The Missouri State baseball team begins its fourth season playing at Hammons Field this weekend with a three-game set against Middle Tennessee State. The 2-3 Bears and the 3-6 Blue Raiders open the weekend at 3 p.m. Friday, with the remaining games at 2 p.m. on Saturday and 1 p.m. on Sunday.

Middle Tennessee State is 3-6 on the season and is on a three-game losing streak, falling 3-1 at Lipscomb on Wednesday and dropping the final two games of its weekend series with Bowling Green.

Despite the losing record, the Blue Raiders are out-hitting their opponents by a .288 to .251 margin, and have hit 12 homers in nine games. Wayne Kendrick is batting .417 and first baseman Rawley Bishop leads the club with four home runs, 11 RBIs and an .867 slugging percentage.

Brad Robinson leads the pitching staff with 9.2 scoreless innings so far this season, and Shay Horseman is close behind with a 1.08 ERA and .138 opponent batting average. The staff has a 4.68 ERA.

The MTSU defense has committed just nine errors for a .974 fielding percentage.

Missouri State is 18-5 all-time against Middle Tennessee, including a 2-1 series victory last season in Murfreesboro. The Bears won by scores of 6-3 and 11-4, while MTSU took the middle game, 15-2. Matt Lawson hit .455 with a homer during the three-game set, and Ross Detwiler allowed three hits in seven innings of the Sunday contest to pick up the victory.

The Blue Raiders have been a staple on the MSU schedule in recent years, playing at least two games against the Bears each year since 2002. MSU swept three-game series in 2003 and 2005, both at home.

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 843-505 (.625). 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.

The Bears opened the season 2-3 last week, going 2-1 at the Southwest Diamond Classic in Frisco, Texas, and suffering losses to Gonzaga and Arkansas-Little Rock.

Ross Detwiler struck out 13 Dallas Baptist hitters in the season opening 3-2 victory, earning National Player of the Week honors for his efforts.

The Bears continued the close games by dropping an 11-10 decision to Texas-Arlington and defeating Texas-San Antonio by the same score in 10 innings the next day when Brayden Drake scored on a walk-off balk to close out the Southwest Diamond Classic. Detwiler and Drake joined tourney MVP Ben Woodbury on the all-tournament team.

MSU stayed in the Dallas Metroplex and had an 8-7 setback to Gonzaga in 10 innings before traveling to Arkansas-Little Rock Tuesday and losing 8-5.

Woodbury hit .429 for the week and fellow newcomer Kyle Paul hit .364 with five RBIs. Buddy Baumann (4.2 IP, 0 hits, 6 strikeouts) and Matt Frevert (2-0, 2.25 ERA) joined Detwiler as the pitching standouts.

The Bears have lost two of the three Hammons Field openers, but are 33-10 overall in home openers.

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 366 hits away from the 20,000 mark.

NATIONAL PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Ross Detwiler was named a Louisville Slugger National Player of the Week by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper for his performance against Dallas Baptist on Feb. 22. The junior struck out a career-high 13 in seven innings, allowing just one run on two hits.

Detwiler also won the award last season for his one-hit performance against Creighton in the MVC Tournament, his final appearance of 2006, meaning he was honored nationally for two consecutive outings.

ANOTHER FROM THE GRIDIRON

For the second season in a row, the Bears welcome a member of the football team to the pitching staff. Jeff Sargent was a high school All-American as a senior and earned all-state and all-conference honors at Francis Howell High in St. Charles, Mo.

A fullback for Terry Allen in the fall, Sargent caught five passes for 42 yards and returned four kickoffs for 25 yards.

Scott Carroll joined the baseball squad last season after quarterbacking the Bears in 2005.

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.

NEW FACES

Missouri State welcomes 13 newcomers to the program this season, including seven freshmen, five transfers and Jeff Sargent from the MSU football squad.

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 27 contests away from that mark. Twenty-seven games away 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.

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, two starts for the Falmouth Commodores of the Cape Cod league and this year's opener, Detwiler has put together a 7-1 record and 1.04 ERA with 93 strikeouts in 78 innings of work over his last 14 competitive appearances.

BE READY FOR A WIN STREAK

Missouri State has shown the ability to put together some impressive winning streaks each of the last two seasons. After a disappointing first 44 games in 2005, the Bears reeled of 11 straight victories to close the season. In 2006, MSU won 10 games in a row in May before falling to Evansville in the MVC Tournament final.

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 champion, 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.

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.

2007 Player Notes

1 Nolan Keane - Named to the Brooks Wallace Award watch list ... Preseason all-MVC ... Had two hits and scored twice at Arkansas-Little Rock ...

5 Brayden Drake - Southwest Diamond Classic all-tournament ... Went 2-for-5 and scored the game-winning run against Texas-San Antonio (2/24) ...

8 Tanner Mattson - Had two hits and scored versus Texas-San Antonio (2/24) ...

9 Josh Mazzola - Hit the game-winning sacrifice fly versus Dallas Baptist (2/22) ...

10 Matt Lawson - Hit two triples and a double and drove in four runs against Texas-Arlington (2/23) ...

12 Tim Clubb - Made the first start of his career against Texas-San Antonio (2/24) ... Allowed an earned run and struck out three in 3.1 innings at UALR (2/27) ...

15 Ben Carlson - Went 3-for-5 with a walk in his first start against Texas-San Antonio (2/24) ...

16 Kyle Paul - Had two hits in three of the season's first four games ...

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 ... Southwest Diamond Classic all-tournament ... Struck out 13 in seven innings, allowing two hits and a run against Dallas Baptist (2/22) ... Louisville Slugger National Player of the Week (2/26) ... Insidepitching.com Midwest Region Pitcher of the Week (2/26) ... College Baseball Foundation National Honor Roll (2/27) ...

21 Matt Frevert - Threw two perfect innings and struck out four to defeat Texas-San Antonio (2/24) ...

24 Ben Woodbury - Southwest Diamond Classic MVP ... Went 3-for-4 with a homer and three runs against Texas-Arlington (2/23) ...

30 Clay Coulter - Preseason all-MVC ... Went 3-for-5 with two RBIs against Gonzaga (2/25) ...

32 Pat Doyle - Made the first start of his career at Arkansas-Little Rock (2/27) ...

33 Shane Elenz - Hit a three-run homer against Texas-San Antonio (2/24) ... Had a single and two RBIs at Arkansas-Little Rock (2/27) ...

34 Buddy Baumann - Threw 4.2 innings of hitless relief with six strikeouts versus Texas-San Antonio (2/24) ...