Starting 9
1)Â Missouri State (3-4) opens its home schedule this week with four games at Hammons Field, beginning with a 3 p.m. Tuesday contest against Oral Roberts (3-4) that matches the earliest opener on the calendar in Hammons Field history. The Bears beat ORU 11-0 on Feb. 17 in Tulsa. MoState then hosts Little Rock (6-1) Feb. 27-March 1.
2)Â Missouri State is 15-7 in home openers at Hammons Field and 47-15 in program history.
3)Â The Bears have homered in 162 of the last 193 games, including all seven this season, and rank 8th nationally with 433 long balls since the beginning of the 2022 season, when head coach
Joey Hawkins took over as hitting coach. MoState's 109 homers last season ranked 4th in school history. The current roster has combined for 113 round-trippers in their time at MoState, four have a 10-plus homer season at MSU, and 9 different players already have a home run this season.
  According to TruMedia, Missouri State hitters rank 3rd nationally in hard hit % with 52.7 percent of batted balls at 95 mph or better, and rank 4th with an average exit velocity on batted balls of 91.6 mph.
4)Â Senior
Taeg Gollert and junior
Caden Bogenpohl are both on pace to set Missouri State career records this season. Gollert already ranks 2nd in program history with 62 doubles, just 5 behind Brayden Drake's record of 67. Gollert's 90 career extra-base hits currently place him 12th, which is 26 behind Jason Hart's record of 116. Bogenpohl is 7th at MoState with 115 career walks after drawing 53 and 55 (season record) his first two seasons, and is 39 behind Bill Mueller's mark of 154.
5)Â Missouri State wrapped up its 35th and final Missouri Valley Conference season in 2025 with the program's seventh regular season championship, going 30-25 overall and 17-8 in Valley games.
  The Bears ranked among the nation's best power hitting teams, finishing the 2025 campaign seventh nationally in slugging (.547) and 12th with 109 home runs, which placed 4th in the school's single season list.
6)Â Missouri State welcomes 18 newcomers into the program this season from a variety of backgrounds. Of the new players, 11 transferred from four-year schools, two were in junior college in 2025, and five are freshmen.
7)Â The Bears ranked 32nd nationally last season with 9.51 strikeouts per nine innings, the program's highest figure since 1969.
Tyler Charlton set the school record at 12.87 Ks/9, fanning 82 batters in 57.1 frames.
Max Knight fanned 58 in 47.2 innings, while
Michael Yusypchuk punched out 63 in 71 innings as the Bears' Friday night starter as a freshman.
  MoState averages 10.3 Ks/9 this season, with Knight ranking 2nd in CUSA with a 14.14 rate.
8)Â Max Knight and
Curry Sutherland headline Missouri State's two-way threats this season. Knight, an NCBWA All-American in 2025, was the only player nationally with at least 45 innings, 45 RBIs and 55 pitching Ks.
Curry Sutherland was a regular at third base last season and fired 17 innings on the mound with 21 strikeouts and a 2.65 ERA.
9)Â Missouri State is in its first season in Conference USA in 2026 after a 35-year run in the Missouri Valley Conference. The Bears went 488-347 (.584) with seven regular season championship and five tournament titles in The Valley from 1991-2025.
