NORMAL, Ill. – After falling to UIC by an 11-5 score early Friday, Missouri State rebounded with a 20-10 victory over Belmont to advance to Saturday at the Missouri Valley Conference Baseball Championship at Duffy Bass Field.

The Bears (29-24) will play at 2 p.m. Saturday against the loser of Friday night's game between UIC and Murray State. The winner of the night cap advances to the championship game at 6 p.m. Saturday.

UIC Recap (Lost, 11-5)
UIC scored in six separate innings while the Missouri State offense stranded 14 runners and batted just 1-for-13 with men in scoring position in an 11-5 loss.

The teams traded runs through four innings to a 2-2 tie, with Jake McCutcheon's RBI ground out and Dylan Robertson's sacrifice driving in the MSU runs.

The Flames (22-31) took the lead for good at 5-2 with back-to-back homers in the fourth and pushed the lead to 11-3 after a four-run ninth.

Brant Kragel led off the bottom of the ninth with a pinch-hit homer, the first of his career, and Robertson added another solo shot for the final score. Kragel's homer gave the Bears 100 on the season, the fifth time in school history and third in the last four seasons.

Nick Rodriguez went 3-for-5 to extend his hitting streak to 39 games. Caden Bogenpohl drew four walks, tying his 2024 total of 53 free passes for second on the school's single-season list.

Belmont Recap (Won, 20-10)
The Bears posted their highest MVC Tournament scoring output since 1996 and third-best ever in a 20-10 win to eliminate sixth-seeded Belmont (26-34).

MoState reached base safely 33 times with 16 hits, 13 walks and four hit batsmen, with McCutcheon (6), Bogenpohl (5) and Taeg Gollert (5) combining for 16 times on base.

Bogenpohl scored a career-high five runs and tied Dylan Becker in 2015 for MSU's single season walks record at 55, and Gollert tied six others for the single-game HBP record at six. McCutcheon scored four times by going 3-for-3 with three walks.

Rodriguez quickly extended his hitting streak to 40 games with a two-run homer in the first, moving into a tie for 12th-best in NCAA Division I history. The senior's 40th extra-base hit on the year also tied for fifth in MoState history.

The Bears led 5-1 after two innings and Belmont scored seven unanswered before MSU plated eight runs on one hit in the fourth.

Carter Bergman's first career grand slam was the only hit in the inning, while the Bears added six walks and three hit batters, with Gollert getting plunked twice on the way to a 13-8 lead.

Bergman collected his career-best fifth RBI with a sac fly in the fifth, and Robertson added a two-run single on the way to matching his career best of four RBIs on the way to an 18-8 lead.

Belmont added solo homers in its final two at bats, with Bogenpohl's 12th homer in between, a two-run shot for the Bears' 104th on the season, good for fourth in school history.

Tyler Charlton (5-2) was the winning pitcher, striking out seven while tossing the final 3.1 innings.