Feb. 17, 2016
- Missouri State will be looking for its fourth-consecutive opening day win Friday; the Bears are 21-12 in openers under head coach Keith Guttin and 33-19 overall in season lid-lifters
- Ranked as high as No. 17 (Collegiate Baseball) in the national polls entering the 2016 season, the Bears were picked to win the Missouri Valley Conference by the league's coaches in the Valley's annual pre-season poll, marking the third time in the last five seasons MSU has been the top choice to claim the MVC title
- Missouri State leads the overall series with UCA by an 8-5 margin, including three consecutive series wins over the Southland Conference member; last year MSU took two of three contests from UCA in Natchitoches, La., as it did two year's ago in the two clubs' season-opening series in Conway
- Guttin, the 2015 Dan Callahan MVC Coach of the Year, ranks 10th among all active Division I head coaches with 1,138 victories in his 33 years at MSU
- For just the third time in program history, the Bears return a pair of All-Americans with Jake Burger and Bryan Young back in the fold for 2016; Burger was a third-team All-America choice by Collegiate Baseball, while Young was a first-team pick of the NCBWA
- Young was tabbed for the NCBWA's Stopper of the Year Award preseason watch list after setting the Bears' single-season saves record (16) and finishing as one of five finalists for the same honor last spring
- In addition to Burger and Young earning preseason All-America and All-MVC accolades, senior outfielder Spencer Johnson was also tabbed for the league's preseason team by the Valley's coaches
- The Bears return 17 letterwinners, including six position starters and eight pitchers from last year's club that set a program record for victories (49) en route to claiming both the MVC regular-season and tournament titles, as well as the NCAA Springfield Regional crown
- MSU also set club records for road victories (21), team fielding percentage (.976), walks (317), sacrifice hits (54) and strikeouts (553); the Bears also enter the new season having won 40 of their last 46 games thanks in large part to a program-record 19-game win streak (April 25-May 31, 2015)
The Missouri State Bears will open the 2016 season this weekend when they travel to Conway, Ark., to take on the UCA Bears in a three-game series at Bear Stadium. The two clubs will christen the new season with a 3 p.m. game Friday (Feb. 19), before meeting again in a 1 p.m. doubleheader on Saturday to conclude the weekend.
This weekend's series marks the first of back-to-back road trips for the Bears to open the new campaign. MSU will travel to Clarksville, Tenn., next weekend, where the Bears will face off against UConn (Feb. 26), Alcorn State (Feb. 27) and host Austin Peay (Feb. 28) at the Governors Challenge.
Missouri State brings an 8-5 all-time edge over UCA into this weekend's series after the Bears have two of three from UCA in each of the last two seasons. MSU has claimed four of its first seven road games against UCA and two of three previous meetings at Hammons Field in a series that dates back to 2008.
Last year, MSU claimed the first two games of their neutral-field series with the Bears, including a complete-game four-hitter from Matt Hall in game two. Blake Graham also made the UCA pitching staff pay with a four-hit effort in the series clincher, hitting .455 with five RBIs over the three games.
Missouri State is 21-12 in season openers under head coach Keith Guttin and 33-19 overall. MSU will be looking for its fourth straight opening day victory; the Bears rallied for the first of their 24 come-from-behind wins in 2015 against UT Arlington at the SFA Tipton Ford Classic to open last season, following an 11-5 win at UCA two years ago and a 3-2 win at Texas State to kick off the 2013 slate.
Additionally, this weekend's action marks the 16th consecutive year the Bears will open their season on the road. MSU swept its season-opening trip to Nacogdoches, Texas last year and took two of three on opening weekend in Conway in 2014. The Bears have started each of the last five campaigns with at least six wins in their first 10 games.
Missouri State enters 2016 with what is believed to be its loftiest rank ever to begin a season at No. 17 in Collegiate Baseball's poll. The Bears also garnered preseason rankings in both the USA Today Coaches (No. 25) and NCBWA polls (No. 28).
The national recognition follows a strong 2015 showing in the polls for MSU. With their four-game sweep at the MVC Championship, the Bears not only secured the first-ever national seed for a Valley squad in the NCAA Championship, but also garnered the highest ranking for a Missouri State team in a national poll. MSU moved up two spots to No. 6 in the Baseball America College Top 25 poll, surpassing two previous No. 8 rankings as the program's highest position in any poll in the 52-year history of the program. The Bears finished their 2003 College World Series season ranked as high as eighth in Collegiate Baseball's poll before coming in at No. 8 in BA's May 18 poll.
Young Earns Preseason Accolades
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Missouri State closer Bryan Young was one of 70 players named to the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association's initial watch list for its 2016 Stopper of the Year Award, given annually to the top relief pitcher in NCAA Division I baseball.
Young, who was one of five finalists for last year's NCBWA Stopper of the Year Award, became Missouri State's 10th first-team All-American after setting a school record with 16 saves in 2015. The right-hander from Kansas City led the Missouri Valley Conference and ranked third nationally in saves while logging a perfect 7-0 record and a 1.30 earned run average. He also held the opposition to a .197 batting average over 41.2 innings spanning 30 outings.
Bears third baseman Jake Burger wasted little time in establishing himself as one of The Valley's top corner men in 2015. Burger became just the third MSU freshman in the 52-year history of the program to be named an All-American with his selection as a 2015 Louisville Slugger third-teamer by Collegiate Baseball last May. The Chesterfield, Mo., product tallied a team-high 78 hits - the second-highest total overall in the MVC and the top mark for a Valley freshman - and a Missouri State freshman record 22 doubles, while batting a club-best .342 and leading the Bears with a .518 slugging percentage.
A first-team All-MVC performer and the Valley's Freshman of the Year, Burger led the team with 25 multi-hit games and 10 multi-RBI outings, in addition to logging four home runs and 42 RBIs for the season. He recorded two separate 16-game streaks of reaching base safely via a hit, walk or hit by pitch, including a stretch from April 15 through May 14 in which he recorded a hit in all but one contest and batted .403 (27-for-67) with 17 RBIs.
This winter, Burger (along with fellow bear Bryan Young) was honored with preseason All-America recognition by both the NCBWA and Collegiate Baseball. Burger was a second-team pick of the baseball writers, as well as a third-team Louisville Slugger All-America choice.
