Starting 9
1) Missouri State begins the 2024 season this weekend with a trip to Louisiana Monroe to face the Warhawks in a three-game series. MoState's 61st varsity season begins at 4 p.m. Friday, Feb. 16, with the remainder of the series at 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday. The Bears continue their season-opening eight-game road trip Tuesday with a 3 p.m. game at Oral Roberts.
2) MSU is looking for its ninth opening day win in its last 12 tries Friday; the Bears are 26-15 in openers under head coach
Keith Guttin and 38-22 overall in season lid-lifters. The Bears have gone a combined 21-9 and averaged 7.3 runs per outing on opening weekend since 2014.
3) The Bears have homered in 62 of the last 74 games, including streaks of 29 and 21 games, and rank 19th nationally with 199 long balls since the beginning of the 2022 season.
4) Missouri State went 33-23 last season and finished second in the Missouri Valley Conference with an 18-9 league mark. The Bears' 18 MVC victories tied their recent high-water mark for league wins. MoState also won 18 Valley games in 2018 (18-3), 2017 (18-1), 2015 (18-3) and 2008 (18-6), and has not exceeded that total since going 19-12 in 2004.
5) Missouri State is picked to finish second in the Missouri Valley Conference this season by the league's coaches, with
Garrett Ferguson,
Taeg Gollert,
Zack Stewart and
Brandt Thompson earning preseason all-Valley honors. Indiana State is picked to repeat as league champs, with Evansville, the Bears and Murray State rounding out the top four.
   D1Baseball tabbed Stewart as its preseason MVC Player of the Year, Thompson as the Pitcher of the Year and
Caden Bogenpohl as the Freshman of the Year.
6) The Bears have 36 road games on the schedule in 2024, which would be a school record. Missouri State's highest total of true road games came in 2003 with 33, which included six in postseason play on the way to the College World Series.
7) The Missouri State pitching staff led the MVC in strikeouts per nine innings last year at 9.28, the program's best rate since 1970, while the team's 517 total Ks ranked sixth in school history for a single season. Thompson (3.46 ERA, 84 K in 83.1 IP) and Ferguson (1.88 ERA, 6 saves, .158 opponent average) anchor the returning arms, while
Eric Loomis (45 K, 9 BB in 34.2 IP in 2022) returns to the bullpen after missing last year with an injury.
8) Three Division I All-Americans dot the 2024 Missouri State roster. Stewart and Ferguson each made multiple Freshman All-America teams in 2023, while junior captain
Nick Rodriguez was a Collegiate Baseball Freshman All-American following his rookie season at Charleston Southern in 2022.
9) Head coach
Keith Guttin announced in November his plans to retire after the 2024 season, his 42nd in charge of the Bears. He ranks second among active coaches and 12th overall with 1,373 career wins. Among active skippers, Guttin trails only Danny Hall of Georgia Tech (1,378). Guttin also played for the Bears in 1976 and 1977 and served as an assistant coach from 1979-81, making this his 47th season with the program.
Lifting the Lid
Missouri State is 26-15 in season openers under head coach
Keith Guttin and 38-22 overall as a program in such contests. MSU is 13-14 all-time in road season openers and is looking for its ninth opening day victory in the last 12 seasons on Friday. The Bears have gone a combined 21-9 and averaged 7.3 runs per outing on opening weekend since 2014. Additionally, this weekend's action will mark the 24th consecutive year the Bears have opened on the road.
Series Histories
Missouri State is 3-2 against ULM with the last meetings coming in a three-game series won by the Bears in Springfield in May 2005. The Warhawks won the only matchup in Monroe, 14-8, on Feb. 29, 2004, and the Bears took the initial game in the series in Shreveport in 1972.
   The Bears are 29-35 all-time against ORU with a 14-21 record in Tulsa. After last season's 8-5 victory in T-Town, Missouri State has been victorious in six of its last seven games at J.L. Johnson Stadium.
2023 in Review
Missouri State went 33-23 last season and finished second in the Missouri Valley Conference with an 18-9 league mark. The Bears' 18 conference wins matched the program's 18-win total of 2018, 2017, 2015 and 2008 as the most since 2004.
   Missouri State blasted 89 home runs to lead the MVC for a second consecutive year with four players in double digits, headlined by Joe Carter MVC Player of the Year
Spencer Nivens, who was drafted by Kansas City in the fifth round. MVC Freshman of the Year
Zack Stewart had 12 homers and 61 RBI, the second-most runs driven in by a freshman in school history behind Ryan Howard's 1999 total of 66, while classmate
Taeg Gollert racked up 30 extra-base hits and ranked fifth nationally among freshmen with 19 doubles.  Â
   On the mound,
Brandt Thompson and
Garrett Ferguson earned first-team all-MVC honors, and Ferguson joined Stewart as Freshman All-Americans. Thompson tied a school record with 17 starts and posted a 3.46 ERA, while Ferguson held batters to a .158 average over 28.2 innings while posting six saves.
Jake Eddington (7th) and
Hayden Minton (9th) rounded out the weekend rotation alongside Thompson and were both drafted in the top 10 rounds after helping the Bears lead the MVC with 9.28 strikeouts per nine innings, the program's best rate since 1970.
