SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — The 2016 Missouri State baseball schedule will feature a total of 55 games, including 30 home dates and match-ups against six different 2015 NCAA Tournament teams, head coach Keith Guttin announced Friday. In all, the Bears are scheduled to play 30 games against 12 different opponents that rated among the top 100 RPI-finishers a year ago, including 15 contests against NCAA Regional qualifiers.
After spending much of the first month on the road in recent campaigns, the Bears will enjoy the friendly confines of Hammons Field more regularly in February and March this coming season, with 19 of their first 29 games scheduled at home. Highlighting the home portion of the schedule will be three-game non-conference series against Iowa (March 18-20), the runner-up at this past spring’s NCAA Springfield Regional at Hammons Field and fellow Big Ten member Minnesota (March 25-27), as well as midweek games versus five different clubs that ranked among the top 100 teams nationally last spring. Marquee April and May match-ups with regional rivals Saint Louis (April 5), Kansas (April 6), Missouri (April 12) and Arkansas (May 3) will bookend a stout home slate that includes early non-league games against Oral Roberts (March 1) and Oklahoma State (March 8), as well as Missouri Valley Conference home series with Evansville (April 22-24), Southern Illinois (May 6-8) and Illinois State (May 19-21).
The Bears, who finished with a school-record 49 wins last spring en route to capturing both the MVC regular-season and conference tournament titles, as well as the Springfield Regional crown to advance to their second NCAA Super Regional, will welcome back 18 letterwinners and five regular position starters from last year’s club. Sophomore third baseman Jake Burger and junior closer Bryan Young are back to lead MSU’s group of returnees after earning All-America honors last season.
Missouri State opens the season with a three-game series against perennial Southland Conference contender Central Arkansas, kicking off the set and its 53rd season of varsity baseball Feb. 19 at Bear Stadium in Conway, Ark. The Bears will travel to Clarksville, Tenn., in week two to play single contests against Connecticut (Feb. 26) and host Austin Peay (Feb. 28), as well as the first of their four scheduled games against Iowa (Feb. 27).
The Bears will open the gates at Hammons Field for the first time March 1, when they begin a five-game home stand against an Oral Roberts club that won 41 games and the Summit League title last season. MSU also hosts SIU Edwardsville (March 4-6) in a three-game series before wrapping up the early home stretch against Oklahoma State, which will be coming off a 2015 season that saw the Cowboys go 38-22 and host a regional of their own. MSU will hit the road for a three-game series with a Memphis (March 11-13) squad that has topped the 30-win mark in each of the last five seasons, before returning to Springfield for what is scheduled to be its longest home stand since moving into Hammons Field in 2004.
To start the home stretch, the Bears will welcome Western Illinois (March 15-16) to town for a two-game midweek set, followed by their three-game showdown with an Iowa club that will be coming off its first NCAA appearance in 25 years after logging 41 wins in 2015. Next, the Maroon and White renews its rivalry with Arkansas State (March 22), which will come calling for a single midweek game, before traditional Big Ten power Minnesota makes the trip south for a three-game series to conclude the home stand.
Only a March 29 trip to Lawrence, Kan., for the first of a home-and-home set with Kansas interrupts the Bears long stretch at Hammons Field. MSU will entertain a talented Central Michigan team that captured the Mid-American Conference West Division last spring in a three-game series, March 31-April 2, before wrapping up the five-game stay with midweek games versus SLU and KU.
The Bears, who will open their 26th season in The Valley as the league’s defending champions, will face a stiff opening-weekend opponent in Bradley, which made its first NCAA trip since 1968 last spring. MSU and BU will square off in a three-game series at Dozer Park in Peoria, April 8-10, before the Bears make the trip to Wichita State (April 15-17) for their second MVC series.
MSU’s home tilt with Missouri (April 12) and the return game in its home-and-home with Oral Roberts (April 19) sandwich the WSU series before the Bears take on Evansville in their initial Valley home set. Four straight road games, including an April 26 trip to Columbia to meet MU and three league games against Indiana State (April 29-May 1), will lead into the home stretch of the regular season. The Bears will play seven of their final 11 contests at home, beginning with their May 3 match-up with Arkansas and concluding with MVC series against SIU and Illinois State.
The 2016 MVC Baseball Championship returns to Bob Warn Field in Terre Haute, Ind., (May 25-28) for the second time in three seasons, with the champion earning the league’s automatic NCAA Tournament bid. The 2016 NCAA Division I Baseball Championship Selection Show will air May 30, with Regional play beginning the weekend of June 3. The 2016 Men’s College World Series kicks off June 18 and culminates with the Finals, June 27-29.
The 2016 season will mark the Bears’ 34th year at the Division I level. Ticket information for the upcoming season is currently being finalized and will be made available through the official web home of Missouri State Athletics, MissouriStateBears.com, when it becomes available.
