PRIME 9
- Missouri State is off to its fifth-straight 3-1 start and is 27-7 in February since the beginning of the 2013 season
- MSU will be taking on a pair of first-time opponents in Belmont and Lipscomb, while the Bears own a 23-9 series advantage vs. Middle Tennessee; MSU is 7-7 all-time vs. the Blue Raiders in Murfreesboro
- Head coach Keith Guttin ranks 25th among all NCAA Division I coaches for career victories; he trails Al Ogletree in the No. 24 position by 29 wins
- MSU's bullpen has yet to allow an earned run and has struck out 14 batters in 13.2 combined innings this season
- Justin Paulsen logged a career-best four hits in the Bears' win at Oral Roberts on Tuesday; the senior also surpassed the 100-RBI mark for his career in Saturday's win over Stony Brook
- Sophomore shortstop Jeremy Eierman was named Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week on Monday after batting .583 (7-for-12) and slugging 1.250 with a pair of homers and six RBIs for the Bears over the weekend
- The trio of Eierman, Paulsen and Drew Millas is a combined 8-for-12 with runners in scoring position this season
- MSU has produced a total of 42 come-from-behind wins since the beginning of the 2015 season
- The Bears have amassed a 53-14 regular-season record against non-conference foes since the beginning of the 2015 season, including a 29-10 mark in road or neutral-field games against non-MVC competition
LEADING OFF
With three victories in their first four contests, the
Missouri State Bears will be looking to continue their winning ways this weekend when they take part in the Mule Mix Classic in Nashville and Murfreesboro, Tenn. The Bears will open play with a pair of games in Nashville, starting with Friday's (Feb. 24) 4 p.m. contest against the
Belmont Bruins at E.S. Rose Park in Nashville, before taking on the
Lipscomb Bisons Saturday (2 p.m.) at Dungan Field. On Sunday, play shitfs to Murfreesboro, where MSU will square off against the
Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders in a Noon game at Reese Smith, Jr. Field.
In addition to the Bears, the round-robin classic includes Bowling Green and Northwestern, which will also face each of the three local teams over the weekend. The Bears are coming off a 9-5 road victory over Oral Roberts on Tuesday, as well as a 2-1 opening weekend at the Lake Area Classic in Lake Charles, La. MSU rallied from a two-run deficit to complete their 42nd come-from-behind win since the beginning of the 2015 season.
Belmont (1-3) picked up its first win of the season Wednesday against Western Kentucky, after dropping all three games of its opening series with Kent State over the weekend. Lipscomb (3-1) took two of their three meetings with Oakland to start the season, then topped Middle Tennessee by a 3-2 score Wednesday. The Blue Raiders (1-3) lost two of their three contests with Georgia Southern before their setback to Lipscomb in Nashville.
SERIES HISTORIES
The Bears will be facing a pair of first-time opponents in Belmont, out of the Ohio Valley Conference, and Lipscomb, a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference, to open the weekend. MSU has a lengthy history with the OVC, having compiled a cumulative 131-79 all-time mark against the current membership of the league. The Bears have faced just two ASUN foes, going a combined 6-4 against Jacksonville and Stetson. Most recently, MSU swept a three-game road series from Jacksonville in 2015.
The Bears have faced Middle Tennessee on a frequent basis since their initial meeting in 1994, including a match-up in the 1995 NCAA Fresno Regional. MSU has gotten the better of the Blue Raiders in the series, winning 23 of 32 overall contests, despite dropping all three games of the two clubs' 2009 series in their most-recent meeting in Murfreesboro. In all, the Bears have dominated at home (14-1), while splitting their previous 14 contests with Middle Tennessee on its home field.
WHAT A RELIEF
The Bears' bullpen has been nearly untouchable through the first four games of the season, combining to allow just one unearned run while striking out 14 batters and holding the opposition to a .178 batting mark in 13.2 innings. In all, seven different relievers have teamed up to lock down the late innings, as MSU has not yielded a single run after the fifth inning this season.
Jake Fromson turned in a pair of scoreless outings last weekend, fanning five while allowing just one hit and one walk in 5.0 total innings.
Trey Turner delivered 2 1/3 hitless innings in his MSU mound debut Tuesday at ORU, and All-America closer
Bryan Young tossed 2.0 perfect frames to close out the win in Tulsa.
ROAD TO SUCCESS
MSU has proven to be hard to stop on the road since the start of the 2015 season, logging a 35-17 (.615) record in such contests. The Bears went 13-10 in true road games a year ago, after finishing with a program-record 21 wins in 27 road contests in 2015. MSU's 0.857 win percentage on the road represented their best since 1978, when they posted an identical percentage with a 12-2 road mark.
