The Missouri State baseball team (25-17, 11-3 Missouri Valley Conference) hosts a three-game set with UNI (16-24, 3-14) at Hammons Field this weekend in hopes of maintaining its first place standing in the conference race. First pitch Friday is 6:30 p.m., with Saturday's game set for a 2 p.m. start and Sunday's finale scheduled for 1 p.m. The Bears' offense has been hot in the first 14 league games this year, hitting .315 and slugging .550 with 21 home runs.
THE OPPONENT
UNI is 16-24 overall and 3-14 in the league after ending a six-game losing streak Tuesday with a win over Iowa. The Panthers hit .284 as a team and four starters top the .300 mark. Outfielder Travis Bennett's .342 average, 40 RBIs and 19 extra base hits pace the club.
UNI pitchers have a 5.57 ERA and allow opponents to hit .281. The weekend rotation consists of Nick Kirk (3-5, 3.88 ERA), who threw a no-hitter against Evansville last season, Derek Ott (2-5, 5.57), the MVC Pitcher of the Week on April 13, and Carlos Pinedo (2-6, 6.43).
The Panthers field .955 as a team and have stolen 60 bases in 79 tries.
THE SERIES
Missouri State owns a 70-19 advantage in the all-time series, the most wins versus any opponent in school history. MSU's .787 winning percentage against the Panthers is the highest of any MVC opponent and ranks third among teams Missouri State has played at least 40 times.
LIVE STATS INFORMATION
Live stats for all Missouri State baseball games will be available at www.missouristatebears.com. Go to the “Fan Central” link on the left side of the page and select “Live Stats.”
AUDIO AND VIDEO COVERAGE
Coverage of the UNI series will be as follows:
Radio: KBFL 1060 AM and online at www.radiospringfield.com
Video stream: Bears Live, Friday
TV: Mediacom Channel 14, Sunday
COACH KEITH GUTTIN
Missouri State head coach Keith Guttin (Missouri-St. Louis, 1978) is in his 27th season as head coach of the baseball Bears and has a career record of 929-570 (.620). Guttin became the first coach at Missouri State (in any sport) to reach the 900-win mark with the May 11, 2008, win over Middle Tennessee 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 10 times with four 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 14 years.
LAST TIME OUT
Missouri State's bats fell silent in Tuesday's 8-3 loss to Saint Louis with just two hits through the first six innings. Aaron Conway accounted for all three of the Bears' runs, scoring in the first and ninth innings and hitting an RBI triple in the seventh. Sean Toler struck out a career-high six in four innings of relief.
QUICK HITS
Keith Guttin will coach his 1,500th career game on Friday.
Missouri State has won 12 of its last 14 games at Hammons Field, with the pitching staff holding a 2.61 ERA and .187 opponent average in that span.
After opening the year with a 9.36 team ERA through six games, the MSU pitching staff has a 3.55 ERA and is allowing the opposition to hit .242 in the 36 games since.
Bears starters are 21-6 with a 3.25 ERA and .229 opponent average in the last 36 games.
MSU pitchers have a 2.72 ERA and .203 opponent average at Hammons Field.
Missouri State's team ERA has dropped following 27 of the team's last 36 games.
Opposing starters have posted a 8.31 ERA against the Bears this season, while MSU starters have a 3.65 ERA and are allowing opponents to hit .241.
MSU starters have accounted for 22 of the team's 25 wins.
Brayden Drake set a school record with his 30-game hitting streak that began April 27, 2008 and ended March 29 of this season. The streak ranks seventh in MVC history.
Drake has collected a hit in 80 of his last 92 games.
Kevin Medrano currently leads MSU with 56 hits. No freshman has led the club in that category since Bob Blakley in 1974.
Chris Playter has eight game-winning RBIs this year and 14 for his career. Those numbers place him eighth in MSU history for a season and 10th for a career.
Twenty-seven of Ben Carlson's 47 hits this season have gone for extra bases.
Missouri State is hitting .424 (28-66) with the bases loaded this year, while opponents are 10-47 (.213).
MSU is 6-5 when scoring four runs or less.
Tim Clubb has left 21 of his last 24 starts in line for the victory.
Clubb has pitched at least eight innings in six straight starts.
Clubb is 9-0 with a 1.64 ERA at Hammons Field the last two seasons.
Buddy Baumann started the 2009 season with 22 scoreless innings.
Baumann hit 18 batters in 75 innings a year ago, but went 46 innings before plunking a batter this year.
Five MSU pitchers; Tim Clubb, Buddy Baumann, Aaron Meade, J.C. Casey and Tyler Ryun, have starts of at least six scoreless innings in their careers.
The Bears' weekend rotation of Tim Clubb, Buddy Baumann and Aaron Meade have combined for a 47-18 record in their collective careers.
They have struck out 498 hitters over 552 innings with 10 complete games.
All three have won MVC Pitcher of the Week at least once.
Baumann and Meade rank 1-2 in the league in wins (8 and 7), 2-3 in the league in strikeouts (70 and 68) and 1-6 in ERA (2.29 and 2.82).
The Bears have eight different players with at least 22 RBIs this season.
Missouri State has outscored the opposition 201-113 in the first five innings this season, and slugged 26 of the team's 45 homers in the first four.
Missouri State has allowed 54 unearned runs through 42 games, an average of 1.29 per contest, but is outscoring the opposition overall by 89 runs, or 2.12 per game.
In terms of earned runs, the Bears have outscored the opposition 290-179 this year, a margin of 2.64 per contest.
Missouri State is 18-5 on the year when making one or zero errors.
Missouri State leads the MVC with just 15 stolen bases allowed 42 games. Catcher Dallas Hord has thrown out 10 of 24 potential base stealers.
The next closest MVC team has allowed 28 steals this year.
