Catching up on Missouri State baseball ahead of crucial MVC series at Indiana State
Missouri State baseball has hit a bit of a rough patch heading into the beginning of Missouri Valley Conference play, in which the Bears will play the reigning champion that was picked to win the league.
The Bears have lost their last five games after starting the season 9-5. The losses came during an important stretch in their non-conference schedule against teams that could have built their resume if they were in contention for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament at the end of the season.
Recent losses include a 13-4 defeat at Oklahoma State, a three-game sweep at Kansas State and a loss at Saint Louis.
The Bears went from a team ranked No. 1 in the RPI across college baseball early in the season to 50th. Only two teams ahead of them have losing records.
What started as a promising season could go south quickly when MSU travels to play Indiana State (15-4) for a three-game series starting Friday at 2 p.m. The Sycamores are coming off an NCAA Tournament Super Regional appearance and have won eight of their last nine games entering the weekend.
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Missouri State baseball's pitching, defensive issues remain
The Bears carried leads into later innings in their first two games against Kansas State and couldn't hold on in either. There are still some problems defensively that need fixing quickly.
Missouri State has been getting good starts out of Friday starter Brandt Thompson who has a 2-0 record in six appearances, 21 innings pitched and seven earned runs allowed. He exited the Bears' Friday loss to Kansas State after recording just one out due to a line drive back at his forearm that forced MSU to turn to its bullpen.
The Bears then took a 3-2 lead into the sixth before allowing three runs in the sixth and two in the seventh. They followed the next day with a 6-3 lead heading into the seventh before allowing eight runs. Bullpen issues have been a bit up and down. Eric Loomis and Kaleb Thomas have been a pair of highlights at times but the depth hasn't shown in recent games against tougher opponents.
Play in the field hasn't been a big help either. MSU is last in the Valley in fielding percentage. Only 22 teams in college baseball have more than the Bears' 32 errors.
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Zack Stewart is living up to his high expectations
The highly-touted sophomore has been on a tear this season. He has a team-high eight home runs, tying the conference lead with Murray State's Carson Garner. Stewart sat out a couple of games with a nagging groin injury and is already three homers short of what he finished with a year ago.
Stewart is more consistent at the plate than last season, batting .362 right now compared to .302 in 2023. He's tops in the Valley in slugging percentage (.800) and is, maybe most importantly, striking out much less than he did as a freshman.
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The Bears will finally return home on Tuesday against Southeast Missouri State
After 11 straight road games, the Bears will play at Hammons Field on Tuesday at 3 p.m. against Southeast Missouri State. It's the beginning of a four-game home stand, including a weekend series with Illinois State starting March 29.
Wyatt D. Wheeler is a reporter and columnist with the Springfield News-Leader. You can contact him at 417-371-6987, by email at wwheeler@news-leader.com or X at @WyattWheeler_NL.
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Missouri State baseball travels to Indiana State for MVC series
