The Missouri State baseball team (25-19, 11-5 Missouri Valley Conference) makes a midweek trip to Missouri (28-21) at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday before an important three-game weekend series at league-leading Creighton (28-18, 14-3). MSU has not played Missouri in Columbia since 2005 as rain has cancelled the games at Taylor Stadium the last three seasons.
THE OPPONENTMissouri is 28-21 overall and 14-10 in the Big 12 after winning its last seven games. Mizzou hits .276 as a team, with Greg Folgia batting .328 with eight homers and 51 RBIs to lead the team across the board. Four starters hit .300 or better.
Tiger pitchers have a 4.77 ERA, and the staff usually shares the midweek duties by pitching one or two innings apiece. Scooter Hicks (4-1, 3.69 ERA) is scheduled to take the hill against Missouri State. Reliever Ryan Clubb (3-2, 3.71 ERA) is the younger brother of MSU ace
Tim Clubb.
Missouri fields .963 as a team.
THE SERIESMissouri holds a slight 19-18 edge in 37 all-time meetings. The Bears have lost the last three meetings, all in Springfield, as the teams have not met in Columbia since 2005 due to rain outs the last three seasons.
LIVE STATS INFORMATIONLive 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 COVERAGECoverage of the Missouri game will be as follows:
Radio: KBFL 1060 AM and online at www.radiospringfield.com
Video stream: None
TV: None
COACH KEITH GUTTINMissouri 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 929-572 (.619). 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 OUTMissouri State went 0-2 against UNI and had Sunday's game rained out, falling to third place in the MVC standings aftering entering the weekend in a tie for first. On Friday, UNI handed
Tim Clubb the shortest of his 37 career starts (2.1 innings), and the Bears committed three errors in a 10-5 loss. UNI scored seven in the third inning.
In Saturday's 5-3 loss, the Bears gave up a four-run third, left a runner on base in each inning and went 3-for-15 with runners in scoring position in a frustrating defeat. The Bears out-hit UNI 10-6 but failed to capitalize on several scoring opportunities.
QUICK HITS Missouri State leads the MVC in doubles (94), triples (18) and home runs (45), but ranks seventh with 294 singles.
After opening the year with a 9.36 team ERA through six games, the MSU pitching staff has a 3.66 ERA and is allowing the opposition to hit .244 in the 38 games since.
Bears starters are 21-8 with a 3.46 ERA and .234 opponent average in the last 38 games.
MSU pitchers have a 2.97 ERA and .209 opponent average at Hammons Field.
Missouri State's team ERA has dropped following 28 of the team's last 38 games.
Opposing starters have posted a 8.18 ERA against the Bears this season, while MSU starters have a 3.82 ERA and are allowing opponents to hit .245.
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 82 of his last 94 games.
Drake set the school record with his 63rd career double May 2 against UNI. That number ranks 11th in MVC history.
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 48 hits this season have gone for extra bases.
Kevin Medrano currently leads MSU with 60 hits. No freshman has led the club in that category since Bob Blakley in 1974.
Missouri State is hitting .424 (28-66) with the bases loaded this year, while opponents are 10-47 (.213).
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 47-20 record in their collective careers.
They have struck out 510 hitters over 562.1 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), 2-4 in the league in strikeouts (78 and 68) and 3-5 in ERA (2.42 and 2.82) and 1-3 in opponent average (.191-.224).
The Bears have eight different players with at least 22 RBIs this season.
Missouri State has outscored the opposition 206-126 in the first five innings this season, and slugged 26 of the team's 45 homers in the first four.
Missouri State has allowed 58 unearned runs through 44 games, an average of 1.32 per contest, but is outscoring the opposition overall by 82 runs, or 1.86 per game.
In terms of earned runs, the Bears have outscored the opposition 297-190 this year, a margin of 2.43 per contest.
Missouri State is 18-6 on the year when making one or zero errors.
Missouri State leads the MVC with just 17stolen bases allowed 44 games. The next closest MVC team has allowed 28 steals this year.
