The Missouri State baseball team (30-13, 13-5 Missouri Valley Conference) enters the closing stretch of the season in the thick of the MVC race, sitting two games ahead in the win column and one loss behind co-leaders UNI and Wichita State. The Bears will play eight of their final 11 games away from Hammons Field, beginning with a Wednesday night game at Arkansas (26-18). MSU gets back in league play at Indiana State (13-26, 6-9) this weekend.

Arkansas is 26-18 overall and 9-11 in the Southeastern Conference coming off a series victory at then-No. 21 Ole Miss over the weekend.

The Razorbacks hit .287 as a team and have belted 65 home runs for a .484 slugging percentage. Chase Leavitt leads the team with a .355 average, and Brett Eibner has driven in a team-high 39 runs.

The Arkansas pitching staff has a 4.77 ERA.

Indiana State is 13-26 overall and 6-9 in the Valley after defeating Wichita State on Sunday. The Sycamores rank fifth in the league with a .288 average, but next-to-last in ERA with a 6.62 mark. Chris Schmidt leads the offense with a .357 average, and Brady Shoemaker paces the team with five homers and 47 RBIs.

On the pitching staff, David Gurbach (2-0, 3.43 ERA) is the only hurler with an ERA under 5.00, and ISU pitchers have allowed opponents to hit .308 and slug .492 this season.

Arkansas leads the all-time series 44-22. The Razorbacks have won the last three meetings, including a 7-4 victory in 10 innings on April 1 in Springfield.

Missouri State holds a 37-30 series lead with Indiana State. The Bears have swept the Sycamores in their last two visits to Terre Haute, and the road team has been victorious in 13 of the last 14 meetings between the teams.

Live stats for most Missouri State baseball games will be available at www.missouristatebears.com. 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 894-549 (.620). 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 took a step away from the norm in a weekend sweep of Illinois State, winning three games despite hitting .227 thanks to a team ERA of 2.00. On Friday, Tim Clubb struck out 10 Redbirds in seven scoreless innings for the win, and Buddy Baumann followed that performance with a complete-game eight-hitter in a 3-1 victory Saturday. On Sunday, the Bears took advantage of three Redbirds errors in the first inning to gain a 7-1 lead, and cruised to an 8-4 win.