Kansas Jayhawks (19-24) at Missouri State Bears (27-13)
Site	Hammons Field (8,000)  |  Springfield, Mo.
Date/First Pitch:	Wednesday, May 2  |  6:32 p.m.
Watch:	ESPN+
Radio:	KBFL 1060 AM/96.9 FM
Follow:	Live Stats  |  @MSUBearBaseball
Game Notes:	Missouri State  |  Kansas  |  MVC Notebook
Series History:	MSU leads 31-27 (18-11 vs. KU in Springfield)
Tickets:	MissouriStateBears.com

PRIME 9

• Missouri State will play its final non-conference game of the season Tuesday, entering play 17-11 vs. non-MVC foes this spring; has posted an 86-38 (.694) regular-season non-conference mark over the last four seasons
• The Bears have won 10 of their last 13 games against Kansas and hold a 31-27 all-time advantage in the series; MSU is 18-11 vs. the Jayhawks at home, including a 7-4 mark at Hammons Field
• MSU has averaged 10.0 runs per game over their last four meetings with the Jayhawks, with Jeremy Eierman and Hunter Steinmetz combining to hit .425 (17-for-40) with 12 RBIs for their careers vs. Kansas
• Eierman, a preseason All-American who has been named to both the Golden Spikes Award and Brooks Wallace Award watch lists, is the lone Bear to rank among the program's top 10 players in both career steals (42) and home runs (39); he needs one more round-tripper to become the Bears' first-ever 40-40 club member 
• Eierman ranks among the Valley's top 10 statistical leaders in nine major offensive categories, including slugging (.570), runs scored (37), hits (53), RBIs (37), doubles (16), triples (2), home runs (7), total bases (94) and steals (19)
• With his nine strikeouts last Friday against Bradley, Dylan Coleman moved into third place on the Bears' career strikeout list (276); the junior also notched his 21st victory as a Bear to climb to No. 6 on MSU's career list
• MSU has posted three of the top five season walk totals in program history over the last four seasons, ranking first or second in the MVC each year; this year, the Bears have drawn 195 free passes to rank second in the league, with John Privitera's 32 bases on balls ranking third, while Steinmetz's 109 career walks rank eighth in MSU history    
• Missouri State's bullpen has closed out 141 consecutive victories — including 22 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 40 contests of the 2018 campaign; MSU is also 10-1 in one-run affairs this spring 

LEADING OFF
The Missouri State Bears return to Hammons Field for their final non-conference contest of the season Wednesday (May 2) against the Kansas Jayhawks. The Bears and Jayhawks will complete their home-and-home season series with a 6:30 p.m. tilt that will be broadcast live on ESPN+.

The Bears (27-13) picked up a critcal MVC road series win against Bradley this past weekend, taking two of three games from the Braves in Peoria to maintain their hold on the top spot in the league standings. Pitching was the name of the game, as MSU limited BU to just four combined runs over the final 19 innings of the series.

Kansas (19-24) will enter the contest looking to stop an 11-game slide, including a three-game sweep to Cincinnati this past weekend.

SERIES HISTORY
Missouri State enters Wednesday's matchup having claimed 10 of the last 13 meetings in the series. The Bears hold a 31-27 overall edge in the series, including an 18-11 advantage on their home turf.

In the first meeting of the two clubs this season on March 27 in Lawrence, the Bears scored six early runs and cruised to a 12-2 victory. Jeremy Eierman reached base safely in four of his six trips to the plate and drove in three runs, while Austin Knight limited the Jayhawks to two runs on three hits over his 7.0 innings to earn the mound win.

STEINMETZ, EIERMAN MAKE THEIR MOVES
Junior outfielder Hunter Steinmetz became the 25th Bear to join the 200-hit club Sunday in MSU's victory over Bradley. The Springfield native, who went 3-for-4 in the 13-2 win, also scored a career-best four runs to help the Bears lock up a key MVC series win. Steinmetz will enter Wednesday's non-conference game with Kansas one hit behind Mark Garrett (201) in the No. 25 spot on MSU's career hits list.

