LAWRENCE, Kan. – Missouri State hit seven home runs, its highest total since 2002 and second-most in a Division I game this season, in a 12-3 victory over Kansas Wednesday on an 85-degree day at Hoglund Ballpark.
Drake Baldwin, Will Duff and Dakota Kotowski hit two homers apiece and Mason Hull added his fifth of the season. It marked the second time in school history that three Bears had multiple homers in the same game, with Brian Mahaffey (3), Pat Kelly (2) and Doug Sovich (2) the other on March 7, 1988 vs. Benedictine.
Duff belted the third pitch of the game over the fence in left-center for MSU’s (4-4) first leadoff homer since Hunter Steinmetz did it in the 2017 Super Regional at TCU, and it was 2-0 two pitches later when Baldwin launched one to the same spot. Kotowski got in on the action with a two-out, three-run shot to center for a 5-0 lead.
Kansas (3-4) retired the next eight MSU batters before Kotowski blasted his fifth homer of the year and 25th of his career to center for a 6-0 lead in the fourth, matching his career-high of four RBI with his second career multi-homer game.
The Jayhawks broke through in the fifth thanks to defensive miscues by the Bears, who committed errors on consecutive potential inning-ending double play balls to allow KU’s first run to score. That ended Reece Lang’s day after the starter yielded two hits in 4.1 innings, and Forrest Barnes (1-1) entered with the bases loaded and got a strikeout and fly out to strand the bases loaded and keep it a 6-1 game.
Duff and Baldwin went back-to-back a second time with two out in a six-run seventh, Cam Cratic added an RBI double and Mason Hull capped the MSU scoring with a three-run bomb to left for a 12-1 lead.
Kansas added single runs in the seventh and ninth frames for the final score.
The Bears make their home debut Friday at 3 p.m. when they host Indiana in the first game of a three-game set at Hammons Field.