Coupled with their 9-3 record in neutral field contests in 2015, the Bears' total of 30 wins away from home was second only to national champion Virginia in the Division I ranks and qualified as the best in school history. The Bears also posted the longest road win streak in Division I baseball in 2015, claiming 11 straight victories from March 15 to April 25 — their longest since the 1994 season.
WELCOME WAGON
Despite returning 15 letterwinners and six regular position starters from last year's 38-21 club, MSU has had several newcomers log substantial playing time over the first week of the season. The Bears' opening day lineup featured three newcomers, including catcher
Logan Geha, designated hitter
Matt Brown and starting pitcher
Doug Still, while freshmen
Drew Millas and
Jack Duffy drew starting assignments in game two vs. Stony Brook, and rookie left-hander
Nate Witherspoon got the mound start Sunday against McNeese.
A total of 12 different Bears made their MSU debuts in the Lake Area Classic, led by the performance of Still, who earned the win over Rhode Island after allowing just one run in 6.0 innings. Millas came through with a key two-out, two-run double to help ice the 7-0 win over Stony Brook, then plated another with a two-out hit in Tuesday's win at ORU. Perhaps the biggest blow from a newcomer came in the sixth inning Tuesday, as
Ryan Skalnik put the Bears on top for good with a bases-loaded double, before
Trey Turner helped shut down the Golden Eagle attack with 2.1 innings of no-hit relief to earn the victory in his first mound outing as a Bear.
NON-CON DOMINATION
A key factor in Missouri State's success over the past few seasons has been its dominance against non-conference competition. Since the beginning of the 2015 season, the Bears have compiled a 53-14 record in regular-season games versus non-league foes. They have won 24 of their last 28 regular-season non-conference home games, but have been nearly as potent on the road, going 29-10 in true road and neutral-field contests over the same stretch.
COMEBACK KIDS
Missouri State's 9-5 come-from-behind win over Oral Roberts Tuesday continued a recent trend for Missouri State, as it marked the Bears' 42nd comeback victory since the start of the 2015 season. Last year, the Bears posted 17 comeback wins, on the heels of a 2015 season that saw them claim victory in 24 such contests.
MSU rallied from its biggest deficit in nearly six years last March vs. Arkansas State, coming all the way back from a 5-0 hole to defeat the Red Wolves by a 15-11 final tally. The Bears' last come-from-behind win after trailing by five runs occurred on May 26, 2010, when MSU overcame a 7-2 deficit against Southern Illinois at the Missouri Valley Conference Championship in Wichita. MSU was particularly resilient in MVC play in 2015, capturing eight of their 18 conference victories in comeback fashion.
GUTTIN CRACKS TOP 25
Bears head coach
Keith Guttin cracked the NCAA's top 25 coaching wins list over the weekend, moving past Andy Lopez with Saturday's victories over Stony Brook and Rhode Island. With a career record of 1,179-740 (.614), Guttin is the second-winningest coach in MVC history, while his win total ranks seventh among all active Division I head coaches.
LIFTING THE LID
With its 12-1 win over Rhode Island, Missouri State is now 23-12 in season openers under head coach
Keith Guttin and 35-19 overall in such affairs. The Bears' big win over the preseason Atlantic 10 Conference favorite marked their fifth-consecutive opening day victory. Additionally, MSU's 12 runs matched their 2016 opening day offensive output as its best since the 2004 season opener (13 runs vs. Little Rock). The Bears have employed a potent offensive attack in recent years, totaling 41 runs in their last four season debuts.
DOING IT WITH 'D'
MSU rode a familiar formula of pitching and defense to victories in its first two games at the Lake Area Classic over the weekend. The Bears turned a total of six double plays in their three games in Louisiana, including five of the inning-ending variety. The Bears, which fielded .983 with just two miscues in 117 total chances in their three games, also got a big boost from their outfield defense.
Hunter Steinmetz turned in three diving catches to rob opponents of runs, and
Blake Graham added a highlight-reel grab of his own.
On the mound, the Bears yielded just four earned runs over the weekend, getting a pair of quality starts from
Doug Still and
Jordan Knutson, as well as solid work from all four relievers who saw action. Still earned the win vs. Rhode Island after allowing just one earned run on five hits over 6.0 innings, before Knutson and
Dylan Coleman combined on a five-hit shutout of Stony Brook.
