SPRINGFIELD – Missouri State equaled season highs with 14 runs and 15 hits Saturday afternoon at Hammons Field to earn a 14-4 run-rule victory over Middle Tennessee and improve to 9-0 at home.
The Bears (14-7, 4-1 Conference USA) got RBI singles from Caden Bogenpohl and Curry Sutherland along with a Max Knight sacrifice fly in a three-run first, and Bryce Cermenelli launched his first home run of the season in the second for a 4-3 lead.
Starter Owen Slater (3-2) settled in after that, completing five innings and allowed one earned run while striking out a career-high eight, getting all the cushion he needed thanks to a seven-run outburst by the Bears in the third.
The first five Mo State hitters reached safely in that inning, with Sutherland hitting a two-run homer (8th), Logan Fyffe adding a two-run single to extend his hitting streak to 13 games, and Taeg Gollert blasting a three-run home run to become the seventh player in school history with 100 career extra-base hits.
Brant Kragel belted his first homer of the year in the fifth, a three-run shot for a 14-3 lead, and the Blue Raiders (12-11, 2-3) hit a solo homer in the sixth to cap the scoring.
Fyffe went 3-for-4 at the plate to tie his career high for hits, while Cermenelli, Gollert, Bogenpohl, Sutherland and Kragel all registered two hits. Gollert also reached a 10-game hitting streak for the fourth time in his career.
