NOTEBOOK (PDF)
With just one weekend remaining in the regular season schedule, Missouri State (16-2 MVC) and DBU (15-3 MVC) will battle for the regular season championship at Horner Ballpark in Dallas Thursday-Saturday. The winner of the three-game series will secure the top seed in the MVC Tournament which will also be held at Horner Ballpark on May 23-26 in Dallas, Texas.
Bradley (10-8 MVC) can finish as high as the No. 3 seed and as low as the No. 5 seed, depending on the outcome of its games this weekend versus Southern Illinois. The Braves can lock up the No. 3 spot with one win over the Salukis this weekend. Bradley holds the head-to-head tiebreaker over Indiana State and Illinois State.
Indiana State (8-10 MVC) and Southern Illinois (8-10 MVC) can also finish as high as the No. 3 seed and as low as the No. 7 seed, based on a variety of weekend results. The Sycamores hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over Southern Illinois, while SIU holds the head-to-head tiebreaker over Illinois State and Valparaiso.
Illinois State (7-11 MVC) and Valparaiso (6-12 MVC) can finish as high as the No. 4 seed and as low as the No. 7 seed, based on a variety of weekend results. The Redbirds hold a head-to-head tiebreaker over Indiana State and Valparaiso, while the Crusaders currently do not hold a tiebreaker among teams in the seed range.
Evansville (2-16 MVC) is locked in as the No. 8 seed heading into the final weekend of play.
Please note that the above seeding prognostications are only based on mathematical possibilities, without considering all multiple tiebreaking scenarios.
Tight Races
Since the start of the 21-game conference schedule in 2010 (three-game series), the top two places in the regular-season standings have been separated by one game four times. Missouri State will take a one-game lead over DBU into the series with the Patriots this weekend.
2010 - Wichita St. & Illinois St. 15-6
2011 - Creighton 15-6 & Wichita St. 14-7
2012 - Indiana St. 14-7 & Missouri St. 13-7
2014 - Evansville 15-6 & DBU/Indiana St. 14-7
Back-to-Back
Missouri State is looking to become just the second Valley school to win back-to-back regular-season titles, as Wichita State remains the only school to have ever accomplished this feat. The Shockers won back-to-back titles in 2007-2008, were winners of 14 consecutive regular-season championships from 1987-2000 (includes one shared championship with Southern Illinois in 1990).
The Bears are also looking to post the best two-year record in Valley history (since moving to expanded MVC schedule in 1985), currently sitting at 34-3 (.919) over the last two seasons in MVC play. The 1993 and 1994 Shockers hold the MVC record, going 36-5 (.878) over a two-season span.
Streaking!
With a pair of sweeps over the weekend, DBU and Missouri State maintained their winning streaks. The Patriots beat #9 Texas Tech and swept Bradley to run their win streak to 7-straight, while Missouri State claimed a sweep of Southern Illinois to see its streak reach six-straight.
Current Win Streaks (NCAA)
10 Stetson
8 Miami (FL), NC State
7 DBU, Tennessee Tech
6 Missouri State
Streaking at Hammons
With their three-game sweep of Southern Illinois over the weekend, the Bears stretched their Hammons Field win streak to 24 straight regular-season games over Valley foes. MSU, which last suffered a regular-season home setback to an MVC opponent on May 8, 2016 vs. SIU, has hit .331 and outscored the opposition by a 211-80 margin over the course of the streak.
Senior Sendoff
SIU has four seniors who have been among the nation’s best during their careers. Among active players in NCAA Division I, Logan Blackfan ranks third in doubles and 19th in RBIs; Michael Baird ranks fifth in inning pitched; Connor Kopach ranks second in stolen bases and fourth in triples; and Ryan Netemeyer ranks second in saves. Kopach and Blackfan also rank among the national leaders in career games (12th / 22nd) and at-bats (12th / 21st).
Polling
Missouri State jumped back into Collegiate Baseball's Top 30 Poll, jumping to No. 29 this week. The Bears and DBU are also receiving votes in this week's USA Today Coaches Top 25 Poll.
