The Missouri State baseball team (22-32, 7-17 MVC) opens Missouri Valley Conference Tournament play Wednesday at 7 p.m. against top-seeded and regular-season league champion Wichita State (46-17, 20-4). The Bears enter the six-team tournament as the sixth-seed, gaining automatic entry into the field by virtue of hosting. WSU has won 16 straight games against Missouri State and 10 in a row at Hammons Field dating to a first-round MVC Tournament loss in 2004.

VALLEY TOURNAMENT HISTORY

Missouri State has qualified for 16 of a possible 17 conference tournaments since joining the MVC in 1991, missing the field in 2005. The Bears are 26-28 all-time at the tourney with titles in 1996 and 1997 and runner-up finishes in 1995, 2002 and 2006.

The Bears have won at least one game in each tournament appearance since 1994.

Missouri State pitching is responsible for two of the three one-hitters in tournament history. In 2002, Matt Palmer and Andrew Jefferson combined to one-hit Wichita State in a game the Bears actually lost 3-0 when WSU homered after two men walked. Last year, Ross Detwiler hurled a complete game with eight strikeouts while holding Creighton to one hit in a 3-1 MSU victory. The third was thrown by Southern Illinois in 1977.

Last season, Missouri State rolled through the first three games before falling twice to Evansville on Championship Saturday.

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

All MVC Tournament games involving Missouri State can be heard on KBFL 1060 AM 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 863-534 (.618). 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.

Wichita State was victorious in the only other Valley Tournament held at Hammons Field. The Shockers fell in the first round to Evansville but won four straight including beating Southern Illinois twice on Saturday for the title. WSU's Drew Moffitt was the tourney MVP with a monster weekend that included a game against Missouri State with three homers and 10 RBIs.

With the exception of Bradley replacing Indiana State, this year's tournament field is identical to the one in 2004.

Missouri State closed the regular season in Omaha by taking one of three games at Creighton. Each game in the series was decided by one run. The Bears were shut out on Thursday and lost a 1-0 decision on an error in the seventh inning. Ross Detwiler allowed three hits and an unearned run in seven innings on the mound for MSU.

Friday's contest saw Scott Carroll strike out a career-best 12 Creighton hitters and yield just three hits in seven innings, but the Bears were handed another tight loss, 3-2. Nolan Keane provided the offense with a two-run triple in the third.

Another Bear recorded a career-high in strikeouts on Saturday, as Tim Clubb put the team on his back and pitched 7.2 innings of three-hit relief to lead the Bears to a 4-3 victory. Clubb fanned eight, and MSU scored its four runs in the first two innings before holding on for the win.

THIS YEAR AGAINST THE FIELD

Missouri State is 4-11 against this year's field. Below are the game-by-game results:

Team Results (all-time series)

Bradley W, 9-3; W, 3-1; L, 8-9 (MSU, 40-25)

at Creighton L, 0-1; L, 2-3; W, 4-3 (CU, 32-29)

at Evansville L, 6-7; L, 4-5; W, 13-2 (MSU, 35-26)

at Southern Ill. L, 3-5; L, 4-6; L, 8-10 (MSU, 45-27)

Wichita State L, 1-5; L, 0-5; L, 6-11 (WSU, 50-24)

QUICK HITS

According to the NCAA stats through May 13, Missouri State ranks in the top 30 in the following categories:

14th in double plays per game (1.06)

29th in strikeouts per nine innings (7.9)

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

36th in ERA (2.28)

15th in strikeouts/nine innings (11.3)

23rd in strikeouts (99)

Missouri State's three seniors, Shane Elenz, Tanner Mattson and Chris Taylor, have combined to hit .342 with 27 RBIs in the last 15 games.

Elenz (1st - .358), Taylor (2nd - .349) and Mattson (3rd - .320) rank as the squad's top three hitters over that span, while each has recorded a hitting streak of at least eight games.

Missouri State's middle infielders have carried the offensive load in league contests, with Tanner Mattson (.324) and Matt Lawson (.309) atop the team's batting statistics.

Lawson is a .335 hitter in 60 career MVC contests.

Missouri State is outscoring opponents 45-19 in the first inning.

Nolan Keane is batting .435 (20-46) in the first inning this season while drawing an additional seven walks for a .509 on-base percentage. He has come to the plate 53 times in the first inning.

One-third of Missouri State's 54 games this year have been decided by a single run, but the Bears are just 5-13 in those contests.

Missouri State has been hot this season in the fifth and sixth frames, batting a combined .312 with 15 homers in those middle innings.

The Bears' top two starters, Ross Detwiler and Scott Carroll, have a combined ERA of 2.48 in 167 innings but are just 8-9 and the team is 9-16 when they start.

Both Detwiler (8th- 3.08) and Carroll

(10th- 3.31) appear on Missouri State's career ERA list.

The Bears ended their losing streak at 14 games with a 13-2 win at Evansville May 6. The previous long was seven games in 2005. Why did MSU lose games in a row? Below are some statistics that help explain it:

Hit .245 as a team

Fielded .947 with 28 errors

Opponents fielded .983

Hit .221 with runners on base

Hit .214 with runners in scoring position

Averaged 3.5 runs per game

Ten of 14 games decided by one or two runs

The Bears have played 23 games since the losing skid began April 8. In that time, MSU has scored in 48 innings and opponents have responded by scoring 25 times in the very next time at bat.

Missouri State on the other hand, has plated a run just 15 times in response to 62 scoring innings by the opposition.

In the last 23 games, MSU opponents are fielding .981 with a mere 16 errors. A .981 fielding percentage would rank No. 1 in the country.

Chris Taylor has hit safely in the last six games he has started and is hitting .327 (18/55) since April 8.

Missouri State is 8-26 in games decided by three runs or less.

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.

Ross Detwiler's streak of 14 starts going at least six innings and allowing three earned runs or fewer ended April 27 at Southern Illinois. Detwiler had an ERA of 1.53 with 120 strikeouts in 102 innings, and an opponent average of .169, in those 14 starts.

The 3.2 inning start at SIU was also the first time in 20 appearances he did not make it 5.2 innings.

Detwiler is now in fourth place on Missouri State's career strikeouts list. He has fanned 242 batters in his career.

Ben Woodbury recently went 83 at bats and 100 total plate appearances without striking out, the longest such streak in the MVC this season. He is ranked as the 79th most difficult batter to strike out in the NCAA.

Matt Frevert is averaging 15.6 strikeouts per nine innings this season, posting a 0.47 ERA with four saves in 12 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 Josh Dew of Troy, who is averaging 13.9. Again, Frevert has not logged enough innings to qualify for this statistic.

Frevert has pitched nine separate ninth innings this season, allowing just three hits to go with 15 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.

Since allowing 10 runs in his first outing of the season, Clubb has a 3.05 ERA and .252 opponent average in 79.2 innings since.

Missouri State has turned 55 double plays this season. Second baseman Matt Lawson ranks second in the MVC as a part in 45 of them.

Lawson already ranks sixth in MSU history with 366 career assists and ninth with 89 double plays.

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

Missouri State has a .344 (22-64) batting average with the bases loaded and has walloped three grand slams.