PATIENCE PAYS off for Missouri State.
FAYETTEVILLE — You won’t hear Missouri State Coach Keith Guttin or his players complaining about playing an NCAA Super Regional at Baum Stadium this weekend.
As a No. 8 national seed, the Missouri Valley Conference champion Bears ( 48- 10) should be playing host to Arkansas ( 38- 22) under the typical NCAA Tournament formula.
Instead the Razorbacks are hosting, thanks to the Texas League schedule.
Missouri State shares Hammons Field with the minorleague Springfield Cardinals, who are playing at home against Midland this weekend.
That scheduling conflict is allowing the Razorbacks to host the Bears in a best- of- 3 series that starts today with the winner advancing to the College World Series.
“We have no control over it, so why worry about it?” Missouri State Coach Keith Guttin said Friday. “You’d rather stay in your home than a hotel, but it is what it is.
“We’re here, and we’re going to give it our best.”
The Bears are 20- 4 on the road compared to 19- 3 at home and 9- 3 at neutral sites.
“I think this team is built for anything no matter what the environment is,” Missouri State senior shortstop Joey Hawkins said. “We’ve gone from playing in front of three people in Atlanta at 9 a. m. with snow coming down to playing in front of big crowds at home.”
Wright State beat Missouri State 3- 2 in 10 innings in the first game of a doubleheader at PG Park South in Emerson, Ga., on March 6. The box score listed the game time temperature at 29 degrees with snow flurries with an attendance of 130.
It will be lot warmer and more crowded at Baum Stadium for today’s 3: 30 p. m. game.
“I don’t think the crowd is really going to be a factor,” said Bears pitcher Matt Hall, a junior left- hander who will start Saturday. “You still have to play between the lines.
“We’re going to go out there and just pick it up and throw it to first. We’re going to swing it, and we’re going to pitch. The game doesn’t change.”
Missouri State already has won this season at Baum Stadium, 2- 0 on March 31 to break a 10- game losing streak to the Razorbacks.
“I think it definitely helps coming back here and after already getting a win,” Hawkins said. “It was kind of a key point in our season.”
The Bears are 31- 3 since beating Arkansas and have won 19 consecutive games, the nation’s longest active streak.
“They’re a mid- major team, but they’ve got a lot of big- time talent,” Razorbacks right fielder Tyler Spoon said. “They’re playing great ball right now and they’re confident.”
Illinois State was the last team to beat Missouri State, 4- 1, on April 25. The Bears went 17- 0 in May, including beating Iowa 5- 3 and 3- 2 to win the Springfield Regional.
“I don’t really think about it at all,” Guttin said of the winning streak. “But I know I haven’t been mad in a long time.”
Missouri State will start junior right- hander Jon Harris ( 8- 1, 1.85 ERA) today with Hall ( 11- 2, 2.17) getting the start in the second game of the series Saturday.
“Baseball is a great game, and if you’ve got that guy on the mound you can beat anybody,” Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said. “They have a couple of guys on the mound that can beat anybody, and they’ve done it all year.”
The Bears have five players with 40 or more runs batted in: Justin Paulsen ( 46), Tate Matheny ( 42), Spencer Johnson ( 42), Jake Burger ( 41) and Dylan Becker ( 40).
“That’s a very good stat,” Van Horn said. “It just means they’re having a lot of productive at- bats. They’re an older team and they know how to play the game and they know how to win.
“They really haven’t had a bad week all season.”