The Missouri State baseball team (19-13, 4-5 MVC) heads to Fayetteville, Ark., Tuesday in search of its third consecutive victory over the 25-10 Arkansas Razorbacks, who are ranked fifth by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and ninth by Baseball America. The Bears are winners of four of their last five with an offense that is rounding into form, knocking at least 10 hits in each of the last seven games.

Arkansas is 25-10 overall and 8-4 in the rugged Southeastern Conference. The Razorbacks are ranked as high as fifth in the nation by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper.

Infielder Logan Forsythe (.371-6-29) paces a potent offensive attack that hits .301 as a unit and averages 8.4 runs per game. The team has slugged 44 home runs and 84 doubles in 35 games.

The pitching staff has an ERA of 4.28 but is limiting opponents to a .254 batting average and has 312 strikeouts in 311 innings.

Arkansas has number of marquee wins, including two against then-No. 1 Vanderbilt and two against a Kentucky team that currently sits at 25-6.

LIVE STATS INFORMATION

Live stats for all Missouri State baseball games will be available at www.missouristatebears.com. Just click "Live Stats" on the left side of the page and select the appropriate game.

The Arkansas game will be on KBFL (99.9 FM/1060 AM) in Springfield.

Arkansas leads the all-time series 41-22, but Missouri State won both meetings last season and has been victorious in three of the last five dating to a 6-5 win in 16 innings in 2005. Last season's scores in favor of Missouri State were 10-5 in Fayetteville and 4-2 in Springfield.

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 860-515 (.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.

Missouri State won its second Missouri Valley Conference series of the year over the weekend, beating Bradley by scores of 9-3 and 3-1 before dropping the finale 9-8.

MSU's starting pitching was dominant the first two games, getting 10 strikeouts from Ross Detwiler on Friday and a complete-game five-hitter from Scott Carroll on Saturday.

Ryan Mantle drove in six runs in the series and had four extra-base hits, and Nolan Keane knocked solo homers in games one and three.

On Sunday, Jake Shafer allowed seven runs in 3.2 innings, and the Bears could not hold a 5-2 lead or claw back from a 9-6 deficit despite Mantle's three RBIs and Tanner Mattson reaching base in all five plate appearances.

Missouri State is outscoring opponents 38-8 in the first inning. The Bears have scored in the first in seven straight games.

Ben Woodbury has gone 83 at bats and 100 total plate appearances without striking out. The last time he went down on strikes was his first at bat of the Minnesota game on March 11.

Ryan Mantle has driven in a run in each of the last six games and has 13 RBIs in nine league games.

Mantle is the reigning MVC Player of the Week.

Scott Carroll has thrown nine innings in back-to-back appearances, going 1-0 with an ERA of 1.00.

The Bears are 10-0 this season in games decided by five or more runs.

Tim Clubb's complete-game and shutout against Arkansas State on 3/20 were the first by an MSU freshman since Brett Sinkbeil versus Indiana State in 2004. Sinkbeil's was in a seven-inning game.

Of the last 86 batters Clubb has faced, only four have advanced beyond second base.

After allowing 10 runs in his first outing of the year, Clubb has rebounded to go 4-0 with a 2.70 ERA and a .246 batting average against in 36.2 innings since.

Ross Detwiler has gone 12 straight starts without allowing more than three earned runs, going at least 6.0 innings in each of those outings dating back to five starts last season. Detwiler has an ERA of 1.42 with 102 strikeouts in 89 innings, while opponents are batting just .152 against him, in those 12 starts.

Detwiler is one strikeout away from tying Chris Krawczyk for 10th on Missouri State's career list. He has 194 in his career.

According to Boyd's World, among the pitchers who have met the NCAA standard of innings pitched (one per team game), Detwiler ranks second in the country in batting average against (.164).

Missouri State has turned 40 double plays this season and has hit into just 18. Second baseman Matt Lawson ranks second in the MVC as a part in 33 of them, and leads the nearest non-first baseman by six.

Opponents are hitting .225 off the Missouri State bullpen overall, and .201 against Bears relievers at Hammons Field.

Kyle Paul is hitting .413 (19-46) and slugging .609 over the last 15 games. The junior has a .500 (11-22) average as a catcher and a .333 (8-24) average as the team's designated hitter over that span.

Missouri State is fielding .975 in the last 15 games.

Tanner Mattson has played remarkable defense at shortstop this season, commiting only three errors so far. The senior has improved dramatically in the field, upping his defensive efficiency from .924 last season to .972 this year while appearing in 31 games.

Mattson is the Bears' leading hitter in league games with a .375 average.

The Bears tied a school record with five sacrifice flies in the victory against SEMO on April 3.

Matt Lawson is batting .405 (17-42) with runners in scoring position.

The MSU pitching staff is limiting opponents to a .225 batting average at Hammons Field.

Missouri State has a .362 (17-47) batting average with the bases loaded. Nolan Keane is 4-for-5 with a grand slam in that situation.

Nolan Keane is batting .500 (13-26) in the first inning this season while drawing an additional five walks for a .581 on-base percentage. He has come to the plate 31 times in the first inning.

Missouri State is hitting .307 as a team with runners in scoring position, compared to .248 for opponents.

The Bears' offense struck out at least seven times in each of the first nine games, but has only reached that mark twice in the last 23.

Shane Elenz hit for the cycle with his first four hits of the season (over four games).

Ben Carlson hit two home runs against Arkansas State (3/21) to become the first Bear with two homers in a game since March 3, 2006.

Carlson added a single and a double for 11 total bases, the most since February 2003.

Austin Todd has an ERA of 0.79 and opponent batting average of .083 in true road games.

Matt Frevert is averaging 16.1 strikeouts per nine innings this season, posting a 0.64 ERA with three saves in seven appearances. The NCAA record for K/9 (based on at least one IP per team game) was set at 16.8 by Ryan Wagner of Houston in 2003.

Frevert has pitched eight separate ninth innings this season, allowing just two hits to go with 14 strikeouts in those appearances.