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WICHITA, Kan. – Sam Hilliard delivered a three-run home run in the bottom of the eighth to propel Wichita State to a 4-3 win over Illinois State on the first day of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament at Eck Stadium.

No. 4 seed Wichita State (25-31) advances to play the top-seeded Missouri State Bears tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. CDT. No. 5 seed Illinois State (27-26) will take on No. 8 seed Southern Illinois in an elimination game at 12:30 p.m. CDT.

Trailing 3-1 with two outs in the bottom of the eighth, Hilliard stepped in to face Jack Czeszewski who was brought in, in relief of starting pitcher Jacob Hendren. The first pitch to Hilliard was belted down the right field line over the wall. The Mansfield, Texas, native has now homered in four straight games and has eight for the season.

Hilliard finished 1-for-4 at the plate, as no Shocker had more than one hit in the game. Starting pitcher Isaac Anderson pitched eight innings, while recording 11 strikeouts. Anderson allowed just three runs, two earned, and seven hits on the night. John Hayes pitched the ninth inning to record his fourth save of the season.

Daniel Dwyer and Mason Snyder each went 2-for-4 at the plate for Illinois State, while Dwyer scored two of the Redbirds' three runs. Hendren threw 7.2 innings of solid baseball before putting runners on first and second in the home half of the eighth. Hendren allowed three runs, six hits and struck out seven before taking the tough luck loss.

The Redbirds scored the opening run in the top of the first following an RBI single to left from Snyder driving in the leadoff batter Dwyer.

Wichita State finally got on the board in the bottom of the fifth after Jordan Farris reached on a fielding error to drive in Mikel Mucha.

With runners on second and third and two outs in the top of the eighth, Illinois State's Ryan Koziol broke the 1-1 tie with a two-run single up the middle.