SPRINGFIELD – Missouri State continued its unbeaten run through the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament Saturday with a 7-6 victory over second-seeded Evansville at Hammons Field.
The Bears (29-26) move on to Sunday’s 12 p.m. championship game against either Evansville or Southern Illinois. MSU is 4-0 in the tourney, while the Purple Aces and Salukis each have one loss already in the double-elimination tournament. The if necessary game is scheduled for 4 p.m. Sunday.
Drake Baldwin gave the Bears the lead for good with a two-run single in the bottom of the second, and Mason Greer, Cam Cratic and Dakota Kotowski opened the third inning with three consecutive homers for a 5-1 advantage, the first time Missouri State has gone back-to-back-to-back since Dan Firlit, Ryan Howard and Mike Collier did it against Arkansas Tech on Feb. 23, 2000.
Two walks and a three-run home pulled the Aces (32-23) back to 5-4 in the fourth, and Grant Wood’s two-out, two-run single on a 3-2 pitch in the sixth put the Bears ahead 7-4. Greer scored on the play after hitting his 20th double of the year, becoming the first Bear with that many two-baggers in a season since Jake Burger in 2015.
Evansville made things interesting in the ninth, scoring two runs and getting the go-ahead runner to second base when Jake McMahill ended the game with a strikeout to complete his fifth save.
Trey Ziegenbein went four innings in his first career start, and Riyan Rodriguez (4-0) got the victory with a career-long four innings of shutout relief.
All nine MSU starters had a hit by the fifth inning, and the Bears pushed their tournament home run total to 15 in four games.
Missouri State’s previous Valley Tournament championships happened in 1996, 1997, 2015 and 2018, and the Bears will qualify for the program’s 12th NCAA Tournament in the Division I era with a victory Sunday.
