The Missouri State baseball team opens the 2007 season this weekend with four games in the Dallas Metroplex, beginning with Dallas Baptist at 7 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 22, in the Southwest Diamond Classic. The Bears will play a total of three games in the event, facing off with Texas-Arlington at 3 p.m. on Friday and wrapping up with Texas-San Antonio on Saturday at 3 p.m. The tournament will be played at Dr. Pepper Ballpark in Frisco, Texas, home of the Frisco Roughriders, the Double-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers.
The Bears finish the weekend with a neutral site game against Gonzaga at noon on Sunday in Arlington, Texas.
LIVE STATS INFORMATION
Fans can follow the action via live stats over the internet for the following games:
Dallas Baptist: http://www.dbu.edu/athletics/
Texas-San Antonio: http://www.goutsa.com/
THE OPPONENTS
Dallas Baptist is 4-2 prior to a Feb. 20 showdown at nationally-ranked Rice. The Patriots entered the 2007 campaign ranked No. 1 among Division I Independents by Baseball America.
Texas-Arlington is already 3-4 entering its Tuesday game at Texas A&M, with wins over Louisiana Tech, Illinois State and New Mexico. The Mavericks are hitting .282 as a team.UTA carries a staff ERA of 4.29.
Texas-San Antonio is 0-4 and has yet to score more than three runs in any contest entering a Feb. 20 game at Baylor. The Roadrunner offense is batting at a .261 clip, however the pitching staff has an ERA of 8.23 through four games.
Gonzaga got off to an 0-5 start but has since improved to 2-7, including a 6-5 victory over defending national champion Oregon State on Feb. 16. The Bulldogs are hitting just .207 as a team and surrendering an 8.16 ERA.
THE SERIES
Missouri State is 4-6 all-time against this weekend's opponents.
The Bears will meet Dallas Baptist for the first time.
MSU is 4-5 all-time against UT-Arlington, alternating wins and losses in the last four meetings from 2001-04. UTA won the last game, 9-1.
The Bears lost their only meeting with Texas-San Antonio, 7-2, at the Notre Dame Tournament in 2005.
Missouri State and Gonzaga have never met on the diamond, and MSU is just 0-1 all-time against current members of the West Coast Conference.
COACH KEITH GUTTIN
Missouri State head coach Keith Guttin (Missouri-St. Louis, 1978) is in his 25th season as head coach of the baseball Bears and has a career record of 841-502 (.626). Guttin became the first coach at Missouri State (in any sport) to reach the 800-win mark with the May 11, 2005, win over Kansas at Hammons Field. In 2003, Guttin led the Bears to the NCAA Division I College World Series for the first time in school history. Guttin has been a conference Coach of the Year nine times with three of those coming in the Valley and six coming during the Bears’ years in the Mid-Continent Conference. During Guttin’s tenure, the Bears have made seven Division I NCAA Tournament appearances -- six in the last 12 years.
2006 IN REVIEW
Missouri State finished the 2006 season 33-22 overall and 15-8 in the Missouri Valley Conference, good for second place. The Bears were one victory away from winning the MVC Tournament and earning an automatic NCAA berth, but fell to regular season champion Evansville twice on the final day.
The Bears put seven players on the three all-conference teams, with five of those players returning in 2007 (OF Nolan Keane, 2B Matt Lawson, C Clay Coulter, 3B Brayden Drake and LHP Ross Detwiler).
Following the year, junior RHP Brett Sinkbeil became the highest drafted MSU player in history, going 19th overall in the first round to the Florida Marlins. Chris Krawczyk also went on to the next level as a 22nd round selection of Detroit.
FOR OPENERS
Missouri State is 16-8 in season openers under Keith Guttin, and 28-15 overall in the 43-year history of the program. The Bears have lost their last two debuts.
Missouri State is beginning the season in Texas for the seventh year in a row. MSU played in tournaments at Texas A&M in 2006 and Rice in '05, and began in the Dallas Metroplex each of the previous four seasons at the Texas-Arlington Tournament.
The Bears have opened the season away from Springfield every year since 2000.
NEW FACES
Missouri State welcomes 13 newcomers to the program this season, including eight freshmen and five transfers.
HOWARD CONTINUES TO RAKE IN AWARDS
Former baseball Bear Ryan Howard of the Philadelphia Phillies continues to bring home awards after winning National League Rookie of the Year in 2005. Howard, who played at MSU from 1999-2001, was the N.L. MVP in 2006 after slugging 58 homers and driving in 149 runs. He also won the Century 21 Home Run Derby during the All-Star break.
