Baseball Back on Road for Series at Bradley

Starting 9
1) The Missouri State Bears (11-16, 1-5 Missouri Valley Conference) head back on the road this weekend for a three-game series at Bradley (9-16, 3-3). The Bears and Braves tangle at 4 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday in Peoria.

2) The Bears have homered in 20 of 27 games this season and 82 of the last 101, including streaks of 29 and 21 games, and rank 26th nationally with 235 long balls since the beginning of the 2022 season. The Bears rank 3rd in the MVC with 36 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 .340 average. Stewart ranks sixth in the MVC in both home runs (9) and eighth in slugging percentage (.660).

4) Senior Brandt Thompson leads the MVC with 2.45 ERA, 4.86 strikeout-to-walk ratio and 1.09 WHIP while posting a 3-0 record so far this season. Thompson also ranks among the league’s top 10 in walk rate (2nd – 1.91/9 innings) and strikeouts (8th – 34). He ranks 6th in MSU history (100 inning minimum) with a career 3.47 K/BB ratio.

5) The Bears have a 1.67 ERA in the first inning this season, allowing only eight runs (five earned) in 27 games.

6) MoState’s schedule ranks as the 34th-most difficult nationally based on opponent winning percentage, with the Bears’ opposition so far this year winning a combined 58.9 percent of its games. According to WarrenNolan.com, when game location is factored in, the Bears’ strength of schedule ranks 35th.

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 1,383 career wins. Among active skippers, Guttin trails only Danny Hall of Georgia Tech (1,394). 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 75-44 all-time against Bradley with 24-24 road mark in the series.
    Missouri State lost the series in Peoria in 2022, its first series loss at BU since 2012.
    Last season, the Bears swept the Braves in Springfield, capped by Taeg Gollert hitting two grand slams, including a walk-off winner, in Sunday’s finale.