Coming off a 2008 season in which it posted a 40-17 overall record and 18-6 mark in the Missouri Valley Conference, the Missouri State baseball team earned the No. 19 spot in Ping!Baseball's preseason top 30 poll and the No. 32 spot in Collegiate Baseball Newspaper’s Fabulous 40 preseason poll and juniors Tim Clubb and Ben Carlson each appeared on two more preseason All-America lists released over the holiday break.

    Collegiate Baseball slotted Clubb as a first team starting pitcher and Carlson made the third team as a first baseman. Ping!Baseball had a spot for Carlson on the first team as an outfielder, while Clubb was on the second team.

    Clubb completed the 2008 season with a spectacular 11-0 record and 2.52 ERA while earning Missouri Valley Conference Pitcher of the Year honors. He left all 14 of his starts in line for the win, struck out 82 batters and limited opponents to a .233 batting average.

    Clubb’s 11-0 start eclipsed Jarrod Mays’ 10-0 start in 1995 as the best for a pitcher in school history, while his win total ranks second all-time at MSU for a season and his 103.2 innings rank fourth.

    A native of Eureka, Mo., Clubb was honored as an All-American by four publications last season.

    Carlson started all 57 games as Missouri State’s designated hitter last year and batted .379 with an MVC leading 17 home runs and team-high 67 RBIs, both of which were the highest totals for a Bear since Ryan Howard in 2000.

    Carlson was a first-team American Baseball Coaches Association All-American, first-team all-MVC choice, first-team MVC Scholar-Athlete pick, MVC Player of the Week on April 21 and a third-team CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American as well.

    Clubb and Carlson also represented MSU on the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Preseason All-America teams last month. The 32nd-ranked Bears open the 2009 season Feb. 20 at Middle Tennessee.