Prime 9
- The Missouri State Bears continue their 11-game road swing with a pair of midweek non-conference match-ups against the Oklahoma State Cowboys Tuesday in Stillwater, and the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles Wednesday in Tulsa
- Missouri State head coach Keith Guttin ranks fifth among all active NCAA Division I coaches in total wins (1,262)
- The Bears trail both OSU and ORU in their series histories, with the Cowboys winning 15 of 22 overall meetings and the Golden Eagles holding a 31-23 edge against MSU
- MSU's current five-game skid represents its longest since a nine-game losing streak in March 2014; the Bears sustained multiple losses in succession just one time in 2018 (a four-game skid, April 10-17), going 13-3 in following a loss
- MSU has gone 92-53 in road and neutral site contests since 2015, including a 67-41 mark in true road games
- The Bears' roster features three different returners who have earned All-America recognition during their respective MSU careers, led by 2019 preseason Collegiate Baseball All-America picks Drew Millas and Connor Sechler
- MSU has 80 combined come-from-behind wins over the last four seasons and went 13-2 in one-run games in 2018
- With three homers in Sunday's doubleheader at ASU, MSU doubled its season total from three to six long balls
- Six MSU newcomers have accounted for 21 of the Bears' 43 RBIs and 25 of the club's 53 runs scored this season
Leading Off
The
Missouri State Bears will embark on a tour of Oklahoma this week, meeting the
Oklahoma State Cowboys Tuesday (March 12) at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium in Stillwater, before traveling to Tulsa for a Wednesday (March 13) meeting with the
Oral Roberts Golden Eagles at J.L. Johnson Stadium. Tuesday's game is slated for a 3:35 p.m. start and will be broadcast live on Fox Sports Oklahoma, while Wednesday's contest will begin at 3 p.m.
The Bears (3-10) enter the week on a five-game losing streak after dropping all three of their weekend contests at Arkansas State. OSU (9-5) logged two wins in its three-game swing through Southern California over the weekend, knocking off USC and Michigan and dropping a game to UCLA. ORU (6-6) was swept in a three-game home set with DBU last weekend.
After completing their midweek action, the Bears will take on their third opponent of the week from the state of Oklahoma with a three-game trip to Norman to meet the Oklahoma Sooners. That series will kick off at 6:30 p.m., Friday at L. Dale Mitchell Park.
Series Histories
Tuesday's contest will continue an annual pairing with Oklahoma State that has seen the two program's square off at least once every season since 2008. Overall, the Cowboys hold a 15-7 edge in the series, thanks to a recent seven-game win streak vs. MSU, prior to the Bears' 6-5 victory in the opening round of the 2017 NCAA Division I Championship at the Fayetteville Regional. OSU has also won five in a row vs. MSU in Stillwater.
ORU will bring a decisive 31-23 edge in its series with the Bears into play Wednesday, including a 21-10 advantage on its home turf. The Golden Eagles have won five of the last nine meetings since 2013, but the Bears have taken three of the last four from ORU in Tulsa, however, splitting a pair of midweek contests in both 2012 and 2014, before claiming a 9-5 victory at J.L. Johnson Stadium in 2017.
Model of Consistency
Missouri State suffered its first three-game, non-conference series sweep since 2014 this past weekend at Arkansas State. The Bears, who have gone 88-48 (.647) against non-conference foes since 2015, have been remarkably consistent in non-league action, winning 13 of their last 18 three-game, non-conference series since dropping all three of their games to DBU in March 2014. That series, which was previously scheduled as a non-conference set prior to the Patriots joining the MVC for the 2014 season, represented MSU's only three-game sweep against a non-league opponent since March 2011, when they were swept at Southern Miss.
Rookie Class
Missouri State's talented freshman class has wasted little time in making an impression on Bears opponents this season. In MSU's two-game sweep of UCA (Feb. 26-27) in particular, Bears freshmen combined to hit .412 with two homers, 11 RBIs and seven runs scored. On the mound, four rookie hurlers logged a 2.84 ERA with 16 strikeouts over 12.2 combined innings in the series. Overall this season, 12 of the Bears' 13 newcomers have seen game action, including four position players who have established themselves as regulars in MSU's starting lineup, and three more rookies who have drawn starting mound assignments in the first 13 games of the season.
Logan Thomazin registered one of the more memorable debut starts by a Bear, holding UCA hitless for 5 2/3 innings and striking out 11 hitters over 7.0 total innings of one-hit ball on Feb. 27. Fellow freshman
Javier Ramos turned in a landmark debut at the plate as well, becoming the first Bear to belt a grand slam in his first collegiate at-bat as part of MSU's seven-run eighth inning (Feb. 27). Ramos's effort followed another freshman,
Anthony Herron, Jr., who homered in the game one win and drove in four runs in the series. Additionally, freshman shortstop
Mason Hull produced his second multi-RBI effort of the season Feb. 27 and leads the club with six RBIs for the year.
MSU's talented class of newcomers has been instrumental in the Bears' run production so far this spring, with six rookies combining to account for 21 of the clubs' 43 total RBIs. Additionally, Hull and Herron are the only two MSU players to log multiple multi-RBI performances and the same rookie group has scored 25 of the Bears' 53 runs on the year.
Powering Up
After hitting just three home runs as a team through their first 10 games of the season, the Bears broke out the power bats over their last two games at Arkansas State last weekend. MSU doubled its season total with three long balls, getting solo shots from
Logan Geha and
Collin Clayton and a two-run bomb from
Dakota Kotowski. The home runs by Clayton and Kotowski marked their first as Bears. Of MSU's six homers so far, four of them (including
Anthony Herron, Jr., and
Javier Ramos) have come from newcomers hitting their first round-trippers in Maroon and White.
Road to Success
MSU has proven to be hard to stop on the road over the past four seasons, logging a 67-41 record in such contests. Including their 25-12 record in neutral-field games over the same stretch, the Bears have gone 92-53 away from Hammons Field since the start of the 2015 season. The Bears went 14-8 in true road games a year ago, after logging 19 road wins in 2017 and a program-record 21 wins in 27 road contests in 2015. MSU's 0.857 win percentage on the road that year represented its best since 1978, when it posted an identical percentage with a 12-2 road mark. Coupled with their 9-3 record in neutral field contests in 2015, the Bears' total of 30 wins away from home was second only to national champion Virginia in the Division I ranks and qualified as the best in school history. The Bears also posted the longest road win streak in Division I baseball in 2015, claiming 11-straight victories from March 15 to April 25.
Non-Con Domination
MSU has been nearly unstoppable against non-conference competition over the last four seasons, compiling an 88-48 record in regular-season games versus non-league foes since the start of the 2015 season. The Bears, who have won 40 of their last 57 regular-season non-conference home games, outscoring their non-league opponents by a 813-511 margin at Hammons Field over the same stretch.
Bears on Radio
Once again in 2019, Meyer Communications is slated to provide live radio coverage of all 54 Missouri State regular-season games, plus all Bears' games in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament and any 2019 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.
