USA Baseball Collegiate National Team

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Missouri State third baseman Jake Burger will trade his Maroon and White for Stars and Stripes this summer, as the sophomore has earned an invitation to compete for the nation's premier summer collegiate squad in USA Baseball's 2016 Collegiate National Team.

A Midseason All-America pick by D1Baseball, Burger has turned in one of the top all-around seasons in the country and currently leads all of Division I baseball in home runs (19). He moved into the Bears' single-season top 10 list with his two-run shot in last Tuesday's win vs. Arkansas, and with one more long ball would become the first Bear since 1999 to top the 20-homer mark.

The Chesterfield, Mo., product, who was chosen by Collegiate Baseball as one of its Louisville Slugger National Players of the Week on March 21, has been cited for Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week honors three times this spring. Burger was named to USA Baseball's Golden Spikes Award watch list in April and leads the Valley in batting (.375), slugging (.729), runs scored (53), hits (72), RBIs (61) and total bases (140), in addition to posting the top home run total for any MVC player since the 2010 season.

Burger becomes the becomes the seventh Bear to be selected to compete with Team USA during head coach Keith Guttin's tenure and the second in the last three years following Tate Matheny's 2014 summer stint with the CNT. The list of distinguished MSU standouts to compete for Team USA also includes Bill Mueller (1991), Jarrod Mays (1995), Ryan Howard (2000), Bob Zimmermann (2001-02) and Ross Detwiler (2006).

The 2016 USA Baseball Collegiate National Team will train in Fullerton, Calif. and compete against teams in the California Collegiate League from June 28-July 2, before making July trips to Chinese Taipei, Japan, and Cuba for the International Friendship Series.