March 17, 2016
- Missouri State is off to a 14-2 start for the first time under head coach Keith Guttin and as a Division I program, matching the 1976 Bears' opening 16-game stretch as the best in the 53-year history of the program
- The Bears remained at a peak position of No. 12 in this week's Collegiate Baseball Division I poll, while also rising two spots to No. 19 in both the NCBWA and USA Today Coaches Top 25 polls
- Sunday's series finale will mark the 2,500th contest in Missouri State history; the Bears are 1,546-950-1 all time
- MSU has homered in 15 of its 16 games and its team average of 1.81 long balls per game is tops in the nation; the Bears are also among the country's top slugging and scoring squads, ranking second in Division I baseball with a .558 team slugging percentage and fifth in the country in runs per game (9.0)
- MSU enters the weekend with a commanding 36-15 lead in head-to-head action vs. Iowa, including a 31-14 edge over the Hawkeyes at home; the Bears took two of three games from UI last year, including both meetings at the NCAA Springfield Regional
- Spencer Johnson brings a streak of 31 consecutive games reaching base safely via a hit, walk or hit by pitch into the weekend; over the course of his streak, which includes the final 15 games of the 2015 season, Johnson has hit .349 (38-for-109) and slugged .716 with nine homers and 30 RBIs
- Jake Burger went 8-for-9 at the plate and homered three times in the Bears' two-game midweek series with Western Illinois; the sophomore delivered his second multi-homer game of the season in Wednesday's 15-3 win, moving him into a tie with Samford's Heath Quinn for the national lead in home runs (9)
- Blake Graham brings a career-best 14-game hit streak into Friday's action; the junior is hitting .389 with two homers and 14 RBIs during his streak, and is coming off back-to-back three-hit games vs. Western Illinois
- Sam Perez leads the MVC and ranks 16th nationally in strikeouts with 34 punchouts to date; the senior right-hander has issued just five walks and allowed only 13 hits in his team-leading 24.2 innings spanning nine relief outings
The Missouri State Bears continue their longest home stretch of the season with a three-game series against the Iowa Hawkeyes this weekend at Hammons Field. The Bears (14-2) and Hawkeyes (6-8) will open the series with a 3:05 p.m. contest Friday (March 18), then meet again Saturday (2:05 p.m.) and Sunday (March 20) in a rematch of the deciding game at last spring's NCAA Springfield Regional.
The Bears will ride a five-game win streak and the best start in program history into the series after sweeping Memphis in three games last weekend and Western Illinois in a two-game set this week. All-American Jake Burger led a dominant performance by the MSU offense, going 8-for-9 with three of his Division I-leading nine home runs in the brief two-game set with WIU. As a team, the Bears pounded out six homers and 33 hits while out-scoring the Leathernecks by a 25-7 margin.
Following a school-record 41-win 2015 campaign of its own, Iowa brings back 20 letterwinners from last year's club. The Hawkeyes are coming off a 2-2 weekend at the Perfect Game Lake Point complex in Georgia, where they defeated Savannah State and Point University.
The Bears have enjoyed a history of success in their series with the Hawkeyes, bringing a 36-15 advantage into this weekend's action. Most recently, MSU took two of the three games contested by the two clubs last spring, including back-to-back wins over UI at the NCAA Springfield Regional to clinch the school's second Division I Super Regional berth.
This weekend's series will be the first of two straight weekend series for the Bears against Big Ten foes, with Minnesota slated to pay Hammons Field a visit next weekend. Conversely, Iowa has already faced off against three different Missouri Valley Conference squads this season, going a combined 1-6 against Dallas Baptist, Indiana State and Southern Illinois.
Missouri State entered the season ranked as high as No. 17 in Collegiate Baseball's Division I poll -- it's highest preseason ranking ever -- and remained at No. 12 in this week's edition. The Missouri Valley Conference favorite racked up a school-record 49 wins last spring en route to capturing both the MVC regular-season and conference tournament titles. MSU will welcome back 17 letterwinners and five regular position starters from last year's club that earned the No. 8 national seed in the NCAA Championship and captured the Springfield Regional crown to advance to its second Super Regional.
Sophomore third baseman Jake Burger and junior closer Bryan Young each earned spots on multiple preseason All-America squads following breakthrough 2015 campaigns. Burger was a third-team All-America choice after establishing himself as one of The Valley's top corner men in his rookie season. Young was equally as impressive, picking up first-team All-America recognition from the NCBWA after leading the MVC with a Bears single-season record 16 saves, which ranked third nationally.
Senior outfielder Spencer Johnson joined the duo on the All-MVC preseason team after hitting a career-best .310 with 17 multi-hit games and a team-best 50 runs scored last year. The Bears' trio of preseason honorees will be surrounded by seasoned veterans, including senior catcher Matt Fultz, junior outfielder Blake Graham and junior first baseman Justin Paulsen, each of which registered big years last spring to help stabilize MSU's balanced lineup.
On the mound, the Bears will have a deep stable of returners to work with, led by junior left-hander Jordan Knutson, who is expected to take over the Friday starter role on the heels of a breakthrough 2015 season. Knutson fashioned a 6-2 record to go along with his 3.16 earned run average. Senior righty Sam Perez is expected to once again help stabilize the relief corps after going 9-1 with a save in his 27 appearances spanning 68.0 total innings last spring.
This weekend's series will serve as a rematch of the top two clubs at last year's NCAA Springfield Regional, which the Bears captured thanks in large part to a pair of wins over the Hawkeyes. Several key figures from that weekend are back for the Bears, who extended their school-record win streak to 19 games with the two wins over Iowa. MSU rode the left arm of All-American Matt Hall to a 5-3 victory in the first postseason meeting of the two schools, getting a big lift from All-Regional selection Blake Graham, who went 2-for-4 with a pair of key RBIs. Friday's projected starter, Jordan Knutson, played a prominent role in the outcome of the deciding game of the regional, tossing 7.0 strong innings of three-hit baseball, before Bryan Young closed out the hard-fought 3-2 win for his school-record 16th save of the season.
MSU's first run as a regional host was a smashing success at the turnstiles, as 22,772 spectators passed through the Hammons Field gates to witness the Bears claim their second NCAA Division I Super Regional berth.
Missouri State has continued to binge on the long ball in the early stages of the season, homering six times in its two-game midweek sweep of Western Illinois, after hitting 10 round-trippers over the course of its initial five-game home stand to hike its 2016 season total to a Missouri Valley Conference-best 29 dingers. In contrast, the 2015 Bears hit 39 homers as a team and did not record their 29th long ball until April 26 at Illinois State in game No. 40.
Led by the duo of Jake Burger and Spencer Johnson, who rank No.'s 1 and 3 in all of Division I baseball in home runs, the Bears have hit at least one home run in 15 of their 16 contests and have posted multi-homer games in nine of those outings. In all, nine different Bears have recorded at least one homer this season.
The Bears are off to a 14-2 start for the first time under head coach Keith Guttin and as a Division I program, matching the 1976 Bears' opening 16-game stretch as the best in the 53-year history of the program. MSU has never started a campaign with 15 wins in its first 17 contests.
Previously, MSU's three-game sweep of SIUE (March 4-6) ran its season record to 9-1, matching the Bears' best 10-game start ever. The Bears last began a season with nine wins in their first 10 games in 1991, their first year in the Valley. MSU has gotten off to 9-1 starts on four previous occasions (1991, 1987, 1981 and 1976), posting a season win percentage of at least .638 in each of those campaigns.
