EVANSVILLE, Ind. – A total of five Missouri State baseball players landed on all-Missouri Valley Conference teams this, it was announced Monday at the pre-tournament banquet. Dylan Leach, Nick Rodriguez and Brandt Thompson made the First Team, Zack Stewart made the Second Team, and Caden Bogenpohl was an honorable mention selection.
The Bears are the No. 8 seed in this week’s MVC Tournament at Braun Stadium in Evansville and begin play Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. Central against fifth-seeded UIC.
Missouri State Awards Summary
Dylan Leach (Sr., C, Carthage, Texas) – First Team
Nick Rodriguez (Jr., 2B, Tampa, Fla.) – First Team
Brandt Thompson (Sr., RHP, Eden Prairie, Minn.) – First Team
Zack Stewart (So., OF, Lebanon, Mo.) – Second Team
Caden Bogenpohl (Fr., OF, Jackson, Mo.) – Honorable mention
Dylan Leach
Leach has been the Bears’ everyday catcher this season and is batting .309 with 16 home runs, 15 doubles and 47 RBI. He leads the conference with 19 runners caught stealing and is second in pickoffs (3), while he sits ninth in slugging percentage (.639) and 10th in home runs. In 27 Valley games, Leach batted .343 with 10 homers and 27 RBI while slugging .717 with a .446 on-base percentage. Leach shares the team lead with 14 multi-RBI games this season.
Nick Rodriguez
Rodriguez batted .410 with a .500 on-base percentage in conference play, both ranking second in the league behind only MVC Player of the Year Kendal Ewell. The junior reached base safely in all 27 league contests and 36 in a row overall, the longest streak at MSU since at least 2017. He also opened the season on a 16-game hit streak and has reached in 53 of 55 games this year. For the full season, Rodriguez is batting .327 with 12 home runs and 45 RBI, and slugs .559 with a .429 on-base percentage and 40 walks, which ranks sixth in the conference.
Brandt Thompson
Thompson is the first MSU starting pitcher to earn first-team all-Valley accolades in consecutive seasons since Nick Petree in 2012 and 2013. This season, Thompson leads the MVC in WHIP (1.14), ranks second in ERA (3.64) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.00), third in opponent average (.235) and seventh with 72 strikeouts. The senior right-hander currently sits in sixth place on MSU’s career list with a 3.47 K/BB ratio and is 5-2 in 15 starts with 71.2 innings pitched this year, with winning decisions against Southern Miss, Arkansas State, Indiana State, Bradley and UIC.
Zack Stewart
Stewart repeats on the Second Team and is hitting .305 with team-highs of 21 home runs and 54 RBI this season. A two-time MVC Player of the Week in 2024, Stewart’s home run total ranks second in the MVC and 25th nationally in addition to tying for the 10th-best season in school history. He also ranks fifth in the conference in total bases (142) and eighth in slugging (.645). In 108 career games, Stewart ranks 15th at MoState with 33 career round-trippers.
Caden Bogenpohl
Bogenpohl is hitting .285 with 19 home runs and 44 RBI this season and leads the MVC with 49 walks, helping him lead the Bears with a .434 on-base percentage. He ranks third nationally among freshmen in both homers and walks, while his bases on balls total also ranks third in MSU history and first among rookies. Bogenpohl is tied with Ryan Howard’s 1999 season for the most home runs by a freshman at Missouri State, and he has reached safely three or more times in 18 games this season. He also has a trio of two-homer games and has led off three different games with a home run.
