Missouri State Bears (11-21, 4-2 MVC) at Illinois State Redbirds (18-14, 2-1 MVC)
Site	Duffy Bass Field (1,500)  |  Normal, Ill.
Game 1	Friday, April 12 |  5:00 p.m.
Game 2 & 3	Saturday, April 13  |  1:00 p.m. (DH)
Watch (Friday):	ESPN+
Radio:	KBFL 1060 AM/96.9 FM
Follow:	Live Stats  |  @MSUBearBaseball
Game Notes:	Missouri State  |  Illinois State  |  MVC Notebook
Series History:	MSU leads 62-42 (MSU 26-22 vs. ISU in Normal)

Prime 9

• The Missouri State Bears return to Missouri Valley Conference play with a three-game set against the Illinois State Redbirds this weekend at Duffy Bass Field in Normal, Ill.   
• The Bears own a 62-42 overall series advantage against Illinois State, including a 26-22 edge in Normal
• Missouri State's bullpen has closed out 161 consecutive victories — including nine this season — when the Bears have taken a lead into the ninth inning, dating back to May 2014
• Bears third baseman Joey Polak was named MVC Player of the Week, as well as one of Collegiate Baseball's National Players of the Week Monday after hitting .455 and homering four times in five games last week
• Polak became the ninth Bear in program history to homer three times in game last Friday at SIU, combining with freshman Dakota Kotowski on five long balls in the 10-5 win, giving MSU its first five-homer game since 2010
• Despite ranking last in The Valley in overall hitting (.232), the Bears lead the conference in hits (55) during league play; Polak leads the circuit in RBIs (8) and shares the top spot on the home run leaderboard with Kotowski (3), who also paces the MVC in total bases (18) and slugging (.947) in conference action
• Missouri State head coach Keith Guttin needs one victory to match the career win total of former Miami coach Ron Fraser (1,270) and move into the No. 19 position on the NCAA's Division I all-time coaching wins list
• Junior outfielder Jack Duffy has hit .433 (13-for-30) over his current nine-game hit streak since March 29; Duffy is one of four Bears currently riding career-best hit streaks, with both Mason Hull and Polak bringing six-game streaks into Friday's game and Anthony Herron, Jr., bringing a four-game string into the weekend    
• Kotowski, who shares the MVC's home run lead (7), and fellow freshmen Hull and Herron combined to hit eight of MSU's 13 home runs last week; fresh    men have accounted for 13 of the Bears' 28 home runs this season     

Leading Off
The Missouri State Bears return to Missouri Valley Conference play this weekend with a three-game series against the Illinois State Redbirds. The Bears and Redbirds will square off in a 5 p.m. (CDT) game Friday to open the series, before playing a doubleheader (1 p.m.) at Duffy Bass Field in Normal, Ill.

The Bears (11-21, 4-2 MVC) dropped their Tuesday night non-conference game at Kansas, but are coming off back-to-back Valley series wins over Indiana State and Southern Illinois to begin the league slate.

Illinois State (18-14, 2-1 MVC) enters the weekend with wins in five of its last six contests, including a midweek victory over  in-state rival Illinois, as well as two of three against Valparaiso in their initial MVC series of the season last weekend.

Series History
Missouri State brings a 62-42 all-time advantage over Illinois State into Friday's series opener. The Bears hold a a 26-22 edge over the Redbirds in Normal, including a split of their two games at Duffy Bass Field two years ago. The Redbirds stopped the Bears' 22-game Valley win streak in the regular-season finale in Normal to earn a split of the weather-shortened series. Last year, MSU swept the two clubs' three-game set at Hammons Field.

Bash Brothers
After hitting just three home runs as a team through their first 10 games of the season, the Bears have experienced a power surge of sorts over their last 22 contests, clubbing 25 home runs. Of MSU's 28 homers so far, 19 of them have come from newcomers to the Bears roster this season, including an MVC-leading seven by freshman Dakota Kotowski. Additionally, 10 different Bears have gone deep, six of which have homered multiple times so far in 2019.

In their five games last week alone, the Bears homered 13 times, including a season-high five round-trippers in last Friday's 10-5 comeback win at Southern Illinois. That performance marked the first five-homer game by MSU since a six-homer game vs. Oral Roberts on April 4, 2010. Kotowski registered his second multi-homer game of the week with two long balls, and Joey Polak became the ninth Bear in program history to hit three home runs in a game. Another MSU rookie, freshman shortstop Mason Hull added three homers to the tally as well, including a pair of go-ahead bombs Wednesday at Murray State and another one Saturday in the Bears' 13-4 victory at SIU.

So Fresh and So Clean
After hitting just three home runs as a team through their first 10 games of the season, the Bears have experienced a power surge of sorts over their last 22 contests, clubbing 25 home runs. Of MSU's 28 homers so far, 19 of them have come from newcomers to the Bears roster this season, including an MVC-leading seven by freshman Dakota Kotowski. Additionally, 10 different Bears have gone deep, six of which have homered multiple times so far in 2019.

