The Missouri State baseball team (19-17, 4-5 MVC) looks to snap a season-long five-game losing streak when it hosts No. 9 Arkansas Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Hammons Field. The game is the first of four consecutive contests the Bears will have against top-10 foes, as 10th-ranked Wichita State visits Springfield for a three-game set this weekend.

The game will be televised on Mediacom Channel 14 in Springfield.

THE OPPONENT

Arkansas is 29-10 overall and 11-4 in the Southeastern Conference. The Razorbacks are ranked as high as fourth in the nation by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and ninth by Baseball America, and enter Wednesday's game on a five-game winning streak after sweeping No. 17 Florida over the weekend.

Infielder Logan Forsythe (.368-6-37) paces a potent offensive attack that hits .301 as a unit and averages 8.4 runs per game. The team has slugged 48 home runs and 93 doubles in 39 games. First baseman Danny Hamblin is the reigning SEC Hitter of the Week.

The pitching staff has an ERA of 4.05 but is limiting opponents to a .248 batting average and has 353 strikeouts in 347 innings.

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.

All four remaining games this week will be on KBFL and/or KWTO Springfield. A listing of which game is on which station can be found on page 3.

TV INFORMATION

Three of this week's four remaining games will be televised. The Missouri, Arkansas and Sunday Wichita State contests can be seen on Mediacom Channel 14 in Springfield. The Saturday game with Wichita State will be televised by Metro Sports in the Kansas City and Wichita areas.

Arkansas leads the all-time series 42-22, but Missouri State won both meetings last season and has been victorious in three of the last six dating to a 6-5 win in 16 innings in 2005. Arkansas won a 2-0 pitcher's duel last Wednesday in Fayetteville, as four pitchers combined to four-hit the Bears and notch 11 strikeouts.

Tim Clubb was the tough-luck loser, allowing an earned run in seven innings, and he joined Pat Doyle in matching Arkansas' four-hit performance.

 

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 860-519 (.624). 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 lost their fifth game in a row Tuesday evening at Hammons Field, falling to Missouri by a 3-1 final.

Mizzou broke a scoreless tie in the sixth when Kyle Mach knocked an RBI single, and MU used four pitchers to five-hit the MSU offense.

Tim Clubb allowed one earned run in six innings, and Matt Frevert struck out six Tigers in two innings of relief.

Matt Lawson doubled and scored in the seventh for Missouri State's only run.

QUICK HITS

According to the NCAA stats released today, Missouri State ranks in the top 35 in the following categories:

Seventh in double plays per game (1.2)

34th in strikeouts per nine innings (7.9)

Ross Detwiler appears among the NCAA leaders in the following categories:

17th in ERA (1.73)

23rd in strikeouts/nine innings (11.0)

27th in strikeouts (70)

Missouri State is outscoring opponents 39-8 in the first inning.

MSU is 16-1 this season when out-hitting its opponent and 1-13 when recording fewer hits.

Ben Woodbury recently went 83 at bats and 100 total plate appearances without striking out, the longest such streak in the MVC this season.

Ryan Mantle has 13 RBIs in nine league games and 10 RBIs in the first inning this season.

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

Missouri State has a team ERA of 2.67 in the last four games but is 0-4. For comparison, a team ERA of 2.67 would rank fifth in the country.

Matt Frevert is averaging 16.0 strikeouts per nine innings this season, posting a 0.50 ERA with three saves in 11 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.

This year's leader is Jess Todd of Arkansas, who is averaging 13.3. Again, Frevert has not logged enough innings to qualify for this statistic.

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

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.

After allowing 10 runs in his first outing of the year, Clubb has rebounded to go 4-2 with a 2.36 ERA and a .243 batting average against in 49.2 innings since.

Ross Detwiler has gone 13 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 1.41 with 112 strikeouts in 96 innings, while opponents are batting just .158 against him, in those 13 starts.

Detwiler recently moved into a tie for seventh on Missouri State's career strikeouts list. He has fanned 204 batters in his career.

Missouri State has turned 43 double plays this season and has hit into just 21. Second baseman Matt Lawson ranks second in the MVC as a part in 36 of them, and leads the nearest non-first baseman by five.

Opponents are hitting .231 off the Missouri State bullpen overall, and .208 against Bears relievers at Hammons Field.

 

Kyle Paul is hitting .393 (24-61) over the last 19 games. The junior has a .441 (15-34) average as a catcher and a .333 (9-27) average as the team's designated hitter over that span.

Tanner Mattson has played remarkable defense at shortstop this season, commiting only four errors so far. The senior has improved dramatically in the field, upping his defensive efficiency from .924 last season to .968 this year while appearing in 35 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.

Missouri State has a .354 (17-48) batting average with the bases loaded. Nolan Keane is 4-for-6 with a grand slam in that situation.

Nolan Keane is batting .500 (15-30) in the first inning this season while drawing an additional five walks for a .571 on-base percentage. He has come to the plate 35 times in the first inning.

Missouri State is hitting .292 as a team with runners in scoring position, compared to .243 for opponents.

The Bears' offense struck out at least seven times in each of the first nine games, but has only reached that mark four times in the last 27.

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 1.50 and opponent batting average of .103 in true road games.

Members of the 1987 Missouri State baseball team will be honored on the field prior to Friday's game. The 1987 squad went 38-14 and was the first team to make the NCAA Tournament in the Division I era.