New Orleans Privateers (13-7) at Missouri State Bears (13-6)
Site:	Hammons Field (8,000)  |  Springfield, Mo.
Date:	Tuesday, March 21
First Pitch:	3:05 p.m.
Follow:	Live Stats  |  @MSUBearBaseball
Radio:	KBFL 1060 AM/96.9 FM  |  RadioSpringfield.com
Game Notes:	Missouri State  |  New Orleans  |  MVC Notebook
Series History:	First meeting
Tickets:	MissouriStateBears.com

PRIME 9

• Missouri State had the 36th-best RPI and ranked 24th among all Division I programs in NPI through March 19, according to WarrenNolan.com
• Tuesday's contest will mark the first meeting of the Missouri State and New Orleans programs; the Bears are 3-1 against members of the Southland Conference this season and 59-49 vs. the league overall
• As a team, the Bears rank fifth in all of Division I baseball with five shutouts on the season; MSU also ranks eighth in team WHIP (1.08), ninth in strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.60), 12th in hits allowed per 9.0 IP (6.91) and 16th in team ERA (2.76)
• Jake Burger shares the national lead with his nine home runs and also rates among the D-I leaders in total bases (12th) and slugging (13th); with 34 career home runs, he needs just one more to crack MSU's all-time top 10
• MSU's bullpen has combined to post a 1.22 ERA, allowing just nine earned runs on 38 hits while striking out 81 hitters over 66.2 innings through the first 19 games of the season; Jake Fromson ranks seventh nationally in WHIP (0.64) and 12th in hits allowed per 9.0 IP (4.24)
• With 1,189 wins as MSU's bench boss, Keith Guttin ranks 25th among all NCAA Division I coaches for career victories; he trails Al Ogletree in the No. 24 position by 19 wins
• After reaching the 10-hit mark in just four of their first 14 games this season, the Bears have produced double-digit hit totals in four of their last five outings, hitting .326 as a team during their recent hot stretch at the plate; MSU is also 12-for-12 in stolen base attempts in its last nine games
• MSU has produced a total of 46 come-from-behind wins since the beginning of the 2015 season, including five this season
• The Bears have amassed a 63-19 regular-season record against non-conference foes since the beginning of the 2015 season, including a 28-6 record at Hammons Field vs. non-MVC competition over the same stretch

LEADING OFF
The Missouri State Bears will look to bounce back from a spring break slide Tuesday (March 21), when they host the New Orleans Privateers in a 3:05 p.m. contest at Hammons Field. The Bears' first-ever meeting with the Privateers will wrap up a four-game home stand that kicked off a stretch of 13 home dates for MSU from March 17-April 11.

Despite a 12-3 start to the season, the Bears (13-6) notched just one win in their four outings last week, dropping three one-run decisions to SEMO and Memphis. MSU claimed a 9-5 win over the Tigers in the two clubs' series opener on Friday, before UM responded with a 6-5 win Saturday and a 5-4 victory Sunday in which they worked out of bases-loaded, ninth-inning jams each day.

New Orleans (13-7) is coming off a series sweep of Abilene Christian over the weekend, in addition to posting its second win over No. 5 LSU this spring earlier in the week. The Privateers rank 37th nationally with their .305 team batting mark.

SERIES HISTORY
Tuesday's meeting will be the first in the series between Missouri State and New Orleans. The Bears have gone 3-1 against Southland Conference foes this season, sweeping a three-game home set from Central Arkansas (March 3-5) after dropping a 4-3 road tilt with McNeese State on opening weekend. Overall, the Bears have logged a 59-49 all-time mark against the Southland.

HOLDING SERVE AT HAMMONS
Missouri State opened its 2017 home slate with a three-game sweep of Central Arkansas (March 3-5) to extend a recent home-field advantage of unprecedented proportions in the history of the MSU program. The Bears logged a Hammons Field record 22 victories at home last spring after piling up 19 home wins in 2015. MSU posted its best-ever showing at Hammons with a 19-3 (.864) mark in 2015, giving the Bears a combined 45-13 (.776) home record since the start of the 2015 season. 

Last season, the Bears hit .320 as a team, averaged 8.8 runs per game and out-homered the opposition by a 39-11 margin at Hammons. Over the last two years combined, MSU has nearly doubled the run production of its 52 opponents at home with a 404-226 scoring advantage. So far in 2017, MSU is hitting .295 as a club with nine of its 23 homers on the season through just six home dates at Hammons.

DIGGING THE LONG BALL
After ranking second only to fellow Bear Spencer Johnson in the 2016 NCAA Division I home run chase, Jake Burger has picked up right where he left off as a sophomore. The preseason All-American belted his eighth and ninth home runs of the season in back-to-back games (March 17-18) this past weekend vs. Memphis, marking the fourth time in just 19 games this season a Bear has gone deep in consecutive games. 

Burger, who shares the Division I home run lead with three other standouts, previously accomplished the feat with home runs against Central Arkansas (March 4-5), while Alex Jefferson clubbed his first two homers of the season in back-to-back wins at Minnesota last week (March 11-12) and Jeremy Eierman hit round-trippers in three-straight games against Central Arkansas (March 3-5). 

Last year, Burger became the second-quickest Missouri State hitter to reach the 10-homer mark in a season, hitting double digits in just his 19th game. He needs just one more homer to crack the Bears' all-time top 10 list. As a team, the Bears rank 16th nationally with 23 home runs, after ranking fifth in the same category last season.

SIXTH SENSE
The Bears continued a recent trend of sixth-inning dominance this week, scoring four times in the inning in Friday's series opener with Memphis to help break open an eventual 9-5 victory. 

For the season, the Bears have outscored their opponents by a combined 27-2 margin in the sixth, finally allowing their first sixth-inning runs of the season in Sunday's setback to Memphis. MSU has tallied at least one sixth-inning run in 10 of its 19 games to date, going 8-2 in those contests. Jake Burger has been particularly lethal in the sixth this season, going 5-for-8 with four of his nine homers and nine total RBIs.

A.J. IS A-OK
With three multi-hit efforts in his last five starts, Alex Jefferson has been one of the Bears' hottest hitters in the month of March. The senior outfielder went 7-for-15 in MSU's three-game series with Memphis over the weekend, after a standout performance in Minnesota the previous week in which he scored four times and drove home four more runs with a pair of homers to help the Bears claim the series. Overall in his last five starts, Jefferson has hit .455 (10-for-22), driven in seven runs and scored five of his own.