Missouri State Bears (4-2) at Keith LeClair Classic
Dates:	Friday, March 2 - Sunday, March 4
Site:	Lewis Field at Clark-LeClair Park (5,000)  |  Greenville, N.C.
Game 1:	vs. Saint Joseph's  |  Friday - 11 a.m.
Follow:	Live Stats  |  @MSUBearBaseball
Game 2:	at No. 24 ECU  |  Saturday - 3:30 p.m.
Follow:	Live Stats  |  @MSUBearBaseball  |  Watch
Game 3:	vs. Pepperdine  |  Sunday - 10 a.m.
Follow:	Live Stats  |  @MSUBearBaseball
Radio:	KBFL 1060 AM/96.9 FM (Corey Riggs)  |  RadioSpringfield.com
Game Notes:	Missouri State  |  Saint Joseph's  |  ECU  |  Pepperdine
Series Histories:	SJU - first meeting  |  ECU first meeting  |  PU leads 1-0

PRIME 9

• The Missouri State Bears will make their first-ever trip to the state of North Carolina this weekend when they take part in the Keith LeClair Classic on the campus of East Carolina University
• The Bears will be playing first-time opponents Saint Joseph's (March 2) and ECU (March 3) to open the weekend, before facing Pepperdine (March 4) for the first time since the 1987 NCAA West II Regional
• ECU will mark the first ranked opponent for the Bears in 2018; MSU has logged 30 wins over ranked foes since 2002 
• The Bears have posted a 73-29 (.716) regular-season non-conference mark over the last three seasons    
• Preseason first-team All-America pick Jeremy Eierman was also named to the USA Baseball Golden Spikes watch list; the shortstop's 32 homers over his freshman and sophomore seasons is the third-best total in program history 
• The Bears have posted a 73-29 (.716) regular-season non-conference mark since the start of the 2015 season    
• Junior right-hander Dylan Coleman matched a career best with 13 strikeouts Sunday at Central Arkansas, holding the Bears to two hits in 8.0 shutout innings
• MSU's roster features four different returners who have earned All-America recognition during their respective careers, led by Eierman and Jake Fromson, as well as Coleman and Hunter Steinmetz
• Missouri State has 62 combined come-from-behind victories over the last three-plus seasons 

LEADING OFF
The Missouri State Bears will travel to Greenville, N.C. for the Keith LeClair Classic this weekend, marking their first-ever visit to the Tar Heel State. MSU will take on a pair of first-time opponents as well, opening the weekend against the Saint Joseph's Hawks at 11 a.m. Friday, before playing the host ECU Pirates at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Clark-LeClair Park. The Bears will then conclude their stay with a 10 a.m. game against the Pepperdine Waves Sunday, in their first meeting with PU since the 1987 NCAA Division I West II Regional in Tempe, Ariz.

SERIES HISTORIES
Missouri State has limited collective history with the other three participants in this year's Keith LeClair Classic. The Bears only previous meeting with any of the three came in their first NCAA Division I Regional appearance in 1987, when Pepperdine pulled out a 10-4 victory in an elimination contest at the West II Regional in Tempe, Ariz. MSU has just two other all-time meetings against a member of the West Coast Conference, falling to Gonzaga in 2007, before topping St. Mary's in 2009.

MSU has much lengthier histories with both the Atlantic 10 Conference (Saint Joseph's) and the American Athletic Conference (ECU), thanks largely to two of their longest-standing rivalries. The Bears hold a 48-12 overall edge over Saint Louis (A-10), but trail new American Athletic member Wichita State by a 66-46 all-time margin.

COLEMAN CLIMBING
Junior right-hander Dylan Coleman turned in another dominant performance Sunday at Central Arkansas, matching a career high with 13 strikeouts in 8.0 shutout innings. Coleman, who allowed just two singles and retired 12 of 13 UCA hitters at one point, became the 22nd Bear to top the 200-strikeout plateau for his career. He raised his MSU career total to 208 punchouts, passing six different Bears to move up to 16th on the program's all-time strikeout list. 

Coleman, who fanned an MVC-high 106 batters in 2016, needs seven more K's to crack the top 15, with Buddy Baumann (2007-09) immediately ahead on the list. Additionally, he is just 18 strikeouts shy of the No. 10 position, currently shared by Aaron Meade and Dave Dickensheet.

