No. 16 Missouri State Bears (30-13) at Kansas Jayhawks (22-22)
Date/First Pitch:	Tuesday, May 2  |  6:00 p.m.
Site:	Hoglund Ballpark (2,500)  |  Lawrence, Kan.
Follow:	Live Stats  |  ESPN3
Game Notes:	Missouri State  |  Kansas
Series History:	MSU leads 30-26 (12-15 in Lawrence)
Radio:	KBFL 1060 AM/96.9 FM  |  RadioSpringfield.com
Social Media:	@MSUBearBaseball  |  Facebook  |  Instagram

PRIME 9

• Missouri State is riding a season-best nine-game win streak, while the Bears' 11-0 MVC start represents their best in 27 seasons as a Valley member
• The Bears climbed 12 spots to No. 16 in this week's Collegiate Baseball Top 30 and made their 2017 USA Today Coaches Poll debut at No. 24 on Monday
• The Bears have won nine of their last 11 games against Kansas and hold a 30-26 all-time advantage in the series; MSU is just 12-15 vs. the Jayhawks in Lawrence, but has won six of its last seven overall games at Hoglund Ballpark
• The Bears have recorded at least one home run in 15 straight games and hit 30 long balls as a team over the same stretch; Led by seven round-trippers each from Jake Burger and Jeremy Eierman, nine different Bears have gone deep during the streak, including five that have recorded at least four homers since April 7
• Burger and Eierman have combined to post the top home run total for Division I teammates this spring with 35 homers in just 43 games to date; the duo ranks No. 1 and No. 2 in the Valley in home runs, RBIs, runs scored, total bases, on-base percentage and slugging percentage
• Ranking fourth nationally with 18 home runs, Burger is the NCAA Division I active leader for career homers (43); the junior also leads the nation in runs scored (56) and ranks fourth in total bases (126) and sixth in slugging (.750)
• The MSU pitching staff can boast several MVC statistical leaders as well; Jake Fromson leads the league in ERA (2.37), opposing batting average (.171), fewest hits allowed (30) and fewest earned runs allowed (13), while his season WHIP (0.83) ranks seventh in the nation 
• Jordan Knutson leads the MVC in strikeouts (68) while Doug Still and Dylan Coleman share the league lead with six mound victories 
• The Bears rank sixth nationally in team walks with 243 for the season, which is just 74 shy of the program's single-season record of 317, set in 2015

LEADING OFF
Riding a season-best nine-game win streak, the Missouri State Bears will take aim at avenging one of just four April losses Tuesday (May 2) when they open the month of May with their final non-conference tilt of the season against the Kansas Jayhawks. The Bears and Jayhawks will conclude their annual home-and-home series with a 6 p.m. contest at Hoglund Ballpark in Lawrence.

After ascending to their highest national ranking of the 2017 season Monday, the No. 16 Bears (30-13) will be looking to continue a recent stretch of success in Lawrence that has included wins in four of their last five road games against the Jayhawks, as well as a pair of neutral-field victories over Air Force in 2012. MSU has hit .309 as a team while outscoring the opposition by an 88-35 margin during the course of its current hot streak.

Kansas (22-22) dropped its first Big 12 series in four weeks this past weekend, losing the first two games of its home set with Baylor before claiming a 6-1 win in Sunday's finale. The Jayhawks are 13-11 at home this spring, including an 8-7 mark against non-conference foes at Hoglund Ballpark.

SERIES HISTORY
Missouri State enters Tuesday's matchup having claimed nine of the last 11 meetings in the series. The Bears hold a 30-26 overall edge in the series, but have gone just 12-15 against KU in Lawrence. 

KU notched its first road win over the Bears in seven years on April 4, as the Jayhawks posted a 4-2 victory at Hammons Field. Last year, Kansas snapped an eight-game skid in the series with a 2-1 win in Lawrence (March 29). The Jayhawks made the most of their four hits, scratching out a pair of runs and using six strong innings from their bullpen. 

