Off to its best 10-game start since 2002, the 8-2 Missouri State baseball team travels to 23rd-ranked Oklahoma State for a 4 p.m. Tuesday contest before opening a nine-game homestand Wednesday against Kansas at 4 p.m. at Hammons Field. The Bears will play 13 of their next 16 games at home. Both games will be carried on KBFL AM-1060.

THE OPPONENTS

Oklahoma State is 9-3 this year and ranked 23rd in the latest Baseball America poll. As always, the Cowboys boast a potent offense that is hitting .308 and slugging .499. Donnie Webb leads the team with a .475 batting average, and shortstop/closer Jordy Mercer has 18 RBIs and two saves.

The OSU pitching staff has a 3.70 ERA and has held opponents to a .262 batting average through 12 games.

Kansas is 8-5 on the season entering Tuesday's game with Tabor College and is riding a six-game winning streak. The Jayhawks are batting .283 with three regulars hitting over the .300 mark. Ryne Price leads KU with 16 RBIs despite hitting .244.

Shaeffer Hall is expected to make the start Wednesday and is 1-0 with a 3.00 ERA over three starts this year. He has struck out 13 batters against just two walks. The KU pitching staff boasts a 3.46 ERA and has not allowed a home run through 13 games.

Missouri State has lost to Oklahoma State in each of the three previous meetings between the schools. The teams have not met since 1994.

Missouri State holds a slight 21-19 edge in the all-time series with Kansas. The Bears have won five of the last seven meetings, and split two games last season, with each team winning at home.

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.

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 872-538 (.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.

Missouri State earned a three-game sweep of Iowa Saturday and Sunday behind solid pitching and an offensive show by third baseman Brayden Drake. In Saturday's opener, Drake drove in five runs and scored another to account for all six MSU tallies in the 6-3 win. Tim Clubb allowed an earned run in seven innings for the win.

In game one of Sunday's doubleheader, Buddy Baumann tossed a seven-inning complete game with nine strikeouts in the 8-3 win.

Drake struck again in game two, hitting a triple and a grand slam and driving in six runs in the third inning alone of MSU's 12-5 victory.

Missouri State has scored 92 runs through the first 10 games of 2008, their highest 10-game output to open a season since 1999 and highest total for any 10-game stretch since 2005.

Missouri State has been hot offensively in the final two innings this year, scoring 25 total runs and batting .361. MSU's 10-game total of 25 runs in those two frames is exactly half of the 50 the team scored in the eighth and ninth innings in 57 games last year.

Five different Bears have notched hit streaks of at least six games this year.

MSU is hitting .362 as a team with runners in scoring position.

Matt Frevert has not allowed an earned run since giving up a solo homer to the second batter he faced in the 2007 season, a stretch that spans 23.2 innings.

The Bears have scored in the first inning in seven of 10 games this season.

Nolan Keane has reached base safely in each game this season and 19 overall dating to May 8, 2007.

Keane (23rd-17) and Brayden Drake (27th-14) each rank among the top 30 home run hitters in school history.

Drake's six-RBI performance March 9 against Iowa represented the highest total for a Bear since Shaun Marcum drove in six against Bradley in 2002.

All six of Drake's RBIs came in the third inning of that game.

Missouri State pinch-hitters are batting .556 (5-9) this season.

Senior Ben 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 gone down on strikes three times this year in 43 at bats, maintaining his career average at one strikeout every 13.8 at bats.

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.

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.