NORMAL, Ill. – The Missouri State baseball team scored in six of the first seven innings Saturday afternoon at Illinois State and clobbered eight extra-base hits on the way to a 12-6 victory over the Redbirds on a cold and windy day at Duffy Bass Field.
Anthony Socci, Zack Stewart, Cody Kelly and Mason Hull all homered in the Bears’ (13-12, 2-3 Missouri Valley Conference) fourth four-homer game of the season, while it was also the fourth time with at least eight extra-base hits as MSU tied a season-high with 31 total bases.
An RBI single from Spencer Nivens in the first inning got the scoring started, as Nivens, Kelly and Jake McCutcheon all notched three-hit days for the offense.
Socci’s solo homer led off the second, ISU (8-13, 1-4) countered with a solo homer in the same inning, and the Bears plated four in the third frame on a Dylan Robertson two-run single and RBI doubles from Kelly and McCutcheon for a 6-1 lead.
Zack Stewart’s sixth homer of the season made it 8-1 in the fourth, Kelly’s sixth round-tripper put MSU ahead 9-2 in the fifth, and the Redbirds scored a pair in the sixth to close to 9-4.
Hull led off the seventh with a homer followed by an RBI single from Kelly and McCutcheon’s second RBI double of the game for 12-4, and ISU countered with a two-out, two-run double in the seventh from Shaydon Kubo to cap a 5-for-5 day for the Redbird infielder.
Hayden Minton (2-1) struck out five Redbirds in 5.1 innings for the winning decision, and while the Redbirds recorded 16 hits, 14 were singles.
Missouri State goes for the series sweep at 1 p.m. Sunday.
