Starting 9
1) Missouri State (16-15, 7-2 Missouri Valley Conference) is back home after a busy road stretch for a three-game league series with Valparaiso (8-19, 3-6). Game times against the Beacons are 6:30 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday.
    The Bears are averaging 10.8 runs in their last 12 games overall and have hit at a blistering pace all season at Hammons Field, averaging 10.5 runs per game with a .325 batting average and .618 slugging percentage in 15 home games.
    MoState is back on the road after the Valpo series, visiting Missouri on Tuesday before a series at UIC on April 18-20.
MoState is 21-2 all-time against Valpo and 10-0 at home with an 8-0 mark at Hammons Field. Both of Valpo's wins in the series have come in extra innings.
The Bears have homered in 132 of the last 162 games, and rank 10th nationally with 372 long balls since the beginning of the 2022 season, when first-year head coach Joey    Hawkins took over as hitting coach. MoState's 114 homers last season ranked second in school and fourth in MVC history.
Zack Stewart (38),
Nick Rodriguez (30),
Caden Bogenpohl (26) and
Taeg Gollert (23) all have at least 23 homers in their MSU careers, and the current roster has combined for 172 round-trippers in their time at MoState. Those four, along with
Jake McCutcheon, have a 10-homer season for the Bears.
Missouri State's pitching staff leads the MVC and ranks 42nd nationally with 9.7 strikeouts per nine innings. The Bears' 2.31 K/BB ratio also leads the Valley and ranks 61st nationally.
  Â
Jackson Holmes,
Max Knight and
Michael Yusypchuk have earned MVC Pitcher of the Week honors this season, while
Tyler Charlton (2nd - 45), Yusypchuk (4th - 42) and Holmes (5th - 41) are all in the top six in strikeouts. Knight, meanwhile, is the only Division I player with at least 12 pitching appearances and 30 RBIs.
Several Bears are climbing MSU career charts.
Taeg Gollert currently sits ninth in school history with 49 career doubles and 18th with 73 extra-base hits.
Zack Stewart is 10th on career homers (38) and 19th with 72 extra-base hits.
Nick Rodriguez ranks 13th in MoState history with 96 career walks.
Missouri State is 9-3 in its last 12 games, hitting .335 as a team with a .651 slugging percentage. Since March 21 against Bradley, the Bears have 33 homers and 34 doubles, with
Nick Rodriguez (.472, 8 doubles, 9 homers, 21 RBIs) leading the way with consecutive MVC Player of the Week awards.
D1Baseball tabbed the Bears as the favorite to win the MVC this season, with sophomore
Caden Bogenpohl as its preseason player of the year and
Michael Yusypchuk as its freshman of the year. The MVC coaches poll was released on March 17 and also MSU to win, with Bogenpohl and
Nick Rodriguez earning all-MVC honors.
The 2025 season is Missouri State's 35th and final year in the MVC. The university accepted an invitation to Conference USA on May 10, 2024, and will officially join that league on July 1, 2025. The baseball Bears own the most league wins (478) and highest MVC winning percentage (.582) of any current league school with six regular season championships and five tournament titles in 34 seasons.
