For the 10th time in program history, the Missouri State Bears have been selected to play in the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship. The Bears drew the No. 2 seed in the Fayetteville (Ark.) Regional as part of the 64-team NCAA field that was announced Monday morning.
Making their third NCAA Tournament appearance in the last six seasons, the Bears (40-17) will face the Big 12 Conference Tournament champion Oklahoma State Cowboys (30-25) in opening-round action at 2 p.m. (CDT) Friday (June 2) at Baum Stadium. The top-seeded Arkansas Razorbacks (42-17) and fourth-seeded Oral Roberts Golden Eagles (42-14) will meet Friday evening at 7 p.m. in the other regional pairing. All Fayetteville Regional contests will be streamed live online through ESPN3 (WatchESPN.com).
In their last Championship appearance in 2015, the Bears swept the field as host of the Springfield Regional, defeating Canisius in the opening round before knocking off Iowa twice to earn their second Division I regional crown. Missouri State, No. 8 overall national seed, came within one victory of punching its ticket to the College World Series, dropping a hard-fought Super Regional series with Arkansas in three games.
The Bears captured the MVC regular-season crown for the fifth time in program history, posting wins in each of their first 18 Valley games this spring as part of a conference-record 22-game MVC regular-season win streak. MSU is 17-19 all-time in NCAA Division I Tournament play and has won at least two games in six of their last seven trips to a regional since 1996.
Missouri State was one of two Missouri Valley Conference teams selected for the NCAA Tournament, marking the third time in the last six seasons the league has earned multiple postseason bids. MVC Tournament champ DBU drew the No. 3 seed in the Fort Worth Regional and will face Virginia as its opening-round opponent.
Regional play continues through Monday (June 5) with a double-elimination format. The 16 regional winners will advance to the Super Regional round, which will be contested June 9-12, with the eight winners of the three-game, head-to-head series moving on to the 2017 NCAA Division I Men’s College World Series at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha in Omaha, Neb., June 17-28.
All-session tickets for the Fayetteville Regional are available for $75 online through ArkansasRazorbacks.com.
2017 NCAA Fayetteville Regional Schedule
Friday, June 2
Game 1 – No. 3 Oklahoma State vs. No. 2 Missouri State, 2 p.m. CT (ESPN3)
Game 2 – No. 1 Arkansas vs. No. 4 Oral Roberts, 7 p.m. CT (ESPN3)
Saturday, June 3
Game 3 – Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2, 2 p.m. (ESPN3)
Game 4 – Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2, 7 p.m. (ESPN3)
Sunday, June 4
Game 5 – Winner Game 3 vs. Loser Game 4, 3 p.m. (ESPN3)
Game 6 – Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 4, 8 p.m. (ESPN3)
Monday, June 5
Game 7 – Winner Game 6 vs. Loser Game 6 (if necessary), 6 p.m. (ESPN3)
Courtesy-Missouri State Athletics
