What's On Tap
The Missouri State baseball team (11-16, 1-2 Missouri Valley) hosts Oklahoma State (17-8, 2-4 Big 12) Wednesday in a 6:30 p.m. contest at Hammons Field. The Bears and Cowboys met March 19 in Stillwater, with OSU winning 8-2. Since that game, Missouri State is 6-3 with a team batting average of .351 and team ERA of 2.92.
 
The Opponent
Oklahoma State is 17-8 overall and 2-4 after two weeks of Big 12 play entering Tuesday night's home game against Wichita State.
    The Cowboys hit .342 as a team with 105 extra-base hit in 25 games. Freshman designated hitter Dane Phillips leads OSU and ranks second in the Big 12 with a .429 average, and Mark Ginther is the team leader with five homers and 29 RBIs. Second baseman Davis Duren leads the Big 12 with 19 steals and center fielder Dusty Harvard is a perfect 11-for-11 on the basepaths as OSU has stolen 50 bags in 2010.
    The OSU pitching staff has a 5.09 ERA and has registered 226 strikeouts in 223 innings. The Bears will likely face one of two lefties in Mike Strong (3-0, 2.62 ERA, 29 K, 24 IP) or Kevin Chambers (3-1, 4.95, 27 K, 20 IP).
    The Cowboys field .984 as a team to rank second in Division I.

The Series
Missouri State is 1-6 all-time against Oklahoma State. The Bears lost the first four meetings with the Cowboys before earning a 4-3 win on April 8 of last season at Hammons Field. OSU won 8-2 in Stillwater on March 19 of this season.

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 949-589 (.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 swept Oral Roberts over the weekend, taking two games in Tulsa by scores of 13-3 and 5-1 and winning the finale 15-1 Sunday in Springfield.
    On Friday, Missouri State jumped out to a 9-0 lead after two innings after Aaron Conway set the tone by homering to put MSU ahead 2-0 just four pitches into the game.
    Pat Doyle matched his career high with nine strikeouts on Saturday and the Bears limited ORU to six hits in the 5-1 win. Five different players accounted for the Bears' five RBIs in the game.
    On Sunday at Hammons Field, MSU hit six home runs and Mike Kickham tossed seven scoreless innings. Seven Bears had multiple hits and six drove in at least two runs in the game.

Quick Hits
• Missouri State is hitting .351 with 36 extra-base hits over the last nine games. The Bears have out-hit the opposition in seven straight contests.

•     Missouri State pitchers have struck out 220 batters in 236 innings this season, an average of 8.39 strikeouts per nine innings, and lead the MVC in both categories.
    The Bears rank 36th nationally in Ks/9 according to the most recent NCAA stat update for game through April.

•     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's weekend rotation boasts three of the top four strikeout pitchers in the MVC with Kickham (2nd), Meade (3rd) and Doyle (4th) joining reliever Grant Gordon (10th) in the league's top 10.

•    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 21 of the last 25 games and now leads the MVC with a 4.61 team ERA.

•     The MSU pitching staff has a 3.61 ERA and .274 opponent average over the last 24 games.

•     Despite hitting 11 points lower than the opposition this season, the MSU offense has generated more extra-base hits (79-60) and loaded the bases nearly twice as much as (41-24) 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 8-4 at home this season and 105-61 all-time at Hammons Field.
    The Bears are hitting .314 as a team in their home park and fielding .976, while the pitching staff has a 2.89 ERA and limits opponents to a .252 batting average.

Hard Luck Bears
Missouri State has played in 11 games this season decided in the final at bat, coming out on the short end nine times.
    The Bears have suffered four walk-off losses and have sent the winning run to the plate in the ninth another five 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 18-9 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 314-251 (.556) through April 4.

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.
    Luke 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.
    Kevin Medrano hit .706 (12-for-17) and reached base 15 times in 20 plate appearances to win April 5. He went 4-for-5 at Kansas and had eight hits in three games against Oral Roberts, including a four-hit day in the series opener. Medrano scored five runs and drove in two for the week.

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.