EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Missouri State’s 2024 baseball season and the 42-year head coaching career of Keith Guttin came to an end Wednesday with a 6-4 loss to Belmont in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.
Guttin’s incredible tenure in charge of the Bears ends with 1,396 wins, good for second in MVC and 12th in NCAA history.
After yielding an unearned run to the Bruins (26-31) in the second, Cody Kelly opened the third with a bunt single and Nick Rodriguez smacked a home run for a 2-1 lead, his 14th of the season. The hits also extended the two players’ streaks of reaching base safely to 26 and 38 games, respectively.
Belmont took advantage of a hit batter, double, and error to score twice in the bottom of the third, and Missouri State (23-34) put together a two-out rally in the fourth when Curry Sutherland walked, Tyler Epstein singled and both scored on a Kelly single for a 4-3 lead.
The Bruins scored three on a double, walk, triple and wild pitch to go up 6-4 after four innings, and that was it for the scoring as the two bullpens kept the offenses in check.
The Bears left the bases loaded in both the second and seventh innings and stayed close as Kaleb Thomas and Stephen Schissler both tossed two scoreless innings in relief. Jason Schaaf (3-4) went four innings in the start and took the loss.
End of season notes: Head Coach Keith Guttin ended his career with 1,396 wins, 12th on the all-time Division I list…Missouri State hit 114 home runs as a team, second-most in school history…MSU had six players with at least 10 homers for the second time in school history…Nick Rodriguez reached base safely in 55 of 57 games, including the final 38 of the year…Caden Bogenpohl set MSU freshman records with 20 home runs and 53 walks; his walk total ranked second in the Bears’ single-season list…Zack Stewart hit 21 home runs, good for the 10th spot on the school’s single-season list…Bogenpohl and Stewart were the first MSU teammates with 20-plus homers since Jake Burger and Jeremy Eierman in 2017…Brandt Thompson became the first MSU pitcher to earned first-team all-MVC honors since Nick Petree in 2012 and 2013…MSU’s walk total of 299 ranked third in school history.
