Baseball Visits ORU on Tuesday

Missouri State at Oral Roberts
Location	Tulsa, Okla.
Site	J.L. Johnson Stadium
Game Info	Tuesday, April 9, 6 p.m. Watch \| Live Stats \| Listen
Missouri State	Game Notes Baseball Home Page
Oral Roberts	Baseball Home Page

Starting 9
1) The Missouri State Bears (13-17, 3-6 Missouri Valley Conference) conclude a four-game road trip Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Oral Roberts (12-19-1, 4-7-1 Summit League), the second game this season between the two schools in Tulsa. MoState won the initial contest, 10-6 on Feb. 20.

2) The Bears have homered in 23 of 30 games this season and 85 of the last 104, including streaks of 29 and 21 games, and rank 22nd nationally with 242 long balls since the beginning of the 2022 season. The Bears rank 2nd in the MVC with 43 home runs so far in 2024.

3) Sophomore outfielder Zack Stewart is a two-time MVC Player of the Week award winner this season and leads the Bears with a .339 average. Stewart ranks fourth in the MVC in home runs (10) and slugging percentage (.679).

4) Senior Brandt Thompson leads the MVC with 2.03 ERA, 5.0 strikeout-to-walk ratio and 1.00 WHIP while posting a 4-0 record so far this season. Thompson also ranks among the league's top 10 in walk rate (2nd - 1.8/9 innings) and strikeouts (9th - 40). He ranks 6th in MSU history (100 inning minimum) with a career 3.54 K/BB ratio. In MVC games, Thompson is 2-0 with a 0.95 ERA and .167 opponent average in 19 innings.

5) The Bears have a 1.50 ERA in the first inning this season, allowing only eight runs (five earned) in 30 games.

6) MoState's schedule ranks as the 73rd-most difficult nationally based on opponent winning percentage, with the Bears' opposition so far this year winning a combined 54.9 percent of its games. According to WarrenNolan.com, when game location is factored in, the Bears' strength of schedule ranks 67th.

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. MoState is currenty 10-12 on the road this year.

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 1,386 career wins. Among active skippers, Guttin trails only Danny Hall of Georgia Tech (1,397). 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 30-35 all-time against ORU with a 16-21 record in Tulsa. After its 10-6 victory in T-Town earlier this season, Missouri State has been victorious in seven of its last eight games at J.L. Johnson Stadium.
In that Feb. 20 game, Caden Bogenpohl homered twice and reached safely five times, and the Bears led 10-0 after five innings in a 10-6 victory. All six ORU runs were unearned and came in the seventh inning. Freshman Kaleb Thomas threw four shutout innings and struck out four in the winning decision.

Baseball Visits ORU on Tuesday

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Players Mentioned

Caden Bogenpohl

Nick Rodriguez

Zack Stewart

Kaleb Thomas

Brandt Thompson

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