Bears Begin MVC Play at Indiana State

Friday, March 22

Terre Haute, Ind.

2 p.m.

Missouri State University

Indiana State

Bears Begin MVC Play at Indiana State

March 21, 2024 | Baseball

ESPN+ (Fri.)ESPN+ (Sat.)ESPN+ (Sun.)Listen Live Stats Game Notes

By: MSU Athletics Communications

Missouri State at Indiana State
Location	Terre Haute, Ind.
Site	Bob Warn Field
Game 1	Friday, March 22, 2 p.m. CT ESPN+ \| Live Stats \| Listen
Game 2	Saturday, March 23, 1 p.m. CT ESPN+ \| Live Stats \| Listen
Game 3	Sunday, March 24, 12 p.m. CT ESPN+ \| Live Stats \| Listen
Missouri State	Game Notes Baseball Home Page
Indiana State	Baseball Home Page

Starting 9
1) The Missouri State Bears (9-10) begin Missouri Valley Conference play this weekend at Indiana State (15-4) in a series between the top two teams in the league's preseason poll. ISU won both the regular season and tournament titles last season.

2) The Bears have homered in 15 of 19 games this season and 77 of the last 93, including streaks of 29 and 21 games, and rank 21st nationally with 226 long balls since the beginning of the 2022 season. The Bears rank 2nd in the MVC with 27 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 41st nationally in slugging percentage (.800), and second in The Valley in home runs (8). In his last 14 games, Stewart is batting .365 (19-for-52) and slugging .885.

4) Missouri State ranks third in the MVC with a .257 opponent average with two starters in the top 10 - Tyler Charlton (3rd - .229) and Brandt Thompson (10th - .256). The Bears have a 0.95 ERA and .206 BAA in the first inning, and 0.90 ERA and .121 BAA in the ninth this year. The MSU bullpen has a .243 opponent average.

5) The Bears begin Missouri Valley Conference play this weekend at Indiana State. In 32 MVC seasons, Missouri State is 460-323 in with six regular season titles. Since 2015, the Bears have won the same number of regular season titles (3-3) and more tournament championships (3-2) than the rest of the league's current membership combined. The Bears are 24-8 all-time in conference openers.

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 (1,394). 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
MoState is 78-53 all-time against Indiana State, including a 32-21 record in Terre Haute. The Sycamores have won eight of the last 11 in the series dating to 2019, however, MoState has won the last two series in Terre Haute in 2018 and 2022.