Oral Roberts Golden Eagles (8-5) at Missouri State Bears (8-5)
Site	Hammons Field (8,000)  |  Springfield, Mo.
Date/First Pitch:	Tuesday, March 13  |  3:02 p.m.
Radio:	KBFL 1060 AM/96.9 FM
Watch:	The Valley on ESPN3
Follow:	Live Stats  |  @MSUBearBaseball
Game Notes:	Missouri State  |  Oral Roberts
Series History:	ORU leads 31-22  (MSU 12-9 at home)
Promotions:	Business Man's Special (half-price adult tickets)
Tickets:	MissouriStateBears.com

PRIME 9

• The Bears are coming off a 2-1 series win over No. 30 Arkansas State and are 3-1 overall vs. ranked foes this year
• After totaling just five long balls in its first 10 games of the season, MSU clubbed six home runs in the three-game series with ASU, including three by Ben Whetstone
• The Bears have posted a 77-32 (.706) regular-season non-conference mark over the last three seasons
• ORU holds a 31-22 edge vs. MSU, but the Bears are 12-9 vs. the Golden Eagles in Springfield
• MSU will be playing in Kansas City, Mo. for the first time since April 24, 1973, when they take on Iowa Wednesday at the K.C. Urban Youth Academy; the Bears are 39-15 all-time vs. Iowa and have won five straight in the series
• Dylan Coleman won his second straight decision over a ranked opponent Friday and moved up to No. 14 on the Bears' career strikeouts list with 222, just one behind Mike Whitley in the 13th position    
• The Bears lead the Valley in team earned run average (3.43), while Coleman paces the circuit in strikeouts (34), innings pitched (28.0) and wins (3)
• Preseason All-American Jeremy Eierman has rebounded from a sluggish start to hit .480 over his current six-game hit streak; the junior shortstop has scored eight times, driven in four runs and swiped three bases as well
• Missouri State has 64 combined come-from-behind victories over the last three-plus seasons, including five through its first 13 contests of the 2018 campaign 

LEADING OFF
After completing a successful weekend with a series win over a nationally-ranked foe, the Missouri State Bears open a busy non-conference stretch with midweek contests against 2017 NCAA Regional qualifiers in the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles and Iowa Hawkeyes. The Bears and Golden Eagles will square off Tuesday (March 13) in a 3 p.m. game at Hammons Field, before MSU meets Iowa Wednesday at the K.C. Urban Youth Academy (4 p.m.) in its first regular-season contest in the Show-Me State's second-largest city since 1973.

The Bears (8-5) took two of three games from No. 30 Arkansas State over the weekend, racing out to a 12-4 victory in the opener, before splitting the final two games of the series. Ben Whetstone led a Bears power surge with three home runs, while Dylan Coleman maintained his perfect start to the season with 7.0 strong innings for his third mound victory. 

Like the Bears, ORU (8-5) is combing off a 2-2 week after topping Wichita State in midweek action and salvaging the final game of a three-game series with No. 25 DBU over the weekend. Iowa (8-5) will be looking to stop a four-game slide after dropping all three games to UNLV this past weekend.

SERIES HISTORIES
ORU brings a decisive 31-22 edge in its series with the Bears into play Tuesday, including a 21-10 advantage on its home turf. The Golden Eagles have won five of the last eight meetings since 2013, including three of the last four contests ast Hammons Field in the series. Last year, the two teams split a pair of games, with the Bears posting a 9-5 win in Tulsa (Feb. 21), before ORU returned the favor a month later with a 3-1 decision in Springfield.

Missouri State has dominated its series with the Hawkeyes, claiming each of the last five meetings since 2015. Overall, the Bears hold a commanding 39-15 lead in a series that dates back to 1980. MSU has won 34 of 48 home games against the Hawkeyes, as well as five of six neutral-field meetings.

HOLDING SERVE AT HAMMONS
Missouri State opened its 2018 home slate last week looking to extend a recent home-field advantage of unprecedented proportions in the history of the MSU program. The Bears have logged their top two single-season home win totals over the last two years, going 21-7 at home last spring, following a Hammons Field record 22 victories in 2016. In 2015, MSU posted its best-ever showing at Hammons with a 19-3 (.864) mark, giving the Bears a combined 64-21 (.753) home record since the start of the 2015 season.

POWER SURGE
After entering the week with four combined home runs as a team, the Bears muscled up to club seven long balls in their four outings. Ben Whetstone launched three critical home runs in MSU's series win over No. 30 Arkansas State, including the first two-homer game of his career in Friday's 12-4 win. He belted a game-tying solo shot in the eighth inning of Sunday's series-clinching win as well. Additionally, Matt Brown went deep twice in Friday's win, while Hunter Steinmetz and Landan Ruff each powered up to hit their first homers of the season this past week.

BOUNCEBACK BEARS
Missouri State has made a habit of eliminating opposition leads over the last three seasons, totaling 64 come-from-behind victories out of 138 total wins since the start of the 2015 season. With its 5-4 walkoff victory over Arkansas State on Sunday, Missouri State not only logged its fifth come-from-behind victory of the season, but also improved to 5-0 follow a loss. The Bears have hit .294 with seven of their 11 home runs on the season in those five victories. Ben Whetstone has been particularly lethal in games following losses, batting .421 and slugging 1.053 with all four of his homers and six RBIs. On the mound, Dylan Coleman has posted a pair of wins and a 2.57 ERA in such outings.

COLEMAN CLIMBING
Junior right-hander Dylan Coleman turned in his fourth consecutive quality start to begin the 2018 season Friday, holding No. 30 Arkansas State to a single run on two hits over 7.0 innings to earn his second straight victory over a ranked foe. The Potosi, Mo., product moved up to 14th on the Bears' career strikeout list with six K's as part of the 12-4 victory, which helped pave the way to a series win for MSU.
 
Coleman, who fanned an MVC-high 106 batters in 2016, needs one more K to match Mike Whitley's (1992-95) career total in the No. 13 position. Additionally, he is just four strikeouts shy of cracking the top 10.

OFF AND RUNNING
As part of their 8-5 start to the season, the Bears locked up their eighth-consecutive .500 or better month of February. Since the start of the 2011 season, Missouri State has gone a combined 43-15 (.741) in February, including a cumulative 28-8 (.778) mark over the last five seasons. 

MSU has been even better in the month of March, which has traditionally been the Bears' most successful month. MSU has gone 39-19 in March over the last four seasons and has logged 15 winning months of March since 2001. Overall, MSU has posted a .632 March winning percentage and finished .500 or better in the month 45 times in 54 years as a varsity program.

BEARS ON RADIO
Once again in 2018, Meyer Communications is slated to provide live radio coverage of all 53 Missouri State regular-season games, plus all Bears' games in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament and any 2018 postseason play. 

The broadcasts can be heard primarily on KBFL 1060 AM and 96.9 FM in Springfield with Art Hains, Ben Goss and Corey Riggs describing the action. An online audio stream is available through KBFL's website via RadioSpringfield.com. 

BEARS ON ESPN
At least 13 MSU home games will be streamed online through ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app as part of a 10-year extension to the Missouri Valley Conference's media rights agreement with ESPN announced in 2015. As a result, ESPN3 will showcase a minimum of 820 events a year (a minimum of 70 men's basketball) in the final six years of the agreement. This spring, Corey Riggs, Don West, Mike McClure and Tom Ladd will share broadcast duties on the Bears' ESPN3 broadcasts, including Tuesday's contest against Oral Roberts. Additionally, the Bears' April 11 showdown with nationally-ranked Oregon State will air live on ESPNU at 11 a.m.