Missouri State Bears (27-14, 10-2 MVC) at Valparaiso Crusaders (15-24, 5-7 MVC)
Site:	Bauer Field (7,851) | Valparaiso, Ind.
Game 1:	Friday, May 4 | 3 p.m. (CDT)
Game 2:	Saturday, May 5 | 1 p.m. (CDT)
Game 3:	Sunday, May 6 | 1 p.m. (CDT)
Follow:	Live Stats | @MSUBearBaseball
Radio:	KBFL 1060 AM/96.9 FM | RadioSpringfield.com
Game Notes:	Missouri State | Valparaiso
Series History:	MSU leads 2-0 (0-0 in Valparaiso)

PRIME 9

• Missouri State is 13-8 in true road/neutral games this season; the Bears have gone 61-36 in true road games over the last four seasons and 81-42 overall away from Hammons Field over the same span
• The Bears have won 32 of their last 35 regular-season Missouri Valley Conference games since May 2016; MSU has won or split 12 straight league series over the same stretch
• MSU has been dominant against schools from the state of Indiana over the past two years, winning a combined 12 of 13 games against teams from the Hoosier State since the 2016 MVC Championship; MSU is 126-90 all-time against Division I Indiana programs
• Jeremy 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 (.563), 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 201 free passes to rank second in the league, with John Privitera's 33 bases on balls ranking fourth, while Steinmetz's 110 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 41 contests of the 2018 campaign; MSU is also 10-1 in one-run affairs this spring 

LEADING OFF
After registering their 12th Missouri Valley Conference series win or split last weekend at Bradley, the Missouri State Bears return to the road this week with their initial MVC series with the league's newest member, the Valparaiso Crusaders. The Bears and Crusaders will open their series Friday (May 4) afternoon with a 3 p.m., contest, before squaring off again Saturday (1 p.m.) and Sunday (1 p.m.) at Bauer Field in Valparaiso, Ind.

MSU (27-14, 10-2 MVC) enters the weekend with a one-game lead over DBU in the Valley standings after taking two of three contests from Bradley in Peoria. With a league road record of 10-3 over the last two seasons, the Bears will look to extend an unprecedented stretch of success in MVC play that has included 28 victories in their last 31 overall conference games.

Valparaiso (15-24, 5-7 MVC) dropped two of three Valley games to DBU last weekend, as well as a midweek matchup with Northern Illinois. The Crusaders feature one of the top offenses (.281 BA) in the Valley, while their team 3.99 ERA in league play ranks third behind only the Bears (2.80) and Southern Illinois (3.27).

SERIES HISTORY
The Bears and Crusaders have met on just two previous occasions, both coming in the opening round of the Mid-Continent Conference Tournament — a 2-1 MSU victory at the 1985 tourney in Charleston, Ill., and a 4-2 Bears win in the 1987 league meet in Chicago. 

STEINMETZ, EIERMAN MAKE THEIR MOVES
Junior outfielder Hunter Steinmetz became the 25th Bear to join the 200-hit club last 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 Friday's series opener tied with Keenen Maddox and Chad Lakin for the No. 23 spot on the list, just one behind Travis McComack's career total of 203.

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 last 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.

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 23-11 since March 3. Over the same span, Steinmetz has hit .323 (43-for-133) with 25 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).

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 43-for-109 (.394) in 14 games, good for more than one-third of the Bears' 126 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 47 RBIs ranks third in the circuit. 

COLEMAN CLIMBING
Junior right-hander Dylan Coleman improved his position on several MSU career lists last weekend. The Potosi, Mo., product picked up his league-leading seventh mound victory of the season last Friday with a 5-4 decision over Bradley, marking the 21st win of his Missouri State career. That total moved him into a tie with four other former Bears for the No. 6 spot on MSU's career chart, just two victories shy of the career totals of Jeff Gray and Dave Dickensheet in the fourth position. while his nine strikeouts allowed him to climb to third on the Bears' all-time K's list (276). 

Coleman also moved into sole possession of third place on the Bears' all-time strikeouts list with nine punchouts vs. BU. Coleman, who fanned an MVC-high 106 batters in 2016, needs 30 more K's to catch Nick Petree in the No. 2 position on the chart.

Coleman also ranks among the Bears all-time leaders in starts (4th with 42) and innings pitched (10th with 243.1).

THE BUCK STOPS HERE
Right-hander Ty Buckner logged the first complete-game effort by a Bear freshman hurler in 11 years last 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.

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.