10 SPOT
Missouri State is in the midst of a 66-game winning streak when scoring 10 or more runs, dating back to a 12-11 setback at Missouri on May 1, 2001.
The streak is remarkable in that the Bears have strung together five consecutive seasons without losing such a contest, and only put together four undefeated seasons under those circumstances in Coach Guttin's previous 19 seasons as head coach. The Bears are 356-29 (.925) all-time when scoring 10 or more runs under Guttin.
20,000TH HIT
The Missouri State baseball team will likely reach an impressive milestone in this the 44th year in the program's history. The Bears are currently 421 hits away from the 20,000 mark, and have recorded at least that many base hits each year since the 1979 season.
HOLDING A LATE LEAD
Missouri State enters 2007 on a 36-game win streak when leading after eight innings. The ability to hold a late lead has been a staple in recent years, as the Bears are 64-1 since 2004 and 160-3 since 2000 when leading after eight frames. Below is a look at MSU's success with late-game leads since the beginning of the 2000 campaign:
USA! USA!
Junior southpaw Ross Detwiler pitched for Team USA over the summer, compiling a 2-0 record and 0.95 ERA over 19 innings for the 28-2 world championship team. Including his last five starts from 2006, six appearances with Team USA and two starts for the Falmouth Commodores of the Cape Cod league, Detwiler has put together a 7-1 record and 1.01 ERA with 80 strikeouts in 71 innings of work over his last 13 competitive appearances.
TOUGH SCHEDULE
The 2007 schedule is dotted with 17 games against teams that participated in the 2006 NCAA Tournament. The Bears play five NCAA teams in a row from April 17-22, and follow that with seven games to open the month of May against members of last year’s tournament field.
BEARS IN THE DRAFT
Three Bears currently on the roster have been drafted during their careers. Scott Carroll was picked in the 16th round by the Angels in 2006, and Kyle Paul was chosen in the 41st round last year by Cleveland. Sean Toler was a 24th round selection of Colorado in 2005 after his senior year of high school.
RADIO BROADCASTS
MSU baseball broadcasts will once again air on KWTO and KBFL this season, with a total of 29 regular season games and all postseason action. Art Hains and Rob Evans will describe the action. The first broadcast will originate from Hammons Field on March 23 when the Bears open conference play against UNI.
All broadcasts can be heard live over the internet by visiting www.radiospringfield.com.
A complete listing of this year’s radio broadcasts can be found on page 3.
2,000 GAMES
Missouri State will play its 2,000th game in the 44-year history of the program this season, and is currently 32 contests away from that mark. The 32nd game on the 2007 schedule is MSU vs. Bradley on April 8 in Springfield.
KEEP AN EYE ON...
Ross Detwiler and Nolan Keane. Both players appear on preseason watch lists for national awards.
Detwiler is among the candidates for the Roger Clemens Award, given annually to the nation's top pitcher.
Keane appears on the Brooks Wallace Award watch list, which is given to the nation's top player.
PRESEASON POLL
The Bears enter the 2007 campaign picked to finish third in the MVC by the league's coaches. Evansville is the favorite to repeat as champions, followed by Wichita State, which actually received the most first-place votes, getting five to UE's four. Creighton follows MSU in fourth, and UNI and Southern Illinois are projected to round out the MVC Tournament field of six.
PRESEASON ALL-MVC
Three Bears appear on the 14-player preseason all-MVC team. Outfielder Nolan Keane, a first-team pick last year, is expected to repeat his selection. Clay Coulter earned the spot as the league's top catcher after second-team honors last season, and Ross Detwiler rounds out the trio as one of three starting pitchers. Detwiler was an honorable mention all-league pick in 2006.
MVC TOURNAMENT
The Missouri Valley Conference Tournament returns to Hammons Field May 23-26. The tourney is a six-team, double-elimination format with the winner earning the Valley's automatic NCAA bid. MSU also hosted the event in 2004.
2007 Player Notes
1 Nolan Keane - Named to the Brooks Wallace Award watch list ... Preseason all-MVC ...
18 Ross Detwiler - Pitched for Team USA in the summer of 2006, going 2-0 with a 0.95 ERA and 22 strikeouts in 19 innings ... Named to the Roger Clemens Award watch list ... Preseason all-MVC ... Baseball America Preseason All-America Second Team ...
30 Clay Coulter - Preseason all-MVC ...
