SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – The 2018 Missouri State baseball schedule will feature a total of 51 games, including 24 home dates and match-ups against six different 2017 NCAA Tournament teams, head coach Keith Guttin announced Wednesday. In all, the Bears are slated to play 21 games against 11 different opponents that rated among the top 125 RPI-finishers a year ago, including 12 contests against NCAA Regional qualifiers.
Highlighting the home portion of the schedule will be a three-game non-conference series (April 13-15) against an Oregon State squad that returns the bulk of its roster from a club that earned the top overall national seed in the 2017 NCAA Baseball Championship and advanced to the College World Series before finishing the year with a 56-6 overall record. The Bears will also welcome Arkansas State (March 9-11) and Cal State Northridge (March 23-25) to Hammons Field for three-game non-conference series, in addition to hosting meetings with 2017 postseason qualifying clubs from Oklahoma State (March 7) and Oral Roberts (March 13).
MSU’s home slate will also feature midweek match-ups with regional foes Southeast Missouri State (March 20) and Murray State (March 21), as well as return visits from Missouri (April 10) and Kansas (May 2) as part of home-and-home series with the Tigers and Jayhawks. The Bears will host three Missouri Valley Conference weekend series, beginning with a three-game set against Evansville (April 6-8), followed by series with Illinois State (April 20-22) and Southern Illinois (May 11-13).
The Bears, who finished with a 43-20 overall record after capturing their second NCAA Regional title in three seasons this past spring, will welcome back 18 letterwinners, including returning All-Americans Jeremy Eierman and Jake Fromson. MSU is coming off the winningest three-year period in program history after claiming 130 victories since the start of the 2015 season. Additionally, five different Bears have been selected in the top six rounds of the Major League Baseball Draft over the same stretch, including 2017 first-round pick Jake Burger.
Missouri State opens the 2018 season with a visit to Beaumont, Texas, for a three-game tournament that will include games against reigning SWAC champ Texas Southern (Feb. 16), host Lamar (Feb. 17) and Illinois (Feb. 18) at the Cardinal Classic. The following weekend will see the Bears travel to Conway, Ark., for a three-game series with Central Arkansas (Feb. 23-25), before a midweek meeting with Oral Roberts (Feb. 27) in Tulsa to close out the month of February.
Next, the Bears trek to the state of North Carolina for the first time to take part in the Keith LeClair Classic (March 2-4) in Greenville, where they will play single contests against St. Joseph, host East Carolina and Pepperdine. After opening the home portion of their schedule with a five-game home stretch (March 7-13), the Bears will visit Stillwater, Okla., for a one-day twin bill consisting of single games against Seton Hall and Oklahoma State on March 17. MSU then closes out a stretch of 10 home games in 12 dates, before traveling to Kansas (March 27) and Indiana State (March 30-April 1).
Home series with Evansville and Oregon State sandwich the Bears’ date with Mizzou at Hammons as part of a season-long seven-game homestand. MSU then travels to the site of its 2017 NCAA Regional conquest in Fayetteville, Ark., where a rematch with Arkansas (April 17) awaits the Bears. After hosting Illinois State in a three-game MVC series, the Bears return the trip to Columbia to take on the Tigers (April 24) and embark on a Valley road trip to Bradley (April 27-29) to round out the April portion of the schedule.
The Maroon and White kicks off the month of May with its final midweek contest of the season against KU, before traveling to Indiana for its first MVC series with new league member Valparaiso (May 4-6). The final home series of the year against Southern Illinois precedes the Bears’ regular season-ending visit to Dallas Baptist (May 17-19).
The 2018 MVC Baseball Championship will take place at Horner Ballpark in Dallas for the first time, May 23-26, with the champion earning the league’s automatic NCAA Tournament bid. The 2018 NCAA Division I Baseball Championship Selection Show will air May 28, with Regional play beginning the weekend of June 1. The 2018 Men’s College World Series kicks off June 16 and culminates with the Finals, June 25-27.
The 2018 season will mark the Bears’ 36th 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, later this fall.
2018 Missouri State Baseball Schedule (PDF)
