MVC Weekly Notebook

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - After one of the more dominant mound performances in recent Bears baseball history, Matt Hall became the fourth different Missouri State hurler to earn Missouri Valley Conference Pitcher of the Week honors in 2015, the league announced Monday.

Hall struck out a career and MVC season-high 15 batters over a sparkling seven-inning performance that propelled the Bears to a 9-1 victory over Wichita State Saturday afternoon, paving the way to an MVC series sweep of the Shockers and MSU's seventh-consecutive series win. The Lee's Summit, Mo., product surrendered a single run on just two singles over his 7.0 frames, recording seven consecutive outs via strikeouts over a three-inning stretch that saw the Bears claim the lead for good.

The junior left-hander, who leads all NCAA Division I pitchers with 110 strikeouts this spring, recorded multiple strikeouts in five of his seven innings and came within one strikeout of matching Pierce Johnson's Hammons Field record of 16, set on March 23, 2012 vs. Creighton. In all, Hall's 15 K's tied four other MSU hurlers for the fourth-best single-game total in school history, just two shy of the Bears' single-game record. Hall improved to 7-2 on the season with his performance vs. WSU and ranks among the Valley's individual leaders in victories, opponent batting average (.224) and earned run average (2.81) in addition to his league-leading strikeout and innings-pitched (83.1) totals.

The Valley honor is the first for Hall, who joins two-time honoree Bryan Young (April 6 and April 27), Andy Cheray (Feb. 16) and Jordan Knutson (April 13) on MSU's list of 2015 MVC Pitcher of the Week award winners.

Missouri State (34-10, 12-3 MVC), which climbed to No. 13 in this week's Baseball America College Top 25 poll, embarks on its final road swing of the regular season this week, beginning with a 6 p.m. game against Saint Louis Tuesday (May 5) evening at the Billiken Sports Center in St. Louis.