SPRINGFIELD – Missouri State scored eight runs in the third inning and Jason Schaaf struck out a career-high nine batters in seven innings Friday evening as the Bears opened the series with Jacksonville State with a 10-2 win at Route 66 Stadium.
Mo State (27-15, 15-7 Conference USA) improved to 18-1 at home this season with a victory in their first game under the Route 66 Stadium moniker, while Jax State dropped to 36-10 and 18-4 in league games.
Logan Fyffe picked up the first of his career-high four hits in the opening frame with his seventh home run of the season, and Jax Ryan’s two-out double drove home Gabe Roessler in the second for a 2-0 lead before the flood gates opened.
The first six Bears reached safely in the third, beginning with a Fyffe double and Curry Sutherland walk, setting up Taeg Gollert’s 11th homer of the season and 110th career extra-base hit to tie Steve Hacker for second program history.
The runs kept coming on a Carter Bergman two-run run double before Bryce Cermenelli capped it with a three-run homer to extend his hitting streak to 25 games and make it 10-0 Bears.
Schaaf and freshman Ross Felder took over from there on the mound, with Jax State scratching across single runs in the fifth and seventh frames on Schaaf (3-2) before the senior exited after seven innings with nine Ks and one walk. Felder pitched the final two innings with three strikeouts and one single allowed.
The series continues at 2 p.m. Saturday. The first 500 fans will receive a Drake Baldwin bobblehead, and it’s also military appreciation day with a commemorative jersey auction in the concourse.
