Missouri State Bears (25-12, 8-1 MVC) at Bradley Braves (25-9, 7-2 MVC)
Site:	Dozer Park (7,500) | Peoria, Ill.
Game 1:	Friday, April 27 | 6 p.m. (CDT)
Watch:	The Valley on ESPN3
Game 2:	Saturday, April 28 | 2 p.m. (CDT)
Watch:	The Valley on ESPN3
Game 3:	Sunday, April 29 | 1 p.m. (CDT)
Watch:	The Valley on ESPN3
Follow:	Live Stats | @MSUBearBaseball
Radio:	KBFL 1060 AM/96.9 FM | RadioSpringfield.com
Game Notes:	Missouri State | Bradley
Series History:	MSU leads 66-36 (21-21 in Peoria)

PRIME 9

• Missouri State is 11-7 in true road/neutral games this season; the Bears have gone 59-35 in true road games over the last four seasons and 79-41 overall away from Hammons Field over the same span
• The Bears own a 66-36 series advantage against Bradley, but the two teams have split their previous 42 games in Peoria; MSU has claimed 17 of the last 20 overall meetings in the series since 2012, including five in a row
• The Bears and Braves rank first and second in the Valley, respectively, in team ERA, opposing batting average, hits    allowed and runs allowed 
• Preseason All-America pick Jeremy Eierman, who was named to both the Golden Spikes Award and Brooks Wallace Award watch lists, swiped the 41st base of his career last weekend to become the lone Bear to rank among the top 10 players in program history in both steals and home runs (38) 
• After hitting just 23 total home runs through their first 33 games of the season, the Bears have powered up to club seven round-trippers in their last four outings; last weekend, MSU totaled six home runs in their series sweep of Illinois State — its best total in a Valley series since hitting 10 vs. DBU in another three-game sweep last April
• With his 11 strikeouts last Friday against Illinois State, Dylan Coleman moved into fourth place on the Bears' career strikeout list (267); the junior also notched his 20th victory as a Bear to crack the crack the top 10 for wins
• Drew Millas was named MVC Player of the Week for the third time this season on Monday after going 8-for-15 with a pair of homers and seven RBIs last week; the honor is the sixth overall weekly player or pitcher of the week award for a Bear this spring    
• Missouri State's bullpen has closed out 140 consecutive victories — including 21 this season — after the Bears have taken a lead into the ninth inning, dating back to May 2014 
• The Bears have 73 combined come-from-behind victories over the last four seasons, including 14 through their first 37 contests of the 2018 campaign; MSU is also 9-1 in one-run affairs this spring 

LEADING OFF
Riding a six-game Missouri Valley Conference win streak, the Missouri State Bears return to the road for a key league set against the Bradley Braves at Dozer Park in Peoria, Ill., this weekend. The Bears and Braves will open the three-game series with a 6 p.m. contest Friday (April 27), before squaring off in single games again Saturday (2 p.m.) and Sunday (1 p.m.) to conclude the weekend.

The Bears (25-12), who enter the series atop the MVC standings with an 8-1 conference mark, have been dominant in Valley play, outscoring their opponents by a combined 60-32 margin. MSU pitching has been particularly formidable as well, holding the opposition to a .189 batting mark while fashioning a 2.85 team ERA.

Conversely, Bradley (25-9) has featured one of the Valley's top offenses this spring to win seven of its first nine league games and eight in a row overall entering the series. The Braves, who are tied with DBU for the second spot in the MVC standings, enter Friday's series opener hitting a conference-best .302 as a team, while their 4.17 team ERA ranks second only to the Bears' 4.03 season mark.

SERIES HISTORY
Missouri State has enjoyed a lengthy run of recent success against the Braves, claiming 17 of the last 20 meetings going back to the 2012 MVC Tournament. Last spring, the Bears swept  the two clubs' three-game regular-season series in Springfield, 
riding Jake Burger's decisive two-run homer in the 10th inning to a game one victory, before outscoring the Braves by a 22-5 margin over the final two contests of the weekend.

