Starting 9
1) Missouri State (21-18, 11-4 Missouri Valley Conference) continues its five-game home stand this weekend with a three-game series with Evansville (13-26, 7-8). The Bears look to hold on to their first place standing in the MVC with game times set for 6:30 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday. After the Evansville series, MSU hosts No. 5 Arkansas on April 29 at 6:30 p.m.
    The Bears are 15-4 at home this season and batting .338 with a .636 slugging percentage at Hammons Field, and
Jake McCutcheon leads the way with a .447 average and nine home runs at home. The offense remains impressive in conference games, hitting .322 and slugging .634.
2) MoState is 63-52 all-time against Evansville with a 29-24 record in Springfield. The Purple Aces are 6-1 in the last seven games against MSU at Hammons Field, with the Bears' victory in the 2022 MVC Tournament.
3) The Bears have homered in 140 of the last 170 games, and rank 10th nationally with 389 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. The current roster has combined for 187 round-trippers in their time at MoState, and six have a 10-plus homer season at MSU.
4) This season, Missouri State ranks 9th nationally with a .551 slugging percentage, 8th in doubles with 97 and 10th with 76 home runs.
5) Missouri State's pitching staff leads the MVC and ranks 56th nationally with 9.4 strikeouts per nine innings. The Bears' 2.16 K/BB ratio also leads the Valley and ranks 76th nationally.
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Jackson Holmes,
Max Knight and
Michael Yusypchuk have earned MVC Pitcher of the Week honors this season, while
Tyler Charlton (3rd - 52), Holmes (5th - 50) and Yusypchuk (6th - 49) and are all in the top six in strikeouts. Knight, meanwhile, is the only Division I player with at least 15 pitching appearances and 40 RBIs.
6) Several Bears are climbing MSU career charts.
Zack Stewart is 10th on career homers (40) and 16th with 76 extra-base hits.
Taeg Gollert currently sits ninth in school history with 49 career doubles and 18th with 74 extra-base hits.
Nick Rodriguez ranks 11th in walks (100), 15th in homers (33) and 18th in extra-base hits (74).
7) Missouri State is 14-6 in its last 20 games, hitting .330 as a team with a .632 slugging percentage. Since March 21 against Bradley, the Bears have 50 homers and 55 doubles, with
Nick Rodriguez (.414, 11 doubles, 12 homers, 36 RBIs) leading the way with a pair of    MVC Player of the Week awards.
8) 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.
9) 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 (482) and highest MVC winning percentage (.584) of any current league school with six regular season championships and five tournament titles in 34 seasons.
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