CLIMBING THE CHARTS
Several MSU veterans continue to make their moves up the Bears' career leaderboard in a number of statistical categories. Most notably, Jake Burger belted his 18th home run of the season and his 43rd as a Bear last Saturday at Evansville to move into sole possession of the No. 6 spot of MSU's career homer list. Burger also needs just four more hits to match the career total of Aaron Conway in the 17th position on the Bears' all-time hits chart.

Additionally, Bryan Young added to his MSU record with his 31st save as a Bear April 18 at Mizzou, and Jordan Knutson made his 42nd mound start as a Bear last Friday to take over sole possession of the No. 3 spot on MSU's career starts list, just four behind John Hardin (46) in the second spot.

CARDIAC CUBS
The Bears rallied for its 11th and 12th come-from-behind victories of the season last weekend at Evansville, overcoming an early 3-0 disadvantage for a 13-8 win in the opening game of the series, before overcoming a five-run deficit en route to a 9-5 victory in the second game. Missouri State's two wins at Braun Stadium marked its 52nd and 53rd comeback victories 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's comeback on Saturday matched its biggest rally in the last seven years. Last March, the Bears overcame a 5-0 deficit versus Arkansas State, coming all the way back 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 MVC Championship in Wichita. MSU was particularly resilient in MVC play in 2015, capturing eight of their 18 conference victories in comeback fashion. 

STILL STREAKING
Missouri State extended its best-ever-start to a Valley season with a pair of wins at Evansville this past weekend, giving the Bears 11-straight victories to open conference play. The Bears ran their regular-season Valley win streak to a program-record 15-straight games, dating back to their May 15, 2016 win at DBU. That streak is the fourth-longest on record by an MVC club. The Bears are within four wins of the best conference win streak in program history, which occurred over the course of three seasons and spanned 19 regular-season games from April 16, 1989 to March 19, 1991.

BEARS BY THE NUMBERS
Over the course of their 15-game MVC regular-season win streak, the Bears have hit .327 as a team and out-homered the opposition by a 26-13 margin. MSU has gone deep at least two times in eight of the 15 games and is a perfect 13-0 when taking a lead into the seventh inning during the streak.

During its nine-game win streak that dates back to April 7, MSU has outscored the opposition by an 88-35 margin, with Bears hurlers combining to limit their foes to a .217 batting average. Jake Fromson has allowed just one earned run over 11.2 innings spanning six relief appearances and Jeremy Eierman has hit .441 (15-for-34) with five homers and 16 RBIs during the streak.

DIGGING THE LONG BALL
After the MSU duo of Spencer Johnson and Jake Burger teamed up to post the top combined home run total in the country last spring, the Bears can boast the top 1-2 power punch in Division I baseball again this season. Burger is once again a key component in the middle of the MSU order with a Valley-best 18 long balls to date, while sophomore shortstop Jeremy Eierman is right on his heels with 17 after clubbing a pair of long balls in the Bears' series opener at Evansville last weekend. The duo, which ranks fourth and fifth nationally, leads Mercer's Charlie Madden (16) and Hunter Bening/J.T. Thomas (12) by seven home runs for the Division I lead in combined homers by teammates. 

Individually, Burger ranks fourth nationally behind only Morehead State's Niko Hulsizer (20), Eastern Kentucky's Ben Fisher (20) and Mississippi State's Brent Rooker (19) in the Division I home run race. As a team, the Bears rank 13th in the nation with their 58 home runs this season. MSU has recorded at least one home run in 15-straight games, marking their longest such streak since 1999. MSU has hit a total of 30 long balls as a team over the same stretch, led by Burger and Eierman, who have each hit seven round-trippers during the streak. Last year, Burger and Johnson combined to hit 45 homers, which ranked as the second-best total for MSU teammates in program history, just 10 behind the 1999 combination of Matt Cepicky (30) and Jon Hale (25).