Starting 9
1) Fresh off a share of its seventh Missouri Valley Conference regular season title, Missouri State (27-23, 17-8) heads to the MVC Baseball Championship in Normal, Ill., this week as the No. 2 seed and begins play at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday against an opponent from Tuesday's opening round winners. MSU is 63-55 all-time in the MVC Tournament with titles in 1996, 1997, 2015, 2018 and 2022.
2) Seven Bears earned all-MVC honors, including Player of the Year
Nick Rodriguez, co-Newcomer of the Year
Max Knight and Defensive Player of the Year
Tyler Epstein. The First Team selections included Rodriguez, Knight and
Jake McCutcheon, with Epstein and
Caden Bogenpohl on the Second Team and
Carter Bergman and
Jason Schaaf earning honorable mention nods.
3) The Bears have homered in 150 of the last 181 games, and rank 9th nationally with 410 long balls since the beginning of the 2022 season, when first-year head coach Joey    Hawkins took over as hitting coach. MoState's 97 homers this season rank 5th in school history. The current roster has combined for 208 round-trippers in their time at MoState, and six have a 10-plus homer season at MSU.
4) This season, Missouri State ranks 8th nationally with a .547 slugging percentage, 20th in doubles with 120 and 11th with 97 home runs, which also rank 5th on the school's single-season list.
5) Missouri State's pitching staff leads the MVC and ranks 28th nationally with 9.7 strikeouts per nine innings. The Bears' 2.15 K/BB ratio also leads the Valley and ranks 73rd nationally.
  Â
Jackson Holmes,
Max Knight and
Michael Yusypchuk earned MVC Pitcher of the Week honors this season, while
Tyler Charlton (4th - 70), Yusypchuk (9th - 59) and Holmes (10th - 58) and are all in the top 10 in strikeouts. Knight, meanwhile, is the only Division I player with at least five wins, 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 58 career doubles and 14th with 85 extra-base hits.
Nick Rodriguez ranks 9th in walks (107), 11th in homers (38) and 17th in extra-base hits (82).
7) Missouri State is 20-11 in its last 31 games, hitting .318 as a team with a .596 slugging percentage. Since March 21 against Bradley, the Bears have 71 homers and 78 doubles, with
Nick Rodriguez (.409, 14 doubles, 17 homers, 45 RBIs) leading the way with a pair of    MVC Player of the Week awards
8) Nick Rodriguez enters the tournament on a 37-game hit streak, second in MVC and 17th in NCAA Division I history (list on page 23). During the streak, Rodriguez is batting .396 with a .818 slugging percentage, collecting 17 homers, 16 doubles and 49 RBIs.
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 seven regular season championships and five tournament titles in 34 seasons.
Â
