SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – The 2015 Missouri State baseball schedule will feature a total of 56 games, including 24 home dates and match-ups against seven different 2014 NCAA Tournament teams, head coach Keith Guttin announced Friday. In all, the Bears will play 25 games against 12 different opponents that rated among the top 100 RPI-finishers a year ago, including 14 contests against NCAA Regional qualifiers.
Highlighting the Bears’ campaign will be non-conference home-and-home sets with in-state rival Missouri and Big 12 foe Kansas, as well as a three-game road series with two-time national champion Oregon State. MSU will also travel to Kansas State for a three-game series and play single road contests against Arkansas and Saint Louis.
The Bears, who finished 26-31 last spring and finished sixth in the Missouri Valley Conference race, will welcome back 19 letterwinners and seven regular position starters from last year’s club, including a pair of All-Missouri Valley Conference honorees in junior outfielder Tate Matheny and senior infielder/catcher Eric Cheray.
Missouri State, which will play its first seven contests on the road, opens the season Feb. 13 against UT Arlington in Nacogdoches, Texas, as part of a four-team tournament hosted by Stephen F. Austin. The Bears will also take on the host Lumberjacks (Feb. 14) and Washington State (Feb. 15) on opening weekend, then travel to Little Rock, Ark., to play single contests against Iowa and UALR the following Saturday (Feb. 21). MSU wraps up its early road swing with a two-day trip through Oklahoma that will include stops in Tulsa to play Oral Roberts (Feb. 24) and Stillwater to square off against an Oklahoma State (Feb. 25) squad that won the Big 12 regular-season title before advancing to NCAA Super Regional play last spring.
The Bears will open the gates at Hammons Field for the first time Feb. 27, when they begin a three-game series with Central Arkansas. MSU also hosts Oral Roberts (March 3) in the return trip of its home-and-home series with the Golden Eagles, before kicking of a stretch that will see it play nine road games in 10 days. To start the road trip, the Bears will take part in the Dayton Classic, where single games against host Dayton (March 6) and Buffalo (March 8) will sandwich a doubleheader with Wright State (March 7). Next, a two-game midweek set at Arkansas State (March 10-11) precedes a three-game series with Kansas State (March 13-15) in Manhattan.
MSU returns home on St. Patrick’s Day for another match-up with UALR, before beginning a stretch that will see it play 12 straight games against teams that qualified for postseason play last spring with a single contest against a North Dakota State (March 18) team that advanced to its first NCAA Division I Baseball Regional in 2014. The Bears open their 25th season in The Valley with a three-game home series against Indiana State (March 20-22) —the league runner-up from a year ago —then wrap up their longest homestand of the season against Kansas (March 24).
Next, the Bears head west to Corvallis, Ore., for a three-game showdown with perennial national power Oregon State (March 27-29). The Beavers went 45-14 to claim the Pac-12 championship and earn the top national seed in the NCAA Championship last spring. A midweek road date with another traditional power awaits MSU on March 31, as the Bears travel to Fayetteville for their annual meeting with Arkansas.
The month of April sees Missouri State return to MVC action with a home conference series against a familiar foe in Dallas Baptist (April 2-4). The Bears faced off against the Patriots a school-record nine times in 2014, including three meetings in the MVC Championship, which DBU won to earn the league’s automatic NCAA Regional berth. MSU will hit the road for its remaining two April Valley series, traveling to defending MVC regular-season champ Evansville (April 10-12) and Illinois State (April 24-26). The Bears will also complete the road ends of their home-and-home series with Kansas (April 15) and Missouri (April 21) and host Tennessee-Martin (April 17-19) for a three-game series, in addition to midweek home non-conference dates with SEMO (April 7) and Missouri (April 28) to round out the April portion of the schedule.
After playing 21 road games in the months of March and April, the Bears will wrap up the regular season with a pair of May home Valley series, hosting Wichita State (May 1-3) and Bradley (May 14-16) at Hammons Field. MSU will also travel to Saint Louis (May 5) for its final non-conference match-up of the season with the Billikens, then conclude its road slate May 8-10 with a three-game league series at Southern Illinois.
The 2015 MVC Baseball Championship returns to Eck Stadium in Wichita, Kan., (May 19-23) with the champion earning the league’s automatic NCAA Tournament bid. The 2015 NCAA Division I Baseball Championship Selection Show will air May 25, with Regional play beginning the weekend of May 29. The 2015 Men’s College World Series kicks off June 13 and culminates with the Finals, June 22-24.