Overall, the Bears hold a 66-36 advantage in the series, but the two teams have evenly split their previous 42 games in Peoria. 

WATCHING EIERMAN
Junior shortstop Jeremy Eierman swiped his 41st career base in last Friday's series-opening 4-2 win over Illinois State to become lone Bear on MSU's top 10 lists for both home runs and steals. Eierman, who also homered in Saturday's series finale to move into a tie with Ben Carlson for eighth on MSU's all-time homer list with 38, while his total of 41 steals matched those of Bob Blakley (1974-77), Gary Mitchell (1976-78), Greg Brewer (1985-86) and Kevin Medrano (2009-12) for the 10th spot on the Bears career list.

A unanimous preseason All-America pick, Eierman earned another national honor last week when he was named to the Brooks Wallace Award Watch List for the second straight year. The honor, for which Eierman was one of five national finalists in 2017, recognizes the top collegiate shortstop in the country. The Warsaw, Mo., native was previously selected for USA Baseball's Golden Spikes Award Midseason Watch List, which features 40 of the nation's top college players. Eierman was a unanimous preseason All-America and 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. He currently ranks among the MVC's top 10 individuals in nine different offensive categories.

ROAD TO SUCCESS
Missouri State has proven to be hard to stop on the road over the past four seasons, logging a 59-35 (.628) record in such contests. Including their 20-6 record in neutral-field games over the same stretch, the Bears have gone 79-41 (.658) away from Hammons Field since the start of the 2015 season.

IN RARE COMPANY
With Missouri State's 6-3 win over Illinois State last Saturday, Bears head coach Keith Guttin moved past former Southern Illinois coach Itchy Jones into sole possession of the No. 21 spot on the NCAA's Division I career coaching wins list. With a career record of 1,244-771 (.617), Guttin needs 11 more wins to catch Jack Stallings (Wake Forest, Florida State and Georgia Southern) and move into the top 20. Guttin is the second-winningest coach in MVC history, while his win total ranks sixth among all active Division I head coaches.

BROWN BUILDING MOMENTUM
Bears third baseman Matt Brown has locked his game into high gear over the last three weeks, turning in a hot streak at the plate that saw the senior post a career-best 10-game hit streak from April 6-21. Brown hit .353 (12-for-34) with three home runs and 12 RBIs over the course of the streak. Since March 14, Brown has logged a team-best .469 on-base percentage to help the Bears win 16 of their 23 contests.

COLEMAN CLIMBING
Junior right-hander Dylan Coleman picked up his leagu-leading sixth mound victory of the season last Friday with a 4-2 decision over Illinois State, marking the 20th win of his Missouir State career. That total moved him into a tie with five former Bears — most recently Sam Perez (2013-16) — for the No. 10 spot on MSU's career chart. 

Coleman also moved into sole possession of fourth place on the Bears' all-time strikeouts list with 11 punchouts vs. ISU. Coleman, who fanned an MVC-high 106 batters in 2016, needs eight more K's to catch Matt Hall in the third position on the chart.

HEATING UP
After starting the season with only five hits in his first 30 at-bats, junior outfielder Hunter Steinmetz has keyed a recent surge that has seen the Bears go 21-9 since March 3. Over the same span, Steinmetz has hit .322 (38-for-118) with 23 RBIs and 32 runs scored. The Springfield native recorded a hit in nine straight games, March 20-31, hitting .389 with 11 RBIs. After seeing his streak end, Steinmetz responded by logging hits in six consecutive outings, batting .417 (10-for-24) with 10 runs scored.

Likewise, Drew Millas has been on a tear over the last two weeks, logging six multi-hit performances — including two four-hit games. Since April 7, Steinmetz and Millas have combined to go 32-for-77 (.416) in 10 games, good for nearly one-third of the Bears' 97 total hits over the same stretch. Millas leads the club with 14 multi-RBI games and paces the MVC with 13 runs batted-in during league play, while his season total of 44 RBIs ranks second in the circuit. 

BEARS ON RADIO
Once again in 2018, Meyer Communications is slated to provide live radio coverage of all 52 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.