CARBONDALE, Ill. – Missouri State's Erin Struemph held Bradley to seven hits and struck out eight in a complete game effort as she helped power the #8 seed Bears to a 6-3 victory over the #5 seed Braves Friday afternoon at Charlotte West Stadium.

Erin Duewel gave Missouri State (22-29 overall) a 1-0 lead with a two-out solo homer in the top of the third and a Bradley error later in the inning proved costly.  Mary Stephens followed with a single and a dropped fly ball, which would have ended the inning allowed her to score all the way from first as the Bears grabbed a 2-0 lead. 

Senior Alyson Clemente (Murrieta, Calif./Murrieta Valley) led off the Bradley half of the fourth with a single to left and senior Rachel Huggins (Mt. Zion, Ill./Mt. Zion) ripped a double to left center to plate Clemente all the way from first.  Pinch runner Taylor Willhalm (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield North) later scored on a two-out single to center by senior Kendall Duffy (Naperville, Ill./Benet Academy) to tie it up at 2-2. 

Missouri State answered in the top of the fifth, however.  Madison Jones and Duewel opened the MSU half of the fifth with back-to-back singles and Jones scored on a double just inside the left field line off the bat of Elena Gambill as the Bears went back in front 3-2.  Kaitlin Beason drove in two more runs to extend the Missouri State lead to 5-2 with a two-run single to center.  With two outs and a runner at second, Darian Foster made it a 6-2 Bears advantage with a bloop RBI single to right. 

After turning a double play to end the top of the seventh, Duffy reached on an error to open the bottom half of the inning.  Sophomore Elizabeth Leonard (Olathe, Kan./Olathe East) drove in Duffy from second with a double to left center as Bradley cut the deficit to 6-3.  The Leonard hit was the last of the day for Bradley off Struemph, who got a pair of lineouts and a flyout to end the game. 

Struemph improved to 13-14 on the year with the victory, scattering seven this and walking just one in the complete game.

Junior Jaelen Hull (Clifton, Ill./Bishop McNamara) took the loss for Bradley to finish the season 5-13.  Freshman Megan Mahaffy (Crystal Lake, Ill./Crystal Lake Central) came in out of the bullpen to toss 2.2 scoreless innings for the Braves. 

Junior Kelly Kapp (Freeburg, Ill./Gibault Catholic) went 2-for-4 as she tallied her 22nd multi-hit game of the year and finished the season with a .405 batting average for the second-highest average in school history behind Sharon Kempf's 1989 school record of .409. 

Huggins RBI double helped her finished the year with a team-best 39 RBI to tie for the fifth-best season total in school history and she notched a team-best 22 extra-base hits.   

Missouri State advances to the second round to play #4 seed and tournament host Southern Illinois Friday at 11 a.m.