Missouri State University

May 21, 2012

Missouri State Tournament Notes
State Farm MVC Championship Bracket

No. 2 Missouri State Bears (37-18, 13-7 MVC)
at State Farm MVC Baseball Championship
Dates: Tuesday, May 22 - Saturday, May 26
Location: Springfield, Mo.
Site: Hammons Field (8,000)
MSU Tournament Record: 34-37
TV (Saturday): Fox Sports Midwest (Mitch Holthus, Kirk Champion)
Radio: KBFL 1060 AM (Art Hains, Rob Evans, Terry Clayton)
Live Audio and Video: ESPN3 (Bruce Haertl, Shane Dennis, Scott Warmann)
Live Stats: MVC Championship Central

Leading Off
The State Farm MVC Baseball Championship returns to Hammons Field for the first time in five years this week. The tournament, which begins with four games Tuesday (May 22) and continues through Saturday's championship game, will determine the winner of the Valley's automatic NCAA Tournament bid.

The Missouri State Bears (37-18, 13-7 MVC) take the No. 2 seed into the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Championship this week at Hammons Field, beginning their quest for a third MVC tourney title against the seventh-seeded Bradley Braves (26-25-1, 8-13 MVC) at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

This year's tournament format is in its third season of splitting the league's eight schools into a pair of four-team, double-elimination brackets with a one game championship set for 7 p.m. Saturday. Joining the Bears and Braves in their half of the bracket is No. 3 Wichita State and No. 6 Southern Illinois.

The Bears, who have won the tournament title on two previous occasions (1996 and 1997), are 34-37 in 20 previous trips to the MVC Tournament. MSU has five runner-up finishes (1995, 2002, 2006 and 2008) and has gone 2-4 all-time as the tournament's host.

Prime 9
♦ Missouri State has qualified for 21 of a possible 22 conference tournaments since joining the MVC in 1991, missing the field in 2005; the Bears are 34-37 all-time at the tourney with titles in 1996 and 1997 and runner-up finishes in 1995, 2002, 2006 and 2008, all under the direction of head coach Keith Guttin
♦ The Bears have won at least one game in each tournament appearance since 1994, going 34-29 in their last 17 trips; last season, MSU went 2-2, with a win over Southern Illinois and a 1-2 mark against host Creighton
♦ The Bears are 49-32 all-time against Bradley, including a 4-3 mark in the MVC Tournament
♦ Missouri State ranks second in the nation in strikeouts per nine innings and boast three different pitchers ranked among the top 100 individuals in Division I in that category
♦ MSU entered the week second in the nation in team ERA, led by sophomore RHP Nick Petree's 0.91 ERA
♦ Led by Petree's selection as MVC Pitcher of the Year, the Bears placed nine players on All-MVC squads earlier this week; senior 2B Kevin Medrano became the first four-time first-team honoree in league history
♦ Senior OF Spiker Helms has driven in 28 two-out runs out of his 39 RBIs this season
♦ Junior RHP Pierce Johnson has allowed just one run over his last 17.1 IP
♦ In 10 career games at the Valley Championship, Medrano is a .381 (16-for-42) hitter

Bradley Series
The Bears hold a 49-32 overall advantage in the series with Bradley, and have taken 14 of the last 21 meetings dating back to the 2006 season. Bradley took two of three from the Bears earlier this season in Peoria, but MSU holds a 4-3 edge in MVC Championship play. The two clubs last met in the tournament five years ago in its last visit to Springfield. Bradley came away with an 8-3 decision in that game to end the Bears' season.

About the Bears
Following a disappointing end to an otherwise memorable bounce-back 2011 season, Missouri State entered the new year as the preseason choice to capture the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season title for the fourth time in the last 12 seasons under 30th-year head coach Keith Guttin. After a rough start to opening weekend in Lubbock, Texas, the Bears rebounded to win 20 of their next 24 games to post their best start to a season in a decade.

Leading the way for the Bears has been second baseman Kevin Medrano (.332, 22 RBI, 17 2B, 11 SB) who leads the club in hitting and ranks fifth in the MVC in total hits. The senior from Lee's Summit, Mo., has been hot at the plate lately after a sluggish start to move into second place on MSU's career hits list (300) and earn his fourth straight first-team All-MVC nod. Junior Keenen Maddox saw his career-best 11-game hit streak come to an end April 17, but still brings a .296 batting mark into Tuesday's game. Serving as the Bears' primary DH, Maddox clubbed a pair of critical homers to help the Bears take two of three games from regular-season champ Indiana State last weekend. Senior second-team All-MVC OF Spiker Helms (.281, 6 HR, 39 RBI) ranks among the MVC's top 10 performers in a number of different offensive categories, including a team-leading 21 doubles and a league-high 40 walks. Two more second-team All-MVC performers, Brock Chaffin (.295, HR, 37 RBI) has 17 multi-hit games and at least one RBI in 24 contests, while junior catcher Luke Voit (.299, 5 HR, 40 RBI) has five game-winning RBIs this season and 16 for his MSU career to rank ninth in school history. Senior third baseman Brent Seifert (.271, 5 HR, 42 RBI) leads the team in RBIs and has reached base safely in 48 of the Bears' 55 games.