Fellow Bear junior Jeremy Eierman is close on Steinmetz's heels with 197 career hits—good for 30th all-time at MSU. Eierman  is one hit behind Steve Aldridge in the No. 29 spot, and two shy of Justin Paulsen and J.J. Scerba, who share the 27th position on the list. Eierman also swiped his 42nd career base in Sunday's series finale with Bradley to move into sole possession of the No. 10 spot on that Missouri State career list, making the Warsaw, Mo., product the lone Bear on MSU's top 10 lists for both home runs and steals. Eierman, also homered in the Bears' 13-2 victory at Bradley Sunday, giving him 39 for his MSU career, which ranks eighth on the program's all-time list, just three behind Brian Mahaffey in the seventh position. Finally, Eierman cracked the Bears' top 10 for career extra-base hits with his fifth-inning homer Sunday, matching Spencer Johnson's MSU total of 91, just four shy of Mahaffey's 95 in ninth place on thE chart.

ROAD WARRIORS
The Bears locked up another road series win in conference play last weekend, taking two of three games from Bradley in Peoria. Missouri State, which is 10-3 on the road in Valley play over the last two years, has proven to be hard to stop on the road since the start of the 2015 season, logging a 61-36 (.629) record in such contests.  

Including their 20-6 record in neutral-field games over the same stretch, the Bears have gone 81-42 (.659) away from Hammons Field over the last four seasons.

CARDIAC CUBS
Missouri State has made a habit of eliminating leads over the last three seasons, and their recent hot streak has highlighted this trend. The Bears rallied for comeback wins in each of their first two wins over Illinois State (April 20-21) and have now totaled 73 come-from-behind victories since the start of the 2015 season. 

This year alone, the Bears have rallied for 14 wins after trailing the opposition. MSU has been good in close encounters as well, recording a 10-1 mark in one-run contests, including three walkoff wins at home.

THE BUCK STOPS HERE
Right-hander Ty Buckner logged the first complete-game effort by a Bear freshman hurler in 11 years Sunday with his one-hit victory over Bradley. Buckner twirled his gem in the rubber match of the Bears' MVC road series with the Braves, giving MSU its 12th consecutive regular-season Valley series win since May 2016. 

The St. Louis native took a no-hitter into the sixth inning, retiring the first nine BU hitters of the game and allowing only two baserunners through the first five frames. He struck out six and allowed just a sixth-inning triple in the first complete-game one-hitter by a Bear since Matt Hall throttled Arkansas in the second game of the 2015 NCAA Fayetteville Super Regional.

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 23-10 since March 3. Over the same span, Steinmetz has hit .315 (41-for-130) with 24 RBIs and 36 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 four weeks, logging eight multi-hit performances — including two four-hit games. Since April 7, Steinmetz and Millas have combined to go 40-for-102 (.392) in 13 games, good for nearly one-third of the Bears' 122 total hits over the same stretch. Millas leads the club with 14 multi-RBI games and shares the MVC lead with fellow Bear Jeremy Eierman with 14 runs batted-in during league play, while his season total of 45 RBIs ranks second in the circuit. 

STREAKING AGAIN
After registering a record-setting 22-game win streak in Missouri Valley Conference play over the previous two seasons, the Bears have continued their winning ways at home this spring to fashion yet another memorable string of victories. With their three-game sweep of Illinois State (April 20-21), the Bears stretched their Hammons Field win streak to 21 straight regular-season wins over Valley foes. MSU, which last suffered a home setback to an MVC opponent on May 8, 2016 vs. Southern Illinois, has hit .338 and outscored the opposition by a 184-65 margin over the course of the streak. 

With their midweek loss to Mizzou on April 10, the Bears saw their 10-game Hammons Field win streak come to an end. But the Bears' double-digit home win streak represented the sixth different streak of at least six home victories since the start of the 2015 season, as well as the Bears' third-longest home streak since moving to Hammons Field in 2004.

IN RARE COMPANY
With Missouri State's 6-3 win over Illinois State on April 21, 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 1,246-772 (.617), Guttin needs nine 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.

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.