In their five games last week alone, the Bears homered 13 times, including a season-high five round-trippers in last Friday's 10-5 comeback win at Southern Illinois. That performance marked the first five-homer game by MSU since a six-homer game vs. Oral Roberts on April 4, 2010. Kotowski registered his second multi-homer game of the week with two long balls, and Joey Polak became the ninth Bear in program history to hit three home runs in a game. Another MSU rookie, freshman shortstop Mason Hull added three homers to the tally as well, including a pair of go-ahead bombs Wednesday at Murray State and another one Saturday in the Bears' 13-4 victory at SIU.

Cardiac Cubs
MSU has made the comeback rally an art form in accumulating the most overall victories over a four-year period (170) in program history from 2015-18. Since the start of the 2015 season, the Bears have rallied for a victory on 86 separate occasions, including 21 times last spring, which represented 52.5 percent of their overall season win total (40). All four of MSU's wins last week were come-from-behind victories, as have six of its last seven wins overall. Additionally, the Bears' 11-8 comeback win over Oklahoma on March 15 represented one of the largest in program history. MSU erased an 8-0, seventh-inning deficit by scoring seven times in the seventh, three more in the eighth and one in the ninth.

Polak Picks Up National Honor
Sophomore third baseman Joey Polak was not only selected MVC Player of the Week by the league office Monday, but also nabbed one of Collegiate Baseball's national player of the week nods after a red-hot five-game stretch that included four home runs last week. The honor was the first Valley award for Polak as a Bear, as well as the first national player of the week citation for a Missouri State player since Jake Burger picked up the same honor on April 24, 2017. Polak went 10-for-22 at the plate and slugged 1.045 to help MSU win four of its five games last week, including a second-straight MVC series win at Southern Illinois over the weekend. The Quincy, Ill., product registered multi-hit performances in four-straight games — all MSU victories — and became the ninth player in program history to homer three times in a game Friday in the Bears' 10-5 come-from-behind win in Carbondale.

Righting the Ship
While the Bears' 5-18 start represented their worst-ever start through 23 games, they have shown unmistakable signs of turning the tide with a pair of MVC series wins and victories in six of their last nine contests since March 29. In their five games last week, the Bears hit .330 while out-homering the opposition by a 13-2 margin. The mound corps logged a strong week as well, posting a 4.30 team ERA and holding the opposition to a .226 batting mark.

Those results should come as no surprise, as Missouri State owns a lengthy track record of flipping early results under head coach Keith Guttin. On four separate occasions, MSU has overcome sluggish starts to post winning overall records. The Bears have registered two seasons (1996 and 1997) in which they ultimately earned postseason bids after getting off to rocky starts, and another (2009) that culminated in a Missouri Valley Conference regular-season title. In 1996 and 1997, the Bears captured their first two MVC Tournament titles, but not before getting off to a 9-13 start in 1996 and a 1-8 start the following year. MSU's previous all-time worst start in 1993 saw the Bears open with just six wins in their first 21 contests, only to end up with a 32-23 season mark after winning 25 of their final 29 regular-season games. Finally, the 2009 Bears got off to a 4-10 start, only to rebound to finish 34-20, including a 17-5 mark during their Valley title run.

Watch the Leather, Man
In addition to serving as a key cog in the Bears' lineup over the past two years, junior first baseman Ben Whetstone has proven to be one of the top defensive performers in The Valley as well. The Overland Park, Kan., native leads the MVC in double plays turned (23) this season. He also moved into the top spot on the Bears' career fielding percentage chart once again after a strong Valley opening weekend vs. Indiana State. Whetstone's 0.993 fielding mark as a Bear narrowly leads Steve Seal's career percentage as the program's all-time best among all MSU defenders with at least 150 career fielding chances.

At the plate, Whetstone has enjoyed a recent resurgence as well, hitting .317 (13-for-41) in his last 11 games. He recorded back-to-back two-hit games vs. Kansas (March 27) and Indiana State (March 29), then powered up in last Wednesday's victory at Murray State to hit his first round-tripper of the season. In that victory, Whetstone reached base safely in each of his final five trips to the plate, tying a Bears program single-game record by being hit by three separate pitches.

Road to Success
MSU has proven to be hard to stop on the road over the past four seasons, logging a 73-49 (.598) record in such contests. Including their 25-12 record in neutral-field games over the same stretch, the Bears have gone 98-61 (.616) 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.

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. 

Bears on ESPN
Missouri State University, in conjunction with SIDEARM Sports, launched a new partnership in August 2016, unveiling a reconstructed MissouriStateBears.com, the official MSU Athletics web site. The revamped MissouriStateBears.com will provide MSU fans with improved features and overall customer service. The new-and-improved site uses the latest technology to provide fans with a seamless, robust experience unique to Missouri State University.
    
In 2015, ESPN and the Missouri Valley Conference announced a 10-year extension to their current media rights agreement that will provide increased coverage of conference events across ESPN platforms through the 2023-24 academic year. Fans can keep tabs on the Bears through The Valley on ESPN. As part of the deal, ESPN, the MVC and its 10 member institutions will work jointly to develop in-house production capabilities at each campus that will provide significant coverage for multiple sports on ESPN+/ESPN3.