The Bears' pitching staff has been the strength of the team through the regular season, despite a series of key injuries. National pitcher of the year candidate Nick Petree (10-3, 0.91) was named MVC Pitcher of the Year after turning in a string of 73 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run, as well as a school-record 38.1 straight scoreless frames into the final week of the regular season. Junior right-hander Pierce Johnson (3-6, 2.58) has been dominant over his first 12 starts of the season in spite of a lack of run support that has resulted in four one-run setbacks. After missing two starts in April due to a forearm strain, Johnson brings the nation's 18th-best strikeouts/nine innings mark into the weekend. Junior righty Cody Schumacher (7-1, 3.95) has been a dependable third starter in his first year as a Bear, helping his club claim wins in 13 of his 15 starts to date to pick up honorable mention all-conference honors. Finally, the Bears' bullpen has been nearly as dominant as the rotation, fashioning a string of 18 1/3 consecutive scoreless innings over nine outings (March 13-25), and a 0.53 ERA over a 17-game span (Feb. 29-March 25). MVC Freshman of the Year Tyler Burgess (5-0, 1.24, 11 saves) has been sensational in his MSU debut to lead the group, notching a victory or a save in each of his first seven appearances as a Bear without allowing an earned run.

About the Braves
Bradley posted a 26-25-1 regular season and seventh-place Valley finish on the heels of a 22-32 season last spring under third-year head coach Elvis Dominguez. The Braves took two of three games from the Bears in the two clubs' series in Peoria in April, sandwiching a pair of one-run victories around a 12-2 defeat.

Pacing the offense has been freshman infielder Chris Godinez, who hit .327 during the regular season in route to garnering second-team all-conference honors. Last year's leading hitter for the Braves, Mike Tauchman also posted a strong season, hitting .297, while the Braves received a lift from freshman outfielder Max Murphy (.293, 9 HR, 37 RBI) and sophomore DH Greg Partyka (.283, 10 HR, 43 RBI), who teamed up to give BU a power boost with 19 homers and 80 RBIs between them.

On the hill, the Braves are led by senior lefty Joe Bircher (7-3, 2.62), a first-team All-MVC performer who led the league in strikeouts during the regular season.

Leaders of the Pack
Missouri State concluded the conference season as the MVC's top hitting (.296 BA) and pitching (1.97 ERA) team in Valley play. The Bears also posted league-high figures for on-base percentage (.369), slugging percentage (.435) and doubles (41) on the offensive side, as well as strikeouts (169), saves (4), fewest hits allowed (148), fewest runs allowed (53) in the pitching department. Additionally, if the season ended today, the Bears' overall team ERA of 2.57 would represent the lowest for a Valley club since 1982, when Wichita State posted a 2.53 season mark.

Petree in Howser Hunt
Despite seeing his school-record 38.1 consecutive scoreless innings streak come to an end in Thursday's 6-3 setback at Indiana State, sophomore right-hander Nick Petree learned the following day that he was among the 35 players nationwide and one of just 10 Division I starting pitchers to be selected as semifinalists for the 2012 Dick Howser Trophy by the NCBWA. The honor, given to the top player in collegiate baseball, is based on two rounds of national voting, with the winner announced on June 15, the opening day of the 2012 College World Series, at TD Ameritrade Stadium in Omaha.

Petree, who has not yielded a home run all season, leads the MVC in victories (10) and ERA, and ranks fourth in innings pitched (99.1) and second in strikeouts (102). Additionally, Petree's win total ranked fourth in all of Division I through games of May 20. The sophomore's 19 combined wins over his first two seasons as a Bear represents Missouri State record for victories over a two-year span, matching the total of Brad Ziegler, who won seven games in 2002, before earning a school-record 12 victories in 2003.

Nine Bears Honored by Valley
Headlined by Missouri Valley Conference Pitcher of the Year Nick Petree and four-time First-Team All-MVC second baseman Kevin Medrano, a total of nine Missouri State baseball players were selected for all-conference honors Monday by the league's head coaches. Petree, Medrano and MVC Freshman of the Year Tyler Burgess were all chosen for the Valley's first team, while four other Bears were tabbed for second-team honors and two more picked up honorable mention recognition.

A three-time MVC Pitcher of the Week honoree in 2012 and an NCBWA Dick Howser Trophy semifinalist, Petree becomes the third Bear pitcher to earn top honors from the MVC in the last five seasons and the fifth MSU hurler overall to earn MVC Pitcher of the Year laurels. The Clinton, Mo., product turned in the nation's longest scoreless innings streak this season, working a Missouri State-record 38.1 consecutive shutout frames from April 6-May 17, as well as 73.0 straight innings without giving up an earned run (March 2-May 17).

Medrano becomes the first Valley player on record to earn first-team All-MVC honors in each of his four collegiate seasons. The senior from Lee's Summit, Mo., leads the club with a .332 batting mark, while fielding a sparkling .991 as the Bears' regular second baseman. Last weekend at Indiana State, Medrano went 7-for-14 to lead the Bears to two victories over the MVC's regular-season champs, recording his 300th career hit in Saturday's series-clinching victory.

In addition to the Bears' three first-teamers, seniors Brock Chaffin, Brent Seifert and Spiker Helms, along with junior Luke Voit were chosen for the league's second team, while juniors Keenen Maddox and Cody Schumacher were named honorable mention All-MVC. Finally, both Petree and Medrano were among the honorees for the Valley's All-Defensive squad.

Back in the Flow
Junior pitcher Pierce Johnson regained his early-season form last weekend in a 5-0 shutout of Indiana State that saw the right-hander blank the MVC champions on four hits over eight innings. With the victory, Johnson snapped a string of three-straight defeats since a complete-game five-hitter against Creighton on March 23, in which he fanned a career-high 16 batters.

Johnson has been plagued throughout the season by a startling lack of run support, as Saturday's five-run outburst by the Bears marked just the second time in 12 starts this season his mates have scored more than three runs. MSU has totaled just 38 runs in games Johnson has started, or an average of 3.2 runs per game. With the Bears averaging 5.4 runs per outing this season, a quick analysis of Johnson's game-by-game record reveals that he would be 10-1 on the season if MSU had merely equaled its average run total in each of his 12 starts.