Dates: Tuesday, Mar. 16, 6:30 p.m.
Wednesday, Mar. 17, 3 p.m.
Site: Hammons Field
Location: Springfield, Mo.
Radio: KBFL 99.9 FM (Tuesday)
KBFL 1060 AM (Wednesday)
TV: None
Live Audio: www.RadioSpringfield.com
Live Stats: www.MissouriStateBears.com
Live Video: None
Live Chat: www.MissouriStateBears.com
What's On Tap
The Missouri State baseball team (4-10) makes a brief stop at home this week in the midst of a busy stretch to host Arkansas State (10-5) Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. and Wednesday at 3 p.m. The Bears then hit the road again for the weekend with a trip to Stillwater, Okla., for a pair of games against both Oklahoma State and Wright State.
The Opponent
Arkansas State is 10-5 overall and 2-1 in the Sun Belt Conference in 2010. The Red Wolves have posted solid numbers across the board this season, hitting .324 as team with a 3.76 ERA.
Seven regulars hit at least .300 with Jordan Castaldo (.380), Ryan Emery (.372) and Michael Faulkner (.371) leading the way. Todd Baumgarter is the team's RBI leader with 14.
Opponents are hitting .277 off a deep ASU pitching staff. Relievers John Koch (1-1, 1.46 ERA) and Daniel Wright (0-0, 2.19) have been solid in 10 combined appearances, and the Bears will likely see southpaw Andres Caceres (1-1, 4.09) make the start on Tuesday.
Arkansas State is fielding .965 with 20 errors in 15 games.
The Series
Missouri State is 34-19 all-time against Arkansas State and has won seven of the last eight meetings and five in a row. The Bears swept in Jonesboro last season by scores of 4-3 and 14-2.
Coach Keith Guttin
Missouri State head coach Keith Guttin (Missouri-St. Louis, 1978) is in his 28th season as head coach of the baseball Bears and has a career record of 942-582 (.618). 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 was swept over the weekend at Southern Miss.
On Friday, Aaron Meade took a shutout in the eighth and left with a 2-0 lead. USM scored a run in the eighth, and the Bears responded in the ninth to go ahead 3-1, only to give up a three-spot in the bottom of the ninth and lose 4-3.
Saturday, the Golden Eagles scored four runs in the first inning and Scott Copeland pitched a complete-game three-hitter to hand the Bears a 3-0 loss.
In Sunday's finale, Missouri State jumped ahead 4-0 on the strength of home runs from Aaron Conway and Kevin Medrano, but yielded 13 runs in the final four innings in a 13-4 loss.
Quick Hits
• Missouri State pitchers have struck out 132 batters in 121 innings this season, an average of 9.82 strikeouts per nine innings.
As a comparison, Oral Roberts led the nation with 10.6 Ks/9 last season and was joined by North Carolina as the only teams to average at least 10 strikeouts per game.
• Seven of the MSU pitchers to take the hill this season have recorded at least as many strikeouts as innings pitched, and two more are one strikeout shy of doing so.
• Three Bears - Aaron Meade, Pat Doyle and Grant Gordon - have already reached the 25-strikeout mark this season in just 14 games.
• Five Bears - Meade, Kickham, Gordon, J.C. Casey and Tyler Ryun - have posted a pitching performance of at least seven scoreless innings in their careers.
• Missouri State's team ERA has stayed level or dropped following 10 of the last 12 games.
• The MSU pitching staff has a 3.99 ERA and .272 opponent average over the last 11 games.
• Missouri State started the season 0-4 for the fourth time in school history and 0-5 for just the second time since the program's inception in 1964.
The slow start is not necessarily a bad thing, as the Bears rebounded from an 0-5 start in 1997 to make the NCAA Tournament, and an 0-4 start in 2009 to win the MVC title.
The other 0-4 start came in 1964, the program's first season of existence.
• MSU has dropped five consecutive extra inning games dating to a 13-inning win over Middle Tennessee on May 11, 2008.
Strength of Schedule
Missouri State's 2010 opponents are a combined 156-139 (.529) through March 14.
ReKord Game
The Missouri State and UT Arlington pitching staffs combined to set an NCAA record with 43 strikeouts in their Feb. 26 game in Arlington. The previous mark was set at 41 in a 1994 game between Arkansas and Auburn.
Four separate pitchers struck out at least eight hitters in the 14-inning contest, and UTA also tied an NCAA all-division record by tossing 26 strikeouts as a staff.
Bears on TV
Missouri State will have three games this season televised live on Mediacom Connection Channel 22 in Springfield. Mediacom will broadcast games against Missouri (April 14, 6:30 p.m.), Illinois State (May 7, 6:30 p.m.) and Southern Illinois (May 22, 2 p.m.).
Players of the Week
Grant Gordon was the first Bear of the season honored with an MVC weekly award when he was named the league's pitcher of the week on March 1. Gordon pitched seven innings of scoreless relief and struck out eight batters in MSU's 14-inning game at UT Arlington the on Feb. 26.
The Bears swept the league's weekly awards March 8 with Christian Overstreet winning Player of the Week and Mike Kickham being honored as the league's top pitcher.
Overstreet batted .727 (8-for-11), slugged 1.455 and reached base safely 14 times in 17 trips to the plate. He hit two homers, two doubles, drove in six runs and scored seven while adding a stolen base, five walks, one HBP and an outfield assist.
Kickham pitched seven scoreless innings and struck out 10 against five hits to defeat North Dakota State. He took a one-hitter through five innings and fanned seven Bison hitters over his last three frames.
Radio Broadcasts
MSU baseball broadcasts again air on KBFL this season, with a total of 43 regular season games and all postseason action. Art Hains and Rob Evans will describe the action.
As a general rule, night games will be broadcast on 99.9 FM and day games on 1060 AM.
All broadcasts can be heard live over the internet by visiting www.RadioSpringfield.com.
Up-to-date schedule and station assignments, as well as links to listen live, can be found on the baseball schedule page of www.MissouriStateBears.com.
New Tourney Format
The 2010 State Farm MVC Tournament will have a new look, welcoming all eight league members to Wichita the final week of May.
This year's version will divide the eight teams into two pods based on regular season finish. Each four-team bracket will be a double-elimination format, with the winners squaring off in a one-game championship on Saturday evening.
Preseason Awards
Three Bears made the preseason all-MVC team while Aaron Meade was honored as a preseason third-team All-American by Ping!Baseball.
Joining Meade on the all-conference squad are junior outfielder Aaron Conway and 2009 MVC Freshman of the Year Kevin Medrano at second base.
