Baseball Bears Look to Extend Valley Win Streak at Southern Illinois

Friday, May 5

Carbondale, Ill.

6:30 p.m.

Missouri State University

Southern Illinois

Baseball Bears Look to Extend Valley Win Streak at Southern Illinois

May 04, 2017 | Baseball

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No. 16 Missouri State Bears (30-14, 11-0 MVC) at Southern Illinois Salukis (23-23, 6-6 MVC)
Site	Jones Stadium (2,000) \| Carbondale, Ill.
Game 1:	Friday, May 5 \| 6:30 p.m.
Game 2:	Saturday, May 6 \| 4 p.m.
Game 3:	Sunday, May 7 \| 1 p.m.
Radio:	KBFL 1060 AM/96.9 FM
Watch:	None
Follow:	Live Stats \| @MSUBearBaseball
Game Notes:	Missouri State \| Southern Illinois \| MVC Notebook
Series History:	MSU leads 66-38 (MSU 31-14 in Carbondale)

PRIME 9

Missouri State's 11-0 MVC start represents its best in 27 seasons as a Valley member, while the Bears' 15-game regular-season conference win streak (dating back to May 15, 2016) is the fourth-longest in league history
The Bears climbed 12 spots to No. 16 in this week's Collegiate Baseball Top 30, ranked 24th in the USA Today Coaches Poll and checked in at No. 25 in the NCBWA's Division I Poll on Monday
MSU enters Friday's series opener with a 66-38 all-time advantage vs. Southern Illinois, including a 31-14 edge against the Salukis in Carbondale; MSU has won nine of the last 11 meetings at Jones Stadium since 2009
The Bears have recorded at least one home run in 16 straight games and hit 31 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 44 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 ranks second in the nation in runs scored (56), fourth in total bases (126) and 11th in slugging (.737)
The MSU pitching staff can boast several MVC statistical leaders as well; Jake Fromson leads the league in ERA (2.32), opposing batting average (.172), fewest hits allowed (31) and fewest earned runs allowed (13), while his season WHIP (0.85) ranks 15th in the nation
Jordan Knutson leads the MVC in strikeouts (70) while Doug Still and Dylan Coleman share the league lead with six mound victories
The Bears rank sixth nationally in team walks with 249 for the season, which is just 68 shy of the program's single-season record of 317, set in 2015

LEADING OFF
After dropping their first game in nearly three weeks on Tuesday, the Missouri State Bears will look to bounce back against the Southern Illinois Salukis, when the two clubs open a pivotal Missouri Valley Conference series Friday (May 5) at Jones Stadium in Carbondale. The Bears and Salukis will meet for a 6:30 p.m. game to kick off the three-game set, before engaging again Saturday (4 p.m.) and Sunday (1 p.m.).

The Bears (30-14, 11-0 MVC), ranked as high as No. 16 in this week's national polls, has its sights set on extending a 15-game regular-season MVC win streak that includes 11-straight victories to start this year's league campaign. MSU has swept each of its first four Valley series to begin the season to enter play Friday as the lone Division I club in the nation with an unblemished conference record.

SIU (23-23, 6-6 MVC) is coming off a midweek loss to Illinois, following a pair of setbacks to DBU last weekend in MVC play. Prior to their current three-game slide, the Salukis had posted a season-best five-game win streak.

SERIES HISTORY
Missouri State holds a commanding 66-38 advantage over the Salukis in a series that dates back to 1988. The Bears have been dominant in Carbondale as well, winning seven of the last nine series played on the Salukis home turf and 31 of 45 games overall on the SIU campus.

In their last visit to Jones Stadium, the Bears swept the three-game set (May 8-10, 2015) with a pair of shutout victories. Last year, the Salukis turned the tables on MSU, however, taking all three meetings at Hammons Field after racking up 31 runs in the series.

STREAKING IN VALLEY PLAY
Missouri State extended its best-ever-start to a Valley season with a pair of wins at Evansville last weekend, giving the Bears 11-straight victories to open conference play. The Bears also ran their regular-season Valley win streak to a program-best 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.

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.

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.

A.J. IS A-OK
Senior outfielder Alex Jefferson was named to CoSIDA's Academic All-District VI Baseball Team for the second consecutive season Thursday in recognition of his combined performances athletically and in the classroom.

Jefferson, a senior accounting major with a 3.97 grade-point average, has excelled both on and off the field throughout his four-year Missouri State career. The Normal, Ill., product has started 42 of the Bears' 44 games this spring, matching career bests with three home runs and six stolen bases to date. He helped spark MSU's 10-1 start to the season by reaching base safely via a hit, walk or hit by pitch in nine of the Bears' first 10 contests, then turned in a torrid seven-game stretch in March over which he hit .483 with four multi-hit outings and RBIs in five-straight games.

On Wednesday, Jefferson picked up the MVC's State Farm Good Neighbor Award in honor of his significant achievements as well. An MVC First-Team Scholar-Athlete honoree last season as well, Jefferson is a three-time MVFC Commissioner's Academic Excellence Award-winner, as well as a Maroon and White Scholar-Athlete in each of the last three years. He also garnered the MVC Elite 18 Award as the 2016 MVC Tournament's top academic performer.

BEARS IN THE NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT
Several Bears are turning heads on the national level, led by Jake Burger, who leads all Division I players in runs scored (53) entering play this weekend. Burger also ranks fourth in total bases (121) and sixth in slugging (.747), while Jeremy Eierman is right on his heels in homers and total bases, ranking sixth in both categories. The duo also rates among the top 30 D-I players in RBIs.

On the mound, Jake Fromson also rates among the top hurlers in the country with the 12th-best WHIP (0.85) in the Division I ranks. The junior also ranks 26th in hits allowed per nine innings (5.87), while Doug Still's total of six victories is tied for 34th nationally.

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. 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).

Individually, Burger ranks fourth nationally behind only Morehead State's Niko Hulsizer (21), 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 12th in the nation with their 59 home runs this season.

MSU has recorded at least one home run in 16-straight games, marking their longest such streak since 1999. MSU has hit a total of 31 long balls as a team over the same stretch, led by Burger and Eierman, who have each hit seven round-trippers during the streak. For the season, MSU is a perfect 16-0 when hitting two or more home runs in a game, but just 14-14 when recoding one long ball or less.