The Missouri State baseball team (17-7, 4-2 Missouri Valley Conference) hosts border rival Arkansas (15-11) Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Hammons Field to close a stretch of 14 home games in 23 days. The Bears follow Tuesday's game with a weekend trip to league-leading Wichita State (20-3, 3-0), which has won 17 consecutive games. Tuesday's game can be seen live on Mediacom Channel 14 in Springfield.

Arkansas is 15-11 this season and 2-6 in the rugged Southeastern Conference. Andy Wilkins leads the offense in batting average with a .330 mark to go with seven homers and 31 RBIs. Aaron Murphree ranks second nationally with 13 homers to go with 34 RBIs, and the Razorbacks hit .289 and slug .506 as a team.

The pitching staff has a 4.49 ERA and holds the opposition to .254 hitting.

Arkansas leads the all-time series 43-22. The Razorbacks won both meetings last season, but the Bears swept the season series in 2006.

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 881-543 (.619). 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.

The Bears won their second consecutive MVC series by taking two of three from Southern Illinois at Hammons Field. Tim Clubb struck out nine in eight innings on Friday for the win, and the Bears nearly dug out of an 8-0 hole on Saturday, scoring four two-out runs in the ninth and sending the winning run to the plate before SIU escaped with an 8-7 win.

On Sunday, freshman Aaron Meade gave up four hits in 7.2 innings and Nolan Keane and Chris Playter homered to provide all the offense in a 5-0 MSU win.

Three pitchers on the 2008 roster have faced Arkansas in their careers. Tim Clubb, Matt Frevert and Pat Doyle have combined to pitch 15.1 innings, allowing just seven hits and two earned runs while striking out 15 against two walks.

They have a combined ERA of 1.17 and the Hogs have hit .132 (7-53) against the trio.

Opposing starters have an ERA of 8.37 against Missouri State this season while allowing the Bears to hit .348 against them.

In the last 11 games, opponents have stolen just one base against the Bears in three attempts, while MSU is 18-for-22 over the same span.

The stolen base discrepancy is also large in six league contests, with MSU going a perfect 13-for-13 on the basepaths and opponents checking in at 0-for-1.

The MSU pitching staff has a 3.95 ERA in the last 12 contests, and opponents are hitting .236 over that time.

The Bears are 8-1 this season in games decided by three runs or less, and 12-0 when limiting opponents to five runs or less.

Missouri State has been hot offensively in the final two innings this year, scoring 43 total runs and batting .354.

The Bears are outscoring their opposition 43-17 in the eighth and ninth frames.

MSU has been even more impressive in the third inning, hitting .405 as a team. Throw in its .348 average in the fourth, and the offense is outscoring opponents 62-30 in those two innings.

Ben Woodbury has hit safely in 22 of 24 games in 2008, notching multiple hits 13 times and is averaging 1.75 hits per game.

Seven different Bears have recorded hit streaks of at least seven games this year.

Seven different players have had a four-RBI game this season.

MSU is hitting .368 as a team with runners in scoring position. Brayden Drake already has 47 at-bats in that situation, coming through with 19 hits for a .404 average.

Drake batted .435 with 20 RBIs during his 15-game hit streak that lasted from Feb 29 to Mar. 23.

The Bears have scored in the first inning in 12 of 24 games this season.

Nolan Keane (22nd-18), Brayden Drake (27th-15) and Ben Carlson (30th-12) 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.

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 five times this year in 99 at bats, upping his career average to one strikeout every 15.2 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.

Aaron Meade is allowing opponents to hit just .204 (11-54) against him with runners on base and .189 (7-37) with two outs.

Meade is not the only Bear hurler to have success with runners on this season as Tim Clubb (.171, 13-76), Sean Toler (.150, 3-20) and Cody Aycock (.176, 3-17) are all holding opponents to well under .200 hitting in that situation.

The MSU pitching staff is allowing teams to hit only .237 with two outs.

Missouri State is 15-3 in Friday, Saturday and Sunday games.