The Missouri State baseball team swept through the season's opening weekend and now takes its 3-0 record to Conway, Ark., for a four-game set with 3-1 Central Arkansas beginning Thursday at 3 p.m. After the UCA series, the Bears have just one more road game, March 4 at Oral Roberts, before opening the home season March 7 against Iowa and playing 16 of the next 19 games at Hammons Field.

Central Arkansas is 3-1 on the season after taking a home series from South Dakota State to open the year last week.

The Bears hit .290 in the series and got two homers and eight RBIs from centerfielder Scott Cline.

The pitching staff posted a 3.18 ERA and has six pitchers that threw at least two innings while allowing one earned run or less.

Thursday will mark the first meeting between MSU and Central Arkansas on the baseball diamond.

Live stats for most 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.

Live statistics will not be available for the Central Arkansas series.

Missouri State head coach Keith Guttin (Missouri-St. Louis, 1978) is in his 26th season as head coach of the baseball Bears and has a career record of 867-536 (.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 13 years.

Senior Ben Woodbury earned two awards for his performance in the opening weekend, gaining MVC Player of the Week and Ping! Baseball Spotlight Player of the Week honors after hitting .714 (10-14) with eight RBIs and a .733 on-base percentage in three MSU victories.

Woodbury ranked as the 49th most difficult batter to strike out in the NCAA last season with one every 13.8 at bats. He went 83 at bats and 100 total plate appearances without striking out midway through the 2007 season.

He has yet go down on strikes this year, bumping his career average to one strikeout every 14.6 at bats.

Missouri State is 3-0 for the first time since 2002 and surprisingly close to the best start in school history. A number of MSU teams have started a year with three consecutive wins, but only eight have advanced beyond that. Missouri State started 4-0 in 1972 and 1982, 5-0 in 1973 and 1988, 6-0 in 1989, 7-0 in 1991 and 8-0 in 1976 and 1999.

Ben Carlson slugged two home runs in the season opener at Dallas Baptist, the 135th multi-homer game in school history.

It was the second multiple home run game in his career, making him the 26th player at MSU to record more than one multi-homer game.

Of the remaining 25 players, nine appear among MSU's top 10 in career home runs.

The Bears scored come-from-behind wins in each of the season's first three contests.

Missouri State sent four true freshman pitchers to the mound Feb. 24 against Arkansas-Little Rock. Aaron Meade, J.C. Casey, Cody Aycock and Tyler Ryun combined for the nine-inning victory.

WEAR IT

Missouri State established two school records for being hit by a pitch in the opener at Dallas Baptist. The Bears were beaned nine times, easily eclipsing the old school record of five.

Ryan Mantle tied the individual record by being hit three times. He now shares the mark with Jud Kindle.

The NCAA record for hit by pitches in a game is 10, done by Washington in 1998.

Missouri State had an inning of at least five runs in each of the first three games of the season. By comparison, last year's club had just 11 innings all season when it scored five or more runs.

CLOSING IN ON #900

Head Coach Keith Guttin enters the weekend with an 867-536 career record, leaving him 33 wins short of 900 for his career.

Missouri State welcomes 12 newcomers to the program this season, including seven freshmen and five transfers.

THE NATION'S ONLY

Missouri State enters 2008 with the distinction of being the only college program in America to have a pitcher drafted in the first round of the MLB Draft each of the last two seasons. Brett Sinkbeil was taken 19th overall in 2006 and southpaw Ross Detwiler went sixth in 2007. This year’s crop of draft-eligible Bears’ pitchers includes Jon Barnes, Kyle Boschert, Tim Clubb, Brant Combs, Matt Frevert, Austin Todd and Sean Toler.

The pitching staff returns its top four hurlers in terms of appearances last season, including Pat Doyle (25) and Austin Todd (23), who turned in the second and fifth highest appearance totals in MSU history, respectively.

Kyle Paul. The Bears' senior catcher appears on the Brooks Wallace Award watch list, which is given annually to the nation's top player.

The Bears bring back most of their power hitters from the 2007 season. In all, seven of the team’s top eight home run hitters and 36 of last year’s 44 total long balls are on the roster in 2008.

The Bears are set for four TV games this season on Mediacom Channel 14 in Springfield. All four games will be played at Hammons Field, and the schedule is listed below:

April 1 Arkansas 7:06 p.m.

April 9 Missouri 7:06 p.m.

April 25 Illinois State 7:06 p.m.

May 9 Middle Tennessee 7:06 p.m.

MSU baseball broadcasts will once again air on KWTO and KBFL this season, with a total of 41 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 7 when the Bears host Iowa.

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.

PRESEASON POLL

The Bears enter the 2008 campaign picked to finish fourth in the MVC by the league's coaches. Wichita State is the favorite to repeat as champions, followed by Creighton and Southern Illinois. UNI and Evansville round out the teams projected to make the MVC Tournament field of six.

2007 Player Notes

1 Nolan Keane - Homered and had three RBIs at Texas-Arlington (2/23) ... Stole a pair of bases, scored twice and drove in two runs against Arkansas-Little Rock (2/24)

4 Curt Courtwright - Had two hits and an RBI at Dallas Baptist (2/22)

9 Josh Mazzola - Went 2-for-6 with home run in the win over UALR (2/24)

10 Alex Pickett - Hit a pinch-hit two-run single in his only plate appearance against UALR (2/24)

11 Aaron Conway - Had three hits, scored twice and stole two bases at Texas-Arlington (2/23)

14 Cody Aycock - Allowed three hits in 2.2 innings of relief to pick up the win against UALR (2/24)

15 Ben Carlson - Homered twice, drove in four runs and scored three at Dallas Baptist (2/22) ... Hit a home run, a double and scored twice against Texas-Arlington (2/23)

16 Kyle Paul - Named to the Brooks Wallace Award watch list

24 Ben Woodbury - Went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored at Dallas Baptist (2/22) ... Had three hits and four RBIs in the win at Texas-Arlington (2/23) ... Went 4-for-5, drove in two runs and stole home versus UALR (2/24) ... MVC Player of the Week (2/25) ... Ping! Baseball Spotlight Performance of the Week (2/25) ... College Baseball Insider Central Region Player of the Week (2/27)

26 Aaron Meade - Went 3.2 innings and allowed just one hit while striking out five in a start against UALR (2/24)

30 Kyle Boschert - Earned the victory with three innings of two-hit relief at Texas-Arlington (2/23)

31 Chris Playter - Hit a pinch-hit double and scored twice versus UALR (2/24)