Dates: Wednesday, Mar. 31, 6 p.m.
Site: Hoglund Ballpark
Location: Lawrence
Radio: KBFL 1060 AM
TV: None
Live Audio: www.RadioSpringfield.com
Live Stats: www.MissouriStateBears.com
Live Video: www.KUAthletics.com
Live Chat: None
What's On Tap
The Missouri State baseball team (8-15, 1-2 Missouri Valley) begins a five-game stretch against teams that made the NCAA Tournament last season Wednesday evening with a 6 p.m. contest at Kansas (15-9, 2-1 Big 12). The Bears follow the trip to Lawrence with a home-and-home series with Oral Roberts on the weekend, playing the first two games in Tulsa before returning to Hammons Field on Easter Sunday.
The Opponent
Kansas is 15-9 on the season a 2-1 Big 12 play entering Tuesday's home game against Arkansas-Little Rock. The Jayhawks have two wins at then-No. 1 LSU and a one-run victory over Creighton in their only meeting with an MVC team in 2010.
KU hits .310 as a team with five regulars above the .300 mark. Jimmy Waters leads the team in average (.364), on-base (.505), homers (4) and RBIs (26), and Brian Heere bats .360 with a team-best 32 hits.
The Jayhawk pitching staff has a 4.67 ERA and .267 opponent average with a number of solid arms in the bullpen. Brett Bochy, the son of San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy, is 2-0 with four saves, an 0.83 ERA and .099 average, to anchor the KU relief corps.
KU fields .975 as a team with 22 errors in 24 games.
The Series
The series between the Bears and Jayhawks is tied at 21 wins apiece. The Bears have won five of the last nine meetings, but KU has won three in a row, the last a 7-6 victory in Lawrence in 2008.
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 945-586 (.617). 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 dropped a home series against Evansville to open the conference season.
On Friday, the Bears got a three-run homer from Christian Overstreet as part of a four-run third and held on for a 7-4 win.
Saturday, Luke Voit bombed a three-run shot in the first, but UE chipped away and took the lead with three in the seventh for a 6-4 win.
In the finale, the Bears stranded 12 runners, including eight in scoring position, to waste a complete game effort from Mike Kickham in a 3-2 loss.
Quick Hits
• Missouri State is hitting .345 over the last five games.
• Missouri State pitchers have struck out 184 batters in 201 innings this season, an average of 8.24 strikeouts per nine innings, and lead the MVC in both categories.
The Bears rank 46th nationally in Ks/9 according to the most recent NCAA stat update for game through March 28.
• Aaron Meade, Pat Doyle, Grant Gordon, Mike Kickham, Pierce Johnson and Clay Murphy have each struck out at least eight batters in a game this season.
• Missouri State boasts four of the league's top eight strikeout pitchers in Meade (2nd), Kickham (3rd), Gordon (4th) and Doyle (8th).
• 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 18 of the last 21 games.
• The MSU pitching staff has a 3.86 ERA and .280 opponent average over the last 20 games.
• Despite hitting 36 points lower than the opposition this season, the MSU offense has generated more extra-base hits (62-56) and loaded the bases nearly twice as much as (33-18) opponents in 2010.
• 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.
Home Sweet Home
Missouri State is 7-4 at home this season and 104-61 all-time at Hammons Field.
The Bears are hitting .300 as a team in their home park and fielding .973, while the pitching staff has a 3.06 ERA and limits opponents to a .250 batting average.
Hard Luck Bears
Missouri State has played in 10 games this season decided in the ninth inning, coming out on the short end eight times.
The Bears have suffered four walk-off losses and have sent the winning run to the plate in the ninth another four times.
MSU also has two wins this season when the opponent brought the winning run up in the ninth. If those outcomes were reversed, the Bears would be 14-9 and sitting atop the MVC standings at 3-0.
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.
Strength of Schedule
Missouri State's 2010 opponents are a combined 264-211 (.556) through March 28.
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.
Voit won the award March 29 after hitting .550 with 13 RBIs in five games. The freshman had four multi-RBI games and three multi-hit outings while slugging two homers and three doubles.
Live Chats
MissouriStateBears.com will have a live chat for select home games, offering updates and giving fans a chance to make comments or questions during the game.
Check the Bears Live or baseball schedule pages for the listing and chat icons to participate.
Radio Broadcasts
MSU baseball broadcasts again air on KBFL this season, with a total of 43 scheduled 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.
