NORMAL, Ill. – Jason Schaaf took a shutout into the eighth inning and the offense did all its scoring with two outs in the fourth frame on the way to a 7-2 victory over fifth-seeded Illinois State at the Missouri Valley Conference Baseball Championship Thursday.
The second-seeded Bears (28-23) advanced in the winner’s bracket with the victory and will play No. 4 UIC at 11 a.m. Friday at Duffy Bass Field.
Schaaf (5-2) tossed a career-high 7.1 innings, keeping the high-powered Redbirds (28-27) off balance for the bulk of the game, scattering nine hits and striking out a pair.
After stranding five runners in the first three innings, the offense broke through in a big way in the fourth, beginning with Carter Bergman’s RBI single that drove in Zack Stewart after the junior’s double.
Caden Bogenpohl followed with a two-run home run, a 455-foot shot to right center for his 11th of the season. Nick Rodriguez singled and Jake McCutcheon walked before Taeg Gollert launched a 450-foot home run, and Tyler Epstein drove in Gollert with a single for the 7-0 lead.
The Redbirds scored on back-to-back doubles to begin the eighth inning and pushed across another run in the ninth for the final score.
Rodriguez collected two hits and extended his hitting streak to 38 games, tying the 15th-longest in NCAA Division I history.
