SPRINGFIELD – Cody Kelly drove in four runs and Jake Eddington tossed a career-high 6.1 innings Saturday at Hammons Field to lead the Missouri State baseball Bears to a 6-1 win over Belmont, completing the team’s third consecutive Missouri Valley Conference series sweep.The Bears (22-16, 11-4 MVC) climbed into a share of the league lead in conference victories at game’s end with their ninth consecutive Valley win, the program’s longest such streak since MoState won 22 in a row over more than a calendar year from May 15, 2016 to May 18, 2017.Missouri State loaded the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the first and led 2-0 thanks to sacrifice flies from Zack Stewart and Kelly, and made it 3-0 in the second when Cam Cratic hit a leadoff single and scored on a two-out hit by Spencer Nivens.Belmont (20-21, 5-10) broke up Eddington’s no-hitter with a bunt single in the fifth and followed that with an RBI double to make it 3-1.The Bears had an immediate answer, opening the fifth with back-to-back walks to set up Kelly’s 12th homer of the season and sixth in his last six games, a 443-foot blast to right center that put MoState ahead 6-1.Eddington (3-0) carried that lead into the seventh before giving way to a trio of relievers to finish the game, with Trey Ziegenbein, Reed Metz and Garrett Ferguson combining for the final eight outs on the mound.The MSU pitching staff combined for a 1.38 ERA in the series with a .184 opponent batting average.Missouri State stays home for a 6:30 p.m. Tuesday contest against fifth-ranked Arkansas.
