The 28th-ranked Missouri State baseball team (32-19, 17-5 Missouri Valley Conference) begins the 2009 State Farm MVC Tournament Wednesday at 3 p.m. at Eck Stadium in Wichita. The Bears take the top seed into this year's event, which features a new format of two pods and predetermined opponents and times. Seeds 1, 4 and 5 will be in one pod, while 2, 3 and 6 will play in the other, with each team playing both opponents in its pod and one from the other. The two pod winners will square off at 7 p.m. Saturday in the championship game.
As the No. 1 seed, Missouri State will play No. 6 Illinois State at 3 p.m. Wednesday, No. 5 Southern Illinois at 11 a.m. Thursday and No. 4 Creighton at 3 p.m. Friday.
VALLEY TOURNAMENT HISTORY
Missouri State has qualified for 18 of a possible 19 conference tournaments since joining the MVC in 1991, missing the field in 2005. The Bears are 29-32 all-time at the tourney with titles in 1996 and 1997 and runner-up finishes in 1995, 2002, 2006 and 2008.
The Bears have won at least one game in each tournament appearance since 1994.
Missouri State pitching is responsible for two of the three one-hitters in tournament history. In 2002, Matt Palmer and Andrew Jefferson combined to one-hit Wichita State in a game the Bears actually lost 3-0 when WSU homered after two men walked. Two years ago, Ross Detwiler hurled a complete game with eight strikeouts while holding Creighton to one hit in a 3-1 MSU victory. The third was thrown by Southern Illinois in 1977.
Last season, Missouri State alternated wins and losses by defeating Southern Illinois and Creighton and falling twice to Wichita State.
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 MVC Tournament will be as follows:
Radio: KBFL 1060 AM and online at www.radiospringfield.com
TV: Saturday's championship live on FSN Midwest, FSN Indiana, FSN Kansas City, Fox College Sports, Metro Sports, DirecTV 671 and Dish Network 418.
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 936-572 (.621). 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 swept Indiana State at Hammons Field, the Bears' second straight sweep of a Valley team that entered the series in first place.
On Thursday, Brayden Drake went 4-for-5 with five RBIs in a 9-6 win that pulled the Bears into a tie for the MVC lead.
On Friday, Missouri State leapt to a 13-2 lead before the Sycamores fought back to one run at 13-12 in the eighth. The Bears scored four in the bottom of the eighth to win 17-12.
In Saturday's finale, Pat Doyle allowed a run over seven innings and Ben Carlson and Daniel Torrente had key two-RBI hits as the Bears won 6-1 to claim the undisputed MVC title.
ALL-MVC BEARS
Missouri State boasts six first-team all-conference members: Buddy Baumann, Ben Carlson, Brayden Drake, Dallas Hord, Aaron Meade and Kevin Medrano, along with Chris Playter gaining an honorable mention nod.
Baumann is MSU's second consecutive MVC Pitcher of the Year winner and fourth overall.
Drake is the Bears' fourth MVC Player of the Year and first since Matt Cepicky in 1999.
Medrano is Missouri State's fourth MVC Freshman of the Year and first since Brett Sinkbeil in 2004.
QUICK HITS
Missouri State is ranked 28th in this week's Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll, its first ranking since holding the No. 30 spot for the week of April 20, 2009.
The Bears have been ranked previously in that poll on 10 occasions: 4/20/09 (30th), 6/9/03 (8th), 6/2/03 (14th), 5/27/02 (28th), 4/15/02 (25th), 4/8/02 (27th), 6/21/99 (27th), 6/7/99 (27th), 5/31/99 (27th) and 4/12/99 (26th).
Missouri State has won three regular-season MVC titles in its history, doing so in 2001, 2003 and 2009.
The Bears are 12-2 against this year's MVC Tournament field, with both losses coming to Illinois State.
In those 14 games, the Bears have hit .341 and posted a .535 team slugging percentage.
Missouri State is 28-9 since a 4-10 start, hitting .307 as a team with a 4.17 ERA and .970 fielding percentage.
Missouri State has won seven straight games for the nation's second longest active streak, and six straight away from home to rank fourth.
After opening the year with a 9.36 team ERA through six games, the MSU pitching staff has a 3.89 ERA and is allowing the opposition to hit .247 in the 45 games since.
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 89 of his last 101 games.
Drake set the school record with his 63rd career double May 2 against UNI. He now has 67, ranking eighth in MVC history.
Drake is hitting .585 with 23 RBIs, 10 runs scored, a 1.098 slugging percentage and a .635 on-base percentage during his 10-game hit streak.
Bears starters are 27-8 with a 3.64 ERA and .239 opponent average in the last 45 games.
Missouri State leads the MVC in doubles (107), triples (21) and home runs (57), but ranks in a tie for fifth with 360 singles.
Thirty of Ben Carlson's 53 hits this season have gone for extra bases.
Aaron Conway's eight triples this season rank him second nationally and second in school history for a season.
Conway has scored a run in 10 straight games.
Kevin Medrano ranks three out of the team lead with 71 hits. No freshman has led the club in that category since Bob Blakley in 1974, and only three rookies in school history have more hits in a season.
Opposing starters have posted a 8.23 ERA against the Bears this season, while MSU starters have a 3.93 ERA and are allowing opponents to hit .248.
MSU starters have accounted for 28 of the team's 32 wins.
Missouri State starters have pitched 81.8-percent of the innings in MVC play.
Chris Playter has 11 game-winning RBIs this year and 17 for his career. Those numbers place him third in MSU history for a season and sixth for a career.
Missouri State is hitting .383 (31-81) with the bases loaded this year, while opponents are 12-58 (.207).
Tim Clubb has left 21 of his last 25 starts in line for the victory.
Clubb pitched at least eight innings in six straight starts from 3/20 through 4/24.
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 51-20 record in their collective careers.
They have struck out 553 hitters over 601.2 innings with 10 complete games.
All three have won MVC Pitcher of the Week at least once and been first-team all-conference picks, and Clubb and Baumann won MVC Pitcher of the Year in 2008 and 2009, respectively.
Baumann and Meade rank 1-2 in the league in wins (10 and 9), 1-4 in the league in strikeouts (94 and 86), 8-6 in ERA (3.40 and 3.18) and 2-4 in opponent average (.214-.224).
The Bears have eight different players with at least 24 RBIs this season.
Missouri State has allowed 61 unearned runs through 51 games, an average of 1.20 per contest, but is outscoring the opposition overall by 109 runs, or 2.14 per game.
In terms of earned runs, the Bears have outscored the opposition 359-226 this year, a margin of 2.61 per contest.
Missouri State is 24-6 on the year when making one or zero errors.
Missouri State leads the MVC with just 18 stolen bases allowed 51 games. The next closest MVC team has allowed 29 steals this year.
