96.9 The Jock ESPN Radio Springfield Missouri
| Missouri State at Oklahoma State | |
| Location | Stillwater, Okla. |
| Site | O’Brate Stadium |
| Game Info | Tuesday, March 19, 6 p.m. ESPN+ | Live Stats | Listen |
| Missouri State | Game Notes Baseball Home Page |
| Oklahoma State | Baseball Home Page |
Starting 9
1) The Missouri State Bears (9-9) are set for a fourth consecutive game against a Big 12 opponent during their 11-game road trip when they travel to Oklahoma State (12-8) for a 6 p.m. Tuesday game in Stillwater. It’s the longest in-season road trip for the Bears since starting 2020 with 12 consecutive games away from Springfield.
2) The Bears have homered in 76 of the last 92 games, including streaks of 29 and 21 games, and rank 22nd nationally with 224 long balls since the beginning of the 2022 season. The Bears rank 2nd in the MVC with 25 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 21st nationally in slugging percentage (.882), ranks second in The Valley in home runs (8) and fifth in average (.377). In his last 13 games, Stewart is batting .396 (19-for-48) and slugging .958
4) Missouri State ranks second in the MVC with a .249 opponent average with two starters in the top 10 – Tyler Charlton (3rd – .229) and Brandt Thompson (10th – .256). The Bears a 1.00 ERA and .215 BAA in the first inning, and 0.90 ERA and .121 BAA in the ninth this year. The MSU bullpen has a .236 opponent average in nearly 90 innings.
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 (1,393). 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 9-21 all-time against Oklahoma State with a 4-14 record in Stillwater. Missouri State is 2-3 all-time at O’Brate Stadium, beating the Cowboys in March 2021 and Grand Canyon in the 2022 Stillwater Regional, and losing the OSU during the 2022 regular season and twice in that season’s regional.
