SPRINGFIELD – Jake McCutcheon collected four hits and 11 total bases to lead a Missouri State offense that totaled 16 runs for the second consecutive day in a 16-8 win over Bradley Saturday afternoon at Hammons Field.
McCutcheon homered twice, doubled and singled for the most total bases by a Bear since Joey Polak had 12 in a three-homer game on April 5, 2019, and MoState (9-12, 2-0 Missouri Valley Conference) won its first two conference games for the first time since 2019.
Missouri State scored in each of the first four innings, getting an RBI single from Taeg Gollert in the first and another from Carter Bergman in the second for a 2-0 lead.
The first five batters reached in the third, leading to runs on a Gollert RBI single, Curry Sutherland RBI walk and Tyler Epstein RBI ground out for a 5-0 lead.
Bradley (3-15, 0-2) scored a pair of unearned runs in the fourth, and McCutcheon (solo) and Sutherland (two-run) each homered in the fourth to make it 8-2 Bears.
The Braves scratched a run across in the seventh and five in the eighth, with a grand slam cutting the margin to 10-8.
MoState answered in a big way in the bottom of the eighth, with McCutcheon’s second homer starting a six-run inning. The Bears scored on an error, Epstein was plunked with the bases loaded, and Bergman pulled a three-run double into the left field corner for a 16-8 lead.
Owen Slater started and allowed two hits and two unearned runs in 3.2 innings, and Max Knight (1-2) threw a career-long 3.2 frames after that for the winning decision.
Sutherland reached base four times and scored three runs, Bergman equaled his career high with four RBIs, and Gollert scored three times. Caden Bogenpohl had a hit to extend his streak of reaching safely to 34 games.
The Bears go for the sweep at 1 p.m. Sunday.
