Missouri State rallies for 4-3 win over UE
 Junior Morgan Florey racked up the 600th strikeout of her career in the first inning when the University of Evansville softball team finished up its 3-game set against Missouri State at Cooper Stadium.
MSU (23-14, 8-4 MVC) earned the series sweep, defeating Evansville (11-22, 4-7 MVC) by a 4-3 final. UE rallied to take a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the sixth before the Bears fought back with a pair in the top of the seventh to take the win.
Morgan Florey entered the game just three strikeouts shy of 600 in her career. The Peoria, Ill. native did not need too long to reach the mark as she struck out the side in the first inning. Florey became just the second in program history to reach the mark. The only other one was Katie Markle, who holds the program mark with 734.
The teams combined for three hits through the first five innings. Brittany Hay posted the hit for UE and also had a steal in the second inning. Hailee Vigneaux of the Bears was the first runner to get to third base, doing so in the sixth inning. Daphne Plummer sent her home with a triple to plate the first run of the day. Plummer made it a 2-0 game, scoring on a Darian Frost sacrifice fly.
Limited to just one infield hit through five innings, the Purple Aces came to life in the sixth. Bailee Porter reached on a 1-out single and advanced to third on an MSU error. She came home when Eryn Gould reached base on an error. Mea Adams followed with a single before Lindsay Renneisen notched one of her own, scoring Gould to tie the game up at 2-2.
Elyse Hickey later walked with the bases loaded to give UE its first lead of the game at 3-2.
Just as fast as UE took the lead, Missouri State rallied back in the seventh as the Bears led off with a home run to tie it right back up before a single from Madison Jones gave them a 4-3 advantage.
In the bottom half of the seventh, the Aces went down in order to finish off the game. UE finished the game with three runs on four hits. The Bears notched seven hits against Florey, who fanned ten batters in the game.
Following a doubleheader on Wednesday at UT Martin, the Aces travel to Illinois State for three games next weekend.
