March 5, 2012
Missouri State Game Notes 
Oklahoma State Game Notes
Missouri State Bears (9-3) vs. Oklahoma State (6-6)
Dates: Tuesday, March 6
First Pitch: 4 p.m.
Location: Springfield, Mo.
Site: Hammons Field (8,000)
Radio: KBFL AM 1060 (Art Hains)
TV: None
Live Audio and Video: None
Live Stats: MissouriStateBears.com
Leading Off
Off to their best start through 12 games since the 1999 season, the Missouri State Bears will open up the home portion of the schedule Tuesday afternoon when they welcome the Oklahoma State Cowboys to Hammons Field. The Bears, who knocked off OSU by a 7-1 score in Stillwater last Wednesday, will be gunning for their fifth-consecutive win, both in the OSU series and overall. MSU will also be looking for its second-straight win in a home opener and its fifth opening-day victory in nine years at Hammons Field.
Prime 9
? Missouri State ranked 48th in this week's Perfect Game Top 50 Poll and received five votes in last week's USA Today Coaches Poll
? The Bears outscored the opposition 27-7 in claiming victory in all four of their contests last week
? MSU's 9-3 start is its best since 1999, when the Bears won 10 of their first 13 games
? The Bears' three wins at Northwestern State marked their first three-game road sweep since the 2008 season
? MSU has gone 8-3 versus the Big 12 Conference over the last two seasons and has won its last three home games and its last four overall in its series with Oklahoma State
? Keith Guttin became the 46th Division I head coach to reach the 1,000 win plateau with Saturday's 3-2 at NSU
? Senior third baseman Brent Seifert was named MVC Player of the Week Monday
? With last Wednesday's 7-1 victory in Stillwater, Clay Murphy improved to 2-0 with a 1.69 ERA in four career outings vs. OSU and has not given up an earned run to a Big 12 foe in 23.1 innings spanning five outings
? Pierce Johnson struck-out a career-high 12 batters to earn his first victory of the season in Saturday's 3-2 win at NSU
Oklahoma State Series
Oklahoma State leads the overall series by a 6-5 margin, but the Bears have taken four straight from the Cowboys dating back to the 2010 season. Since the two clubs began playing home-and-home series in 2009, MSU has registered the only season sweep. The Bears knocked off OSU, 3-2, in Stillwater on March 1, 2011, then topped the 22nd ranked Cowboys, 4-3, in Springfield May 17. MSU has also won three straight at Hammons Field in the series.
About the Bears
Following a disappointing end to an otherwise memorable bounceback 2011 season, Missouri State entered the new year as the preseason choice to capture the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season title for the fourth time in the last 12 seasons. After a rough start to opening weekend in Lubbock, Texas, the Bears have rebounded to win nine of their last 10 games and bring a 9-3 overall mark into this week's action. Senior outfielder Spiker Helms (.471, 3-HR, 15-RBI) ranks among the MVC's top 10 performers in 10 different offensive categories, including league-best totals for runs scored (18), hits (24), doubles (8) and total bases (41). Fellow senior Brock Chaffin (.362, 11-RBI) has come on strong as of late, going 12-for-27 (.444) with 10 RBIs over the Bears' last six games, while junior catcher Luke Voit (.235, 2-HR, 14-RBI) has three game-winning RBIs on the season to lead the club. Senior second baseman Kevin Medrano (.333, 5-2B) returned from a three-game hiatus last weekend with a vengeance. Medrano recorded hits in six straight trips to the plate (Feb. 26-29) to break into the Bears' top 10 for career hits. Additionally, senior third baseman Brent Seifert (.256, 2-HR, 15-RBI) shares the team lead for RBIs and has reached base safely in all 12 games and a career-high 17-straight contests dating back to last season.
The Bears' regular weekend rotation has been strong through the first three weeks, combining to strike-out 55 batters through 59.2 innings of work. Nick Petree (2-1, 2.57), who went 9-2 with a 2.81 ERA to garner Freshman All-America honors last spring, picked up his first second-straight victory last Friday at Northwestern State, limiting the Demons to just three hits through seven innings. Junior right-hander Pierce Johnson (1-1, 3.27) has shown stretches of dominance in each of his three outings this season. On Feb. 25, he held UTA hitless through five innings before leaving after seven innings with a no-decision. He was even better last Saturday, fanning a career-high 12 NSU hitters over eight innings to earn his first win of 2012. Junior right-hander Cody Schumacher (2-0, 4.86) rebounded from a rough first start to post back-to-back quality start victories, including a seven-inning blanking of NSU on Sunday. Junior righty Clay Murphy (1-0, 0.00, 1 save) extended his streak of dominance over Big 12 schools with 6.2 innings without giving up an earned run in the Bears' 7-1 win at Oklahoma State (Feb. 29). Finally, freshman lefty Tyler Burgess (3-0, 0.00, 2 saves) has been sensational in his MSU debut, notching a victory or a save in each of his five appearances without allowing a run.
