SPRINGFIELD – Missouri State took both ends of Saturday's doubleheader to complete the weekend of sweep of visiting Little Rock by scores of 7-5 and 9-4 at Hammons Field.
 
Curry Sutherland drove in five runs in the two games ad Caden Bogenpohl scored five times to pace the offense, which slugged five home runs across the twinbill.
 
MoState improved to 7-4 while the Trojans fell to 6-5. The Bears hit the road for a 4 p.m. Tuesday, March 3 game at Oklahoma State before returning to Hammons field March 6-8 for a three-game series with Memphis. Tickets to all home games are available here.
 
Game 1 Recap (Missouri State won, 7-5)
Missouri State scored in each of the first four innings and held on for a 7-5 victory in the opener.
 
Bogenpohl's 435-foot home run put the Bears ahead 2-0 after two batters, and it was 5-0 after two frames thanks to a Gabe Roessler solo homer, Charlie Carter RBI double and Sutherland RBI single in the second.
 
Little Rock slugged a three-run homer in the third, and Max Knight answered with a solo shot in the bottom half followed by a Roessler sac fly in the fourth for a 7-3 advantage.
 
The Trojans used two doubles to pull within 7-4 in the fifth, closing the book on starter Brock Lucas (1-0), who collected his first victory as a Bear with five innings pitched.
 
Charlie Spoonhour, Jason Schaaf and Knight combined to allow an unearned run over four innings of relief, with an hour-long rain delay interceding in the top of the eighth.
 
In the ninth, Knight moved from left field to the mound with two runners on and one out, picking up his second save of the series despite yielding an RBI single with two outs. For Knight, it marked his ninth career game with a home run and a pitching appearance.
 
MoState equaled a season high with three home runs and set a new high-water mark with 10 walks.
 
Game 2 Recap (Missouri State won, 9-4)
Sutherland tied a career high with four RBIs and Owen Slater (1-1) allowed two runs over a career-long seven innings to complete the sweep.
 
Sutherland opened the scoring with a two-run homer in the first, Little Rock tied it with a two-run blast in the third, and Sutherland put MoState ahead for good with an RBI single in the third after Bogenpohl walked and stole second. Taeg Gollert later scored from second on a wild pitch to make it 4-2.
 
Missouri State loaded the bases with no outs in the fourth and scored on sac flies by Jax Ryan and Sutherland, plated another run on a wild pitch and sent a fourth home on a double steal attempt when the trailing runner stayed in a rundown long enough for Bogenpohl to score from third. Bogenpohl tied his career high with four walks and scored three times.
 
Bergman led off the fifth with his fourth homer of the season for a 9-2 lead, and Little Rock collected four singles in the ninth for its final two runs.