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<\/p>\nOPINION|<\/p>\n
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Subscribe today to listen to this content As Missouri State\u2019s first season in Conference USA hits the finish line, one sport stands out as benefiting from the new league more than any \u2014 except for football, the driver of the proverbial bus.<\/p>\n Coach Joey Hawkins\u2019 baseball Bears took a big step up in competition from their recent years in the Missouri Valley Conference. C-USA is rated the nation\u2019s No. 9 baseball league, with the Valley lagging in 25th among 30.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why there\u2019s no need to be disappointed about Missouri State\u2019s 7-5 loss to Liberty on Sunday morning at the C-USA Tournament semifinals in Kennesaw, Ga. The Bears (34-19) are going to be one of three league teams (with Liberty and regular-season champ Jacksonville State) headed to the NCAA Tournament next week.<\/p>\n Along with facing a rugged nonconference schedule, Missouri State found C-USA even better than anticipated. Six teams are in the top 90 on the all-important Ratings Percentage Index. Just one year ago, despite going out the Valley door as regular-season co-champions and league tourney runner-up, the Bears didn\u2019t sniff an NCAA at-large.<\/p>\n Once-great in baseball, the Valley was a wasteland for a Missouri State baseball program that aspires for more. Hawkins was one of the biggest supporters of the move \u2014 aside from then-football coach Ryan Beard \u2014 when it was announced two years ago.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re grateful for the transition. It\u2019s been tough. It\u2019s a really hard league,\u201d Hawkins said prior to the C-USA tourney. \u201cJust look at the numbers of the teams in the conference tournament, you feel like anybody can win a given game.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re playing those teams week in and week out, it helps your resume as you go through a full season. We believe we\u2019re a multi-bid league and we should be every year.\u201d<\/p>\n Playing better competition has helped a talented Missouri State team raise the level of its play.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been huge,\u201d said junior third baseman Curry Sutherland, a graduate of Logan-Rogersville High School. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to see a lot better competition throughout the year, a lot better pitching and the team just feels more prepared, day in and day out. It\u2019s been a big difference.\u201d<\/p>\n The Bears can feel safe going into Selection Monday with an RPI of No. 23, best of all C-USA teams. They were 12-8 against a non-league schedule rated No. 9, with a combined seven wins over likely NCAA Tournament teams Arkansas, Oklahoma State and Louisiana in addition to C-USA regular-season champ Jacksonville State and runner-up Liberty.<\/p>\n Bears bow out in completion of suspended game\u00a0<\/p>\n The semifinal against Liberty began Saturday night with the Flames taking a 6-4 lead into the sixth inning, when rain suspended the action. The Bears drew within a run on Caden Bogenpohl\u2019s infield RBI single in the seventh, but Liberty quickly answered with a run of its own in the bottom half.<\/p>\n One more comeback \u2014 after two rallying wins to open the tourney against Kennesaw State and Dallas Baptist \u2014 wasn\u2019t in the cards. Missouri State has spent 12 days in Georgia after finishing the regular season against the host school. The loss at least gave the Bears a four-hour jump start on the long bus ride home \u2014 and didn\u2019t further tax a pitching staff that will need to be at its best next weekend.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you look at the game as a whole, we just didn\u2019t play good enough,\u201d Hawkins said afterward on the Bears\u2019 Radio Network. \u201cYou can\u2019t make four errors and expect to beat anybody, including a really good Liberty team, who is going to be a regional team as well.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot to be proud of from the regular season and the conference tournament. Our tough schedule, regular season nonconference and C-USA prepared us. We\u2019ll get on the bus, head home and figure out what\u2019s next.\u201d<\/p>\n Taking care of business<\/p>\n Missouri State didn\u2019t have an at-large bid comfortably clinched when it traveled to Kennesaw nearly two weeks ago. Setting up shop for an extended stay, the Bears won two of three over Kennesaw State before tense pool play wins in the tourney over Kennesaw and Dallas Baptist.<\/p>\n That will be enough for a return to the NCAA tourney for the first time since 2022.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve told them since we were at (Louisiana) opening weekend, that every game is a postseason game, if you want to be an at-large team,\u201d Hawkins said. \u201cSo we\u2019ve been in this postseason mindset for a while, and it\u2019s been a fun ride.<\/p>\n \u201cWe put this team through the ringer when it comes to who we played, where we traveled to. Everything. You look at our resume \u2026 we\u2019re more than deserving and we\u2019re more than ready. But we\u2019re ready to get back to Springfield for a few days.\u201d<\/p>\n There will be more fun to come. It would be nice if their regional assignment is close enough for fans to travel by ground transportation. The best chances for that are to be assigned to Kansas (Lawrence), Nebraska (Lincoln) or their old postseason friends at Arkansas (Fayetteville) where there is plenty of NCAA history between the programs.<\/p>\n The NCAA Tournament selection show is Monday at 11 a.m. on ESPN2.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Lyndal Scranton is a Springfield native who has covered sports in the Ozarks for more than 35 years, witnessing nearly every big sports moment in the region during the last 50 years. The Missouri Sports Hall of Famer, Springfield Area Sports Hall of Famer and live-fire cooking enthusiast also serves as PR Director for Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Missouri and is co-host of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast. Contact him at Lscranton755@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @LyndalScranton. More by Lyndal Scranton<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OPINION| Subscribe today to listen to this content Get Access As Missouri State\u2019s first season in Conference USA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201773,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[89133,75906,89134,89135,89136,59112,12011,89137,178,180,179,12013],"class_list":["post-201772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-c-usa","tag-caden-bogenpohl","tag-coach-joey-hawkins","tag-curry-sutherland","tag-jacksonville-state","tag-liberty","tag-missouri-state","tag-missouri-valley-conference","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-topsports1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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Missouri State baseball outfielder Caden Bogenpohl doffs his batting helmet after hitting a grand slam against Valparaiso on Sunday, April 13, 2025, at Hammons Field. The Bears won 25-7 in 7 innings. (Photo by Mary Ellen Chiles)<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLyndal Scranton\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n