolves had six batters reach and scored three times in the eighth, then scored two unearned runs in the ninth before Max Knight got a strikeout with the bases loaded to preserve the 6-5 lead.
 
The teams played out the full nine innings, and Ryan added a solo home run for the Bears in the bottom half for the 7-5 final.
 
Game 2 (Tied, 3-3)
Neither team recorded a hit until the fourth inning or scored until the fifth in a pitcher's duel that ended in a 3-3 tie.
 
A-State stole home in the fifth and Beaman answered with a solo homer in the bottom half for a 1-1 tie.
 
The Red Wolves took a 3-1 lead in the sixth on a two-out, two-run single before the Bears rallied for the tie in the eighth. MoState took advantage of several free passes, loading the bases with one out and scoring on a Roessler RBI walk and Fyffe sacrifice fly for the 3-3 final.
 
Jason Schaaf started for the Bears and struck out five batters in two hitless innings.