Starting 9
1) Missouri State (5-6) hits the road to renew a long-time rivalry with former Missouri Valley Conference foe Wichita State (3-9) this weekend. Game times are 3 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday and 11:30 a.m. Sunday.
2) The Bears are 46-67 all-time against Wichita State with a 16-42 record in Wichita. MoState has won 11 of the last 14 meetings, and the teams haven't played since WSU won 9-4 in Springfiend on May 7, 2019, though the Bears did visit Eck Stadium in 2022 before the game was canceled after two batters due to thunderstorms.
3) The Bears have homered in 117 of the last 142 games, and rank 12th nationally with 328 long balls since the beginning of the 2022 season, when Hawkins took over as hitting coach. MoState's 114 homers last season ranked second in school and fourth in MVC history.
4) Zack Stewart (34),
Caden Bogenpohl (23),
Taeg Gollert (22) and
Nick Rodriguez (21) all have at least 20 homers in their MSU careers, and the current roster has combined for 128 round-trippers in their time at MoState.
5) Through three weeks, Missouri State's pitching staff leads the MVC and ranks 28th nationally with 10.9 strikeouts per nine innings. The Bears' 2.38 K/BB ratio also leads the Valley and ranks 68th nationally, and the Bears have struck out at least seven hitters in every game this season.
   Two-thirds of the Bears' weekend rotation (
Michael Yusypchuk and
Jackson Holmes) have earned MVC Pitcher of the Week honors, while all three rank among the top eight in strikeouts - Yusypchuk 1st, Charlton 3rd, Holmes 8th.
6) Four former Freshman All-Americans are on the MSU roster.
Nick Rodriguez received the honor in 2022 at Charleston Southern,
Garrett Ferguson and
Zack Stewart each landed on multiple such teams for MSU in 2023, and
Caden Bogenpohl did the same last year for the Bears.
7) D1Baseball tabbed the Bears as the favorite to win the MVC this season, with sophomore
Caden Bogenpohl as its preseason player of the year and
Michael Yusypchuk as its freshman of the year. The MVC will release its preseason poll and all-conference teams on March 17 entering the first weekend of league play.
8) For the first time since 1983, the Bears have a new coach.
Joey Hawkins, who played for the Bears from 2012-15 and served as assistant coach from 2022-24, is just the third head coach in program history. Bill Rowe managed the Bears from 1964-82 before becoming the school's athletic director. Keith Guttin, who played for MSU under Rowe, succeeded him in 1983 before retiring after the 2024 campaign. In their respective first seasons, Rowe went 6-12 overall in 1964, while Guttin's 1983 club went 32-11 and led the nation with a .367 batting average.
9) The 2025 season will be Missouri State's 35th and final year in the MVC. The university accepted an invitation to Conference USA on May 10, 2024, and will officially join that league on July 1, 2025. The baseball Bears own the most league wins (471) and highest MVC winning percentage (.581) of any current league school with six regular season championships and five tournament titles in 34 seasons.