GOING DEEP
Missouri State racked up a Missouri Valley Conference-best 160 home runs over the last two years, ranking among the top 12 teams in the nation in both 2016 and 2017. Last season, the Bears went a perfect 21-0 when hitting at least two home runs in a game, led by Jeremy Eierman's 23 long balls on the year. The junior shortstop entered the 2018 season with 32 career bombs to his credit, after combining with 2017 first-round MLB Draft pick Jake Burger to form the most potent 1-2 power punch in the country (44 homers) last spring.

The Bears powered up to hit three home runs on opening weekend. Surprisingly, all three round-trippers originated off the bats of players who entered the season with a combined total of zero career homers for the Bears. Jack Duffy delivered an opposite-field shot in MSU's season opener vs. Texas Southern, before Brooks Zimmerman went deep in game two against Lamar. Finally, Ben Whetstone launched a long solo shot as part of a 4-for-5 afternoon in the Bears' 6-5 win over TSU in their final game at the Cardinal Classic.

EIERMAN ON DECK
Junior shortstop Jeremy Eierman has been at the forefront of the conversation throughout the fall and leading into the preseason about the Bear with the most promising potential to follow in the footsteps of several recent high-end Major League Baseball Draft picks from Missouri State. Last year, fellow MSU infielder Jake Burger was picked 11th overall by the Chicago White Sox to become the highest-ranking Bears position player ever picked in the draft. In fact, the Bears have seen six players selected in the top 10 rounds of the MLB Draft over the last three seasons, including two first-rounders, with Jon Harris going 29th overall to Toronto in 2015 as well. 
    
Eierman, a USA Baseball Collegiate National Team selection last summer, was a first-team All-America choice of the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, D1Baseball.com and Perfect Game USA after logging a breakthrough 2017 campaign for the Bears, both at the plate and in the middle of the MSU infield as one of the MVC's top defenders. He became the third Bear in the last six seasons to be named the NCBWA's District VI most outstanding player and was a finalist for the Brooks Wallace Award honoring the nation's top shortstop, as well as a semifinalist for the NCBWA's Dick Howser Trophy. 
    
The Warsaw, Mo., product shared the No. 5 spot nationally with 23 home runs after turning in an NCAA postseason to remember, helping the Bears to their third Division I Regional crown by hitting a pair of home runs in Missouri State's opening-round victory over Oklahoma State, as well as a tie-breaking two-run shot in the deciding game against Arkansas. Eierman homered for a fourth time in NCAA play in the Bears' opening game against TCU at the Fort Worth Super Regional as well and hit .333 overall in MSU's six postseason games. Eierman was a unanimous preseason All-America pick and was tabbed for USA Baseball's Golden Spikes Award watch list. He was also named the No. 9 college prospect for the 2018 MLB Draft, as well as the No. 17 overall prospect, by Baseball America prior to the start of the season.

NON-CON DOMINATION
MSU has been nearly unstoppable against non-conference competition over the last three seasons, compiling a 73-29 (.716) record in regular-season games versus non-league foes since the start of the 2015 season. The Bears, who have won 30 of their last 39 regular-season non-conference home games, have hit .297 as a team, while out-scoring their non-conference opponents by a 705-410 margin at Hammons Field. MSU has hit 107 homers while allowing only 39 long balls against non-league opponents over the same stretch.

COMEBACK KIDS
Missouri State has made a habit of eliminating opposition leads over the last three seasons, totaling 62 come-from-behind victories out of 134 total wins since the start of the 2015 season. The Bears rallied for their 18th come-from-behind victory of the 2017 season with their walkoff win over Oklahoma State in the opening round of the NCAA Fayetteville Regional. In 2016, 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 from a five-run deficit at Evansville on April 29, 2017 matched its biggest rally in the last seven years. In 2016, the Bears overcame a 5-0 Arkansas State lead, 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.  

IN RARE COMPANY
Bears head coach Keith Guttin picked up his 1,200th career victory April 18, 2017, with the Bears' 5-3 win at Missouri. The Bears' 36th-year bench boss also moved up to 23rd in NCAA Division I history for coaching victories with the Bears' MVC-clinching win over Indiana State (May 13), surpassing Jay Bergman with his 1,211th win. He needs seven more victories to match Jim Dietz's career total in the No. 22 spot on the NCAA's all-time wins list.

With a career record of 1,223-761 (.616), Guttin is the second-winningest coach in MVC history, while his win total ranks sixth among all active Division I head coaches entering the 2018 season.