Biography
Honors
• Collegiate Baseball Preseason All-America (2019)
• Preseason All-MVC (2019)
• Collegiate Baseball Freshman All-America (2018)
• NCBWA Freshman All-America (2018)
• First-Team All-MVC (2018)
• MVC Championship All-Tournament Team (2018)
• MVC Pitcher of the Week (April 2, 2018)
2018: Sechler established himself as the Bears’ primary stopper out of the bullpen as a freshman, logging a 7-1 mound mark to go along with eight saves and a 2.98 earned run average ... Became just the fifth Bears hurler to appear in 30 or more games in a season, finishing with a Missouri State freshman record 32 appearances to rank third on the club’s single-season list ... Eight saves ranked third overall in the Missouri Valley Conference and tied for seventh all-time in a season at MSU ... Led the Valley in both relief appearances (32) and games finished (23) ... Limited the opposition to a combined .208 batting average and led all Valley pitchers with six saves during league play, while posting a 2.11 ERA in his 14 MVC outings to earn first-team All-MVC honors ... Rated 10th in the circuit in total strikeouts, while his 23 batters struck out looking ranked second among all MVC pitchers, trailing only fellow Bear Dylan Coleman (32) ... Named to a pair of freshman All-America teams at the conclusion of the season, picking up national recognition from Collegiate Baseball and the NCBWA ... Made 17 scoreless appearances ... Worked 4.1 innings vs. Texas Southern (Feb. 16), striking out four hitters to earn the mound victory in his MSU debut ... Tossed 3.0 scoreless frames and fanned six to help preserve a 5-4 win over No. 30 Arkansas State (March 11) ... Logged six straight scoreless outings, March 11-30, striking out 15 while allowing just six hits over a total of 9.1 innings ... Earned his second win with a scoreless inning against Oral Roberts (March 13), then picked up his third against Murray State (March 21) after fanning four of the five Racers he faced ... Logged his first save after locking up a 3-2 decision over Cal State Northridge (March 23) with a scoreless ninth inning; notched his second March 30 at Indiana State, saving the first game of a doubleheader before winning the nightcap by holding the Sycamores to one hit over 3.1 innings ... Worked four additional shutout appearances in a row against Evansville, Oregon State and Illinois State (March 8-21); struck out two of the three OSU hitters he faced, then recorded saves in back-to-back outings vs. ISU, including a five-strikeout effort over 2.1 innings in the series opener ... Made appearances in seven straight games for MSU, May 2-17; earned a save and a victory in the Bears’ three-game road sweep of Valparaiso (May 4-6), pitching 2.0 innings of one-hit relief in the opener, then closing out the series with another strong inning-and-a-third effort in a 6-2 victory ... Saved two of MSU’s three wins against Southern Illinois (May 11-13), allowing just one run in his three appearances ... Closed out both Bears victories at DBU (May 17-19) to help lock up the program’s sixth regular-season MVC championship ... Secured MSU’s second-round 4-2 victory over Indiana State (May 24) at the MVC Championship for his eighth save ... Picked up the win in the Bears’ 7-6 title-game victory over DBU (May 27), working a career-long 5.0 innings and striking out a personal-best seven hitters to earn a spot on the Valley’s all-tourney team ...Pitched in two of MSU’s three NCAA Oxford Regional contests; claimed his seventh mound victory with an inning-and-a-third effort in the Bears’ walkoff 9-8 win over Saint Louis (June 3), then stymied Tennessee Tech with 1.2 hittless innings later that evening in a 2-1 setback ... Ranks second only to Tyler Burgess (11) on MSU’s freshman saves chart ... Tied Brad Ziegler for ninth place on MSU’s freshman strikeout list, while his seven victories matched Brett Sinkbeil, Bob Zimmermann and Jason Myers for third on that Bears’ rookie chart.
Background: Brought a lengthy resume as a three-sport standout for Bolivar (Mo.) High School to the Bears program ... Led the Liberators to conference and district titles on the diamond, gridiron and hardwood during his four-year prep career ... Set Bolivar school records for strikeouts (100) and innings pitched (65), while going 7-3 with a 1.78 earned run average as a sophomore ... The two-time all-district and All-COC Small honoree pitched a pair of no-hitters in 2015, before logging a 6-2 mound mark and a 1.50 ERA as a junior en route to garnering the first of two stright second-team Class 4 All-State citations from the MHSBCA ... Ranked No. 12 among all Missouri prep seniors by PBR, he also led Bolivar to its 14th consecutive conference title in football in 2016, while setting a program single-season record for touchdown passes, then played a key role on the Liberators' 2017 Class 4 state runner-up basketball team.
Personal: Connor Ray Sechler is the son of Stan and Lori Sechler ... Born April 7, 1999, in Springfield, Mo. ... Plans to major in business.
