SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – For the third time in five seasons, the Missouri State baseball squad has been tabbed the Missouri Valley Conference favorite by the league's coaches in their annual preseason poll, which was announced Wednesday (Feb. 3). Three Bears were selected for the Valley's preseason all-conference squad, including returning All-Americans Jake Burger and Bryan Young, as well as three-year starter Spencer Johnson.
The defending Valley champs of head coach Keith Guttin tallied 60 points in the poll, including five of the eight possible first-place votes, to edge second-place pick Dallas Baptist (56 points). Third-place Wichita State garnered 47 points and Bradley picked up 35 points to grab the fourth spot. Indiana State (28 points) earned the fifth position in the poll, followed by Illinois State (27 points), Evansville (22 points) and Southern Illinois (13 points).
"If you’re basing it on last year’s team, I think it’s accurate,” Guttin said of the preseason poll. “This is a new year, so we’ll see what happens. Wichita State has virtually it’s whole team back, as well as its number one pitcher, and Dallas Baptist always has a very talented ballclub. There’s going to be a lot of competition, and we look for a good league race.”
The league's eight clubs will meet at the MVC Championship, May 25-28, at Bob Warn Field in Terre Haute, Ind., for the right to represent the Valley in the 2016 NCAA Tournament.
The Bears enter the 2016 season ranked as high as No. 17 in Collegiate Baseball’s preseason poll after racking up a school-record 49 wins last spring en route to capturing both the MVC regular-season and conference tournament titles. MSU will welcome back 17 letterwinners and five regular position starters from last year's club that earned the No. 8 national seed in the NCAA Championship and captured the Springfield Regional crown to advance to its second Super Regional.
Burger and Young each earned spots on Collegiate Baseball’s Louisville Slugger Preseason All-America squads in December following breakthrough 2015 campaigns. Burger was a third-team All-America choice establishing himself as one of The Valley's top corner men in his rookie season, totaling a team-high 78 hits — the second-highest total overall in the MVC and the top mark for a Valley freshman — and a Missouri State freshman record 22 doubles, while batting a club-best .342.
Young was equally as impressive, picking up first-team All-America recognition from the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association after leading the MVC with a Bears single-season record 16 saves — which ranked third nationally — to go along with a 1.30 earned run average. He logged a perfect 7-0 mark overall and held the opposition to a .197 batting average over 41.2 innings spanning 30 outings and was one of five finalists for the NCBWA’s Stopper of the Year Award.
Johnson started all 61 games as a junior, hitting a career-best .310 with 17 multi-hit games and a team-best 50 runs scored, while finishing second on the club with six home runs, 44 runs batted-in and 18 doubles. The outfielder ranked among the MVC’s top 10 statistical leaders in walks (46), doubles, RBIs, runs scored and on-base percentage (.447) and finished 21st nationally in total walks with the third-highest single-season total in MSU history.
