Missouri State

MATT CEPICKY
Baseball, 1997-99
Inducted 2014

Matt Cepicky was a slugging outfielder whose spectacular 1999 junior season for the baseball Bears of coach Keith Guttin brought Cepicky consensus Division I All-America selection. He slammed 30 homers, drove home a school record 100 runs and batted .414. A St. Louis native and all-state pick at Vianney High, Cepicky was the Missouri State Most Valuable Player and Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year as he led NCAA Division I in home runs, runs batted in and runs scored, finished sixth in slugging and 31st in hitting. His power paced an offensive onslaught in which MSU led the nation in home runs and slugging and finished fifth in team hitting. His All-America accolades came from Collegiate Baseball, Baseball America, the National Collegiate Baseball Writers and the American Baseball Coaches Association. The 1997 MSU Rookie of the Year, he batted .323 with five homers and 33 RBI's to help the Bears to the MVC tourney title. He had five hits in the NCAA regional in Lubbock, Texas, and made the all-tourney team. His sophomore year he hiked his numbers to 16 homers and 50 RBI's and batted .390 to get all-MVC second team selection and all-region honorable mention. A standout in 1998 in the Cape Cod League when he was his team MVP, the All-Star game MVP and the playoff MVP, Cepicky was a pre-season first team All-America in 1999. He was voted MVP in the 1999 NCAA Fayetteville Regional despite the fact the Bears didn't win the tourney. He finished his three-season MSU career with 51 home runs and 183 RBI's. He was drafted and signed by the Montreal Expos after his junior season at MSU and reached the major leagues with the Expos in 2002. Cepicky played parts of five seasons in the organizations of the Expos/Washington Nationals and Miami Marlins.