The Missouri State baseball team (19-21, 4-8 MVC) opens up an eight-game road trip at Southern Illinois (25-15, 5-7) this weekend, opening the three-game series at 3 p.m. Friday. Like the Bears, the Salukis have struggled of late, losing six of their last eight games.
THE OPPONENT
Southern Illinois is 25-15 on the season and 5-7 in the MVC after earning head coach Dan Callahan his 500th career victory with a 7-0 blanking of Saint Louis Wednesday.
Offensively, catcher Mark Kelly (.411-2-49) has ranked among the Valley leaders in hitting all season and Aaron Roberts is not far behind with a .382 average. The Salukis are second in the league with a .297 team average, but are last in the league with 11 home runs. Speedy outfielder Kevin Koski is a four-year starter who ranks third in school history with 264 hits.
The pitching staff is led by Cody Adams (9-2, 2.45 ERA), who ranks seventh in the league in ERA and first in wins while holding opponents to a .227 batting average. Shawn Joy (3-2, 3.19) and Jordan Powell (5-6. 4.34) round out the weekend rotation, and Ian Reinhart anchors the bullpen with a league-leading 25 appearances and a 3.08 ERA.
SIU ranks at the bottom of the MVC with a .953 fielding percentage and has made 74 errors.
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.
RADIO INFORMATION
Friday and Saturday's games at Southern Illinois can be heard on KBFL (99.9 FM/1060 AM) in Springfield.
THE SERIES
Missouri State holds a 45-24 lead in the all-time series with Southern Illinois but has lost five of the last eight meetings.
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 860-523 (.622). 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.
LAST WEEK
Missouri State's losing streak reached nine games, the longest in school history, after Wichita State earned a weekend sweep of the Bears at Hammons Field. On Friday, WSU's Travis Banwart allowed four hits in seven scoreless frames and the Bears were shut out until Ryan Mantle's solo homer in the eighth in a 5-1 loss.
The Shockers did complete a shutout on Saturday, winning 3-0 despite Missouri State holding a 10-7 edge in hits. Scott Carroll allowed only one earned run in seven innings, and Matt Lawson had three hits in the defeat.
WSU powered five home runs and jumped out to a 9-0 lead on Sunday before the Bears rallied for five runs in the sixth inning. The Shockers responded with two more in the seventh, and Shane Elenz homered in the eighth for the final 11-6 score. Elenz finished 3-for-3 with a walk and two RBIs, coming up a triple short of the cycle.
QUICK HITS
According to the NCAA stats released Tuesday, Missouri State ranks in the top 30 in the following categories:
Fifth in double plays per game (1.2)
28th in strikeouts per nine innings (7.9)
Ross Detwiler appears among the NCAA leaders in the following categories:
29th in ERA (1.85)
18rd in strikeouts/nine innings (11.1)
26th in strikeouts (78)
Detwiler has gone 14 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 1.53 with 120 strikeouts in 102 innings, while opponents are batting just .169 against him, in those 14 starts.
Detwiler recently moved into seventh place on Missouri State's career strikeouts list. He has fanned 212 batters in his career.
The Bears are currently mired in the longest losing streak in school history, nine games. The previous long was seven games in 2005. Why has MSU lost nine games in a row? Below are some statistics that help explain it:
Hitting .228 as a team
Fielding .941 with 20 errors
Opponents are fielding .982
Hitting .189 with runners on base
Hitting .183 with runners in scoring position
The last time a Missouri State team lostseven games in a row, it rebounded to win the final 11 games of that season.
Kyle Paul is hitting .400 (30-75) over the last 23 games. The junior has a .400 (16-40) average as a catcher and a .400 (14-35) average as the team's designated hitter over that span.
Missouri State is outscoring opponents 40-14 in the first inning.
Nolan Keane is batting .485 (16-33) in the first inning this season while drawing an additional six walks for a .564 on-base percentage. He has come to the plate 39 times in the first inning.
MSU is 16-2 this season when out-hitting its opponent and 1-16 when recording fewer hits.
Missouri State pitching recently had a streak of 65.2 innings from April 6-20 without allowing a home run.
The Bears bullpen had an even more impressive homerless streak, going 88 innings over a stretch of 32 games from March 7 to April 22 without allowing a long ball.
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 14 RBIs in 12 league games and 10 RBIs in the first inning this season.
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 David Price of Vanderbilt, 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.
Missouri State has turned 48 double plays this season. Second baseman Matt Lawson ranks second in the MVC as a part in 40 of them, and leads the nearest non-first baseman by seven.
The Bears tied a school record with five sacrifice flies in the victory against SEMO on April 3.
Missouri State has a .353 (18-51) batting average with the bases loaded. Nolan Keane is 4-for-6 with a grand slam in that situation.
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.