Valley RPI Ranks No. 10
According to the latest RPI update from WarrenNolan.com (May 14), the Missouri Valley Conference ranks No. 10 amongst 31 leagues. Four of the Power-Five conferences (SEC, Big 12, ACC and Pac-12) hold four of the top five positions, while the American sits fourth. The Big Ten, Atlantic Sun, Sun Belt, Mountain West and MVC round out the top 10.
Wins Over Power Five
Entering this week’s action, the MVC has earned 18 wins over members of Power Five conferences. The Valley has a 7-8 mark against the Big 12, while going 3-4 vs. the Pac-12, 6-13 vs. the Big Ten, 2-6 against the ACC and 0-9 vs. the SEC.
Seven of the eight MVC teams have earned wins against the Power Five. Southern Illinois has one Power Five win, while Bradley, Indiana State and Missouri State have two, Illinois State and Valparaiso three and DBU has five (Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas Tech, twice).
This week’s schedule features one game against a Power Five team. On Tuesday, Indiana State will visit Missouri.
Projected Field
Baseball America continues to have two MVC teams in the projected NCAA field of 64 as of May 9. The publication has DBU as a No. 3 seed in the Auburn Regional and Missouri State as a No. 3 seed in the Chapel Hill (North Carolina) Regional. The Bears are also listed as one of the “Last Four” teams in the field. D1Baseball.com also has DBU (No. 3 in Fayetteville) and Missouri State (No. 3 in Stillwater) in the field of 64.
Multi-Bid League
Since the 1981 season (36 seasons), the MVC has placed multiple teams into the NCAA Tournament 24 times (67%). On seven occasions (1985, 1990, 1995, 1999, 2000, 2012, 2015) the MVC has put three teams into the NCAA field.
Academic All-District
Two Missouri Valley Conference baseball players have been named to the 2018 Google Cloud CoSIDA Academic All-District First Team, including Illinois State’s Collin Braithwaite and DBU’s Devlin Granberg. With two selections to the first team, both Valley student-athletes are now eligible for the inclusion on the Google Cloud Academic All-America® team selected by CoSIDA.
This week's Missouri Valley Conference Baseball Player/Pitcher of the Week are Illinois State's Owen Miller and Missouri State's Dylan Coleman, respectively.
MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE PLAYER OF THE WEEK:
Owen Miller, Jr., SS, Illinois State
Miller batted .714 during the week (10-of-14) with four runs scored. Hit for the cycle in the series finale against Valparaiso, going 5-for-5 in the game. Had three RBI’s during the week, while adding a stolen base. In the series opener he went 2-for-4 at the plate with an RBI. On Saturday he had a 3-for-5 outing with a run scored and an RBI. He also swiped his only base of the week in the middle game of the series. He had a spectacular ending to the week by going 5-for-5 at the plate with three runs scored and driving in one run. He opened the game with a single in the first inning and followed with a solo home run in the second inning. He singled again in the fourth inning, before hitting a triple off the top of the center field wall in the sixth inning. In his final at-bat of the game, he doubled down the right field line to close out the cycle. He has nine multi-hit games in his last 11 contests, and he saw his batting average rise from .374 entering the week to its current standing of .397. Miller’s five hits in the game are tied for the 12th-most hits in a game in the NCAA this season.
Other Notable Performances: Tim Millard (DBU); Kenton Crews (UE); Romero Harris (INS); Ben Whetstone (MSU); Jared Kengott (SIU); Blake Billinger (VALPO)
MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE PITCHER OF THE WEEK:
Dylan Coleman, Jr., RHP, Missouri State
Missouri State junior right-hander Dylan Coleman lifted the Bears to a 5-3 victory over Southern Illinois with eight strong innings in the opening game of the two clubs’ series on Friday. Coleman matched a career high with 13 strikeouts, while allowing just two third-inning SIU runs on four hits to notch his eighth win of the season—and his 21st victory overall as a Bear. In the process, he became just the second pitcher in program history to reach the 100-strikeout plateau in back-to-back seasons, joining three-time All-American Nick Petree on that distinguished list.
Other Notable Performances: Luke Eldred (DBU); Matt Walker (ILS); Tyler Whitbread (INS); Michael Baird (SIU); Jon Tieman (VALPO)