SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – It was yet another sweep for Missouri State baseball Monday, as Jeremy Eierman and Jordan Knutson were named Missouri Valley Conference Player and Pitcher of the Week, respectively, after helping the Bears extend their perfect Valley start with three wins over Dallas Baptist this past weekend.
After becoming the first Valley club to record a conference series sweep of DBU, the Bears (21-10, 6-0 MVC) also returned to Collegiate Baseball Newspaper’s NCAA Division I Top 30, checking in at No. 28 in Monday’s edition of the poll.
Additionally, Knutson was selected by Collegiate Baseball as one of its national players of the week Monday, after the Bears left-hander dominated Dallas Baptist to win his fifth game of the season in Friday night’s 5-1, series-opening victory. The Lee’s Summit, Mo., product limited a high-powered Patriots lineup to two hits over eight innings while striking out a career-high 13 hitters. Knutson held DBU hitless over the first 5 1/3 innings and yielded the lone Patriot run of the night on a solo homer in the sixth. The senior responded by retiring nine of the final 10 batters he faced.
Eierman was named Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week for the third time in 2017 Monday, on the heels of a big weekend that helped spur the Bears’ sweep of Dallas Baptist. The sophomore batted .556 (5-for-9) with a pair of home runs, five runs scored and five RBIs in the series to help MSU log its first 6-0 Valley start in 16 years. Eierman recorded RBIs in each of MSU’s four games and batted .385 overall for the week. The Warsaw, Mo., product homered in back-to-back games vs. DBU to grab a share of the MVC home run lead and turned in a 3-for-3 performance Saturday in which he doubled, homered and scored three times in an 11-8 Bears win that clinched the series.
Missouri State puts the finishing touches on its nine-game home stand Tuesday (April 11), when they welcome No. 9 Arkansas to Hammons Field for a 6:30 p.m. contest.
