Baseball Bears Set for Series at Kansas State

Friday, March 15

Manhattan, Kan.

6 p.m.

Missouri State University

Kansas State

Baseball Bears Set for Series at Kansas State

March 14, 2024 | Baseball

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By: MSU Athletics Communications

Missouri State at Kansas State
Location	Manhattan, Kan.
Site	Tointon Family Stadium
Game 1	Friday, March 15, 6 p.m. ESPN+ \| Live Stats \| Listen
Game 2	Saturday, March 16, 4 p.m. ESPN+ \| Live Stats \| Listen
Game 3	Sunday, March 17, 1 p.m. ESPN+ \| Live Stats \| Listen
Missouri State	Game Notes Baseball Home Page
Kansas State	Baseball Home Page

Starting 9
1) The Missouri State Bears (9-6) continue their 11-game road trip this weekend with a three-game series at Kansas State. The Bears take on the Wildcats (10-6) at 6 p.m. Friday, 4 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday. MoState is in the midst of its longest in-season stretch away from home since beginning the 2020 season with 12 consecutive games away from Springfield.

2) The Bears have homered in 74 of the last 89 games, including streaks of 29 and 21 games, and rank 20th nationally with 222 long balls since the beginning of the 2022 season. The Bears rank 2nd in the MVC and rank 54th nationally with 23 home runs so far in 2024.

3) Sophomore outfielder Zack Stewart is a two-time MVC Player of the Week award winner this season. Stewart leads the MVC and ranks 21st nationally in slugging percentage (.885), ranks second in The Valley in home runs (7) and fifth in average (.385). In his last 10 games, Stewart is batting .410 (16-for-39) and slugging 1.026.

4) Missouri State has been scored on in the first inning only once this season and the pitching staff's .227 opponent average is on pace to rank fourth in school history behind the 1969 and 1970 NCAA Division II World Series clubs and the 2015 squad, which earned the No. 8 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Bears lead the MVC and rank 29th nationally by allowing 7.56 hits per nine innings.

5) The bullpen has a 3.54 ERA and .202 opposing average, and those numbers are even better innings six and later with a 2.73 ERA (17 ER in 56 IP) and .195 BAA (39-for-200).

6) 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.

7) 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 CWS.

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 1,382 career wins. Among active skippers, Guttin trails only Danny Hall of Georgia Tech (1,390). 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.

Series History
The Bears are 11-15 against Kansas State with a 4-8 mark in Manhattan. The teams last played in a three-game set in the Little Apple in 2015 with the Wildcats winning the first two games, 4-0 and 10-6 before the Bears won 10-7 in the finale, sparking a run of 40 wins over the season's final 46 games.