Starting 9
1) Missouri State (27-22, 17-7 Missouri Valley Conference) takes aim at its seventh MVC regular season title this weekend with a series at Murray State (34-13, 16-8) that will decide this year's champion.
  Â
Due to rain and thunderstorms in the forecast, game times have changed to 4 p.m. Thursday, 12 p.m. Friday and 1 p.m. Saturday.
    MoState will clinch a share of the title with one victory, while the series winner in Murray will earn the top seed in the MVC Tournament. Southern Illinois sits two games back of the Bears at 15-9 but has been eliminated from contention for the No. 1 seed. The Bears, Racers and Salukis can all still be the Nos. 2 or 3 seeds.
2)Â MoState is 9-5 all-time against Murray State and 4-4 since the Racers joined the MVC, alternating wins and losses. The Bears own a 6-2 record in Murray, including a 2-1 series win in 2023.
3) The Bears have homered in 149 of the last 180 games, and rank 8th nationally with 409 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 207 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 .548 slugging percentage, 7th in doubles with 119 and 7th with 96 home runs, which also rank 5th on the school's single-season list.
5) Missouri State's pitching staff leads the MVC and ranks 31st nationally with 9.6 strikeouts per nine innings. The Bears' 2.16 K/BB ratio also leads the Valley and ranks 74th nationally.
  Â
Jackson Holmes,
Max Knight and
Michael Yusypchuk have earned MVC Pitcher of the Week honors this season, while
Tyler Charlton (2nd - 70), Yusypchuk (8th - 59) and Holmes (9th - 58) and are all in the top 10 in strikeouts. Knight, meanwhile, is the only Division I player with at least 45 RBIs and 50 pitching Ks.
6) Several Bears are climbing MSU career charts.
Zack Stewart is 7th in career homers (44) and 18th with 81 extra-base hits.
Taeg Gollert currently sits 4th in school history with 57 career doubles and 14th with 84 extra-base hits.
Nick Rodriguez ranks 9th in walks (106), 11th in homers (38) and 17th in extra-base hits (82).
7) Missouri State is 20-10 in its last 30 games, hitting .319 as a team with a .599 slugging percentage. Since March 21 against Bradley, the Bears have 70 homers and 77 doubles, with
Nick Rodriguez (.403, 14 doubles, 17 homers, 43 RBIs) leading the way with a pair of MVC Player of the Week awards
8) Nick Rodriguez enters the Murray State series with a 36-game hit streak, tying Southern Illinois' Kevin Koski in 2005-06 for the second-longest streak in MVC history based on available data. The record belongs to Wichita State's Phil Stephenson at 47 games in 1981. During the streak, Rodriguez is batting .391 with a .821 slugging percentage, collecting 17 homers, 16 doubles and 49 RBIs. He has also hit safely in 38 consecutive MVC games (began April 20, 2024) and reached safely in 53 Valley games in a row (began May 20, 2023).
9) The 2025 season is Missouri State's 35th and final year in the MVC. The university will join Conference USA on July 1, 2025. The baseball Bears own the most league wins (488) and highest MVC winning percentage (.585) of any current league school with six regular season championships and five tournament titles in 34 seasons.