About the Cowboys
After three straight defeats to begin the season, Oklahoma State has righted the ship to post wins in six of its last nine outings. Leading the charge for Frank Anderson's club is junior infielder Robbie Rea (.340, HR, 9-RBI), whose 24 total bases is second on the team. Freshman infielder Wes Jones (.346, 7-R, 5-RBI) has made an immediate impact in his first 11 games as a Cowboy, ranking third on the club in both RBIs and runs scored. Another freshman, Zach Fish (.318, 3-HR, 12-RBI), paces the squad with 12 RBIs and three home runs. Senior infielder Mark Ginther (.319, HR, 3-RBI) is OSU's top returning power bat, having hit 10 long balls a year ago.
On the mound, junior right-hander Chase Stevens (2-0, 0.89) is off to a strong start, as is junior lefty Andrew Heaney (2-1, 1.71). Senior Blake Barnes (1-1, 4.72) was tagged with the loss in the Cowboys' and Bears' first meeting of the season.
Guttin Reaches 1,000 Career Win Plateau
Missouri State head coach Keith Guttin (Missouri-St. Louis, 1978) became the 46th Division I baseball coach and the third Valley bench boss to reach the 1,000 career-win mark with last Saturday's 3-2 victory over Northwestern State.
Guttin, who entered the season 15th among active Division I head coaches in career victories, became the first coach at Missouri State in any sport to reach the 900-win mark with the Bears' May 11, 2008, win over Middle Tennessee at Hammons Field. During his tenure, 114 Bears have signed professional contracts, including 12 Major Leaguers. Additionally, MSU has made seven Division I NCAA Tournament appearances--six in the last 17 years. 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.
Road Warriors
The Bears made the most of their season-opening 12-game road swing, winning nine games--including six true road tilts. By contrast, it took the 2011 MSU squad until its 27th game on April 5 at Kansas to claim its sixth road win, and the 2010 Bears only won six road contests all season long. The recent gold standard for road success is the 2008 squad's 15 road victories. MSU's current streak of six consecutive road wins is its longest since May 2009. The Bears have not won seven in-a-row on the road since the 2002 season, when they posted a 10-game win streak.
Seifert Picks Up Valley Honor
After playing a key role in each of the Bears' four victories last week, senior third baseman Brent Seifert was named Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week for the period February 27 through March 4, the league office announced Monday.
Seifert powered the Missouri State offense with a .412 batting average, .824 slugging percentage and nine RBIs last week. Five of his seven hits on the week went for extra bases, including three two-run doubles and a three-run homer in MSU's weekend sweep of Northwestern State. After going 1-for-3 with a pair of walks in MSU's win at Oklahoma State, Seifert recorded multi-hit and multi-RBI games in all three outings at NSU, coming through with key two-out, two-run doubles in each of the first two games of the set, then clubbing a game-clinching three-run homer in the finale on Sunday. He matched a career-high with four RBIs in an 8-3 win on Friday and drove in the tying and go-ahead runs in the Bears' 3-2 victory on Saturday. Seifert extended his career-best streak of consecutive games reaching base to 17 contests by going 2-for-4 with two runs scored in Sunday's 9-1 victory.
The Cameron, Mo., native shares the team lead and ranks third in the Valley with 15 RBIs on the season. Additionally, he leads the MVC in walks with 12, while his six doubles rank just behind MSU teammate Spiker Helms's league-leading total of eight.
Johnson Pierces Demons
Junior right-hander Pierce Johnson picked up his first win of the 2012 season in grand fashion Saturday, striking-out a career-high 12 Northwestern State batters in a 3-2 MSU win. After giving up seven hits over the first three innings, Johnson overpowered the Demons the rest of the way, surrendering just three more hits. The Arvada, Colo., native recorded 10 Ks over his final five innings, including three punch-outs in the eighth to help wrap up head coach Keith Guttin's landmark 1,000th victory. Johnson's strikeout total matched 13 previous performances for the 22nd-highest single-game total in school history and the most for a Bears' hurler since Mike Kickham fanned 14 Illinois State hitters on May 7, 2010.
