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Quick Hits
• The seventh-ranked Central Missouri Mules host Pittsburg State in the first round of the MIAA Tournament starting on Friday.
• The MIAA Tournament has now gone to a first round best-of-three format, with the winners of those four series advancing to Kansas City.
• The Mules are 34-9 overall and 28-8 in MIAA play following a three-game sweep of Emporia State to close out the regular season.
• UCM is ranked No. 7 in this week's ABCA/Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Poll and the Mules are ranked in the top seven in all four national polls.
• The Mules were 48-9 a season ago, their 14th consecutive season with 40 or more wins.

The Series
• Central Missouri and Pittsburg State have met 71 times on the diamond with the Mules holding a 61-10 lead in the all-time series.
• The two teams have not met this season after the regular season series scheduled for February 23-24 was snowed out.
• The Mules beat the Gorillas in all four meetings last year in Pittsburg. UCM won by scores of 13-3, 18-2, 5-1 and 6-4. This will be the first meeting between the two schools with former UCM assistant Matt Murray as the head coach of the Gorillas
• The Mules are 17-1 against Pittsburg State during the Tom Myers era.

On the air
• All three games of this weekend's games against Pittsburg State will be broadcast on the Central Missouri Sports Network. All of the games can be heard live on 1450 KOKO, 98.5 The Bar and warrensburgradio.com.
• Bob Jackson and Shawn Jones will be on the call with the Central Missouri School of Graduate and Extended Studies Dugout Show beginning 25 minutes prior to first pitch.

Pittsburg State
• The Gorillas come into the MIAA Tournament at 26-21 overall. They are the No. 7 seed after finishing the year 22-19 in MIAA play. PSU won two out of three games from Northwest Missouri to close out the regular season last weekend.
• The Gorillas are batting .313 as a team and are led by Brad Foss' .376 average. Ryan Bilovesky is hitting .304 and leads the team with 10 home runs. Tory Stoffregen is hitting .357 with four homers and a team-best 44 RBI.
• The PSU pitching staff has an 5.03 team ERA allowing 251 runs, 205 earned, in 366.2 innings. Matt Stalcup leads the team with six wins (6-3) and sports a 3.41 ERA in 12 appearances with 10 starts. He has thrown three complete games and has fanned 86 batters in 58.0 innings. Ryan McKay is 3-1 with a staff-leading 1.52 ERA in 27 relief appearances.
• Opponents are batting .295 against Pittsburg State pitching.
• The pitching staff has issued 148 walks and struck out 345 in 366.2 innings pitched.
• The Gorillas have committed 59 errors in the field and have a .962 team fielding percentage.

The Mules
• Central Missouri enters the MIAA Tournament at 34-9 overall after sweeping a three-game series from Emporia State to close out the regular season. The Mules are the No. 2 seed in the tournament after going 28-8 in MIAA play.
• The Mules are batting .334 as a team and are led by Kevin Gratza's .409 average. Kyle Grieshaber is hitting .358 and leads the team with nine home runs and 51 RBI. John Oropeza is hitting .350 with 48 runs driven in, while Brad Wilson is batting .351 with three long balls and 51 RBI.
• The UCM pitching staff has an ERA of 3.78 and opponents are hitting .253 against them. Travis Higgs is 5-1 with a 3.25 ERA in 10 starts and leads the team with 48 strikeouts in 55.1 innings. Jake Heissler is 5-0 with a 2.57 ERA and 36 K's in 18 relief appearances. Kurtis Schuyler has recorded 46 K's in 49.2 innings pitched. Andrew Urban is 4-2 with a 2.53 ERA and five saves in 23 relief appearances, while Zach Davis has six saves and 2.82 ERA in 16 appearances out of the bullpen.
• The Mules have a .973 fielding percentage and have turned 24 double plays on the year.

Worth Noting
• The Mules have scored at least one run in 341 of the 345 games played under head coach Tom Myers.
• The 26 runs scored in game one against Lincoln in game one of the doubleheader in Jefferson City are the most ever in a game during the Tom Myers era and the most since UCM scored 32 runs in a 32-0 win over Washburn on April 26, 2004.
• The win over Nebraska-Kearney in game one of that series gave the Mules win No. 1,700 in program history.

Last time out
    April 29, 2013 - (WARRENSBURG, Mo.) -- The seventh-ranked Central Missouri Mules scored single runs in five different innings and beat Emporia State 5-2 on Monday night at Crane Stadium/Tompkins Field to complete a three-game sweep of the Hornets. The Mules finish the regular season at 34-9 overall and 28-8 in MIAA play.
    The Hornets (27-20, 24-17 MIAA) scored both of their runs in the top of the first to grab the early lead. Eric Dawson had an RBI single to start the scoring and Ashton McCoy added a sacrifice fly.
    The Mules scored one run in the second on a Chase Graskewicz RBI single to get on the board and then tied the game with another run in the third on a Trevor Jones RBI groundout.
    UCM took the lead for good with another run in the fourth on Kevin Gratza's RBI single. The 3-2 lead stood until the seventh when Brad Wilson drove in Samuel Domingue with a sacrifice fly to make it 4-2. The Mules tacked on another run in the eighth on Jon Cotter's RBI single for the 5-2 final.
    Jake Heissler (5-0) earned the win for UCM after tossing 4.1 scoreless innings of relief. He scattered five hits and struck out one. Zach Davis earned his team-leading sixth save of the season allowing three hits in 2.2 innings while striking out four.
    Brenton Higgins (3-1) took the loss for Emporia State after giving up four runs on seven hits in seven innings.
    Graskewicz and Cotter each finished the day with a pair of hits for UCM.

Mules in MIAA play
• Central Missouri finished 28-8 in MIAA play this year after sweeping Emporia State in a three-game series to close out the regular season.
• The Mules are 186-42 overall in conference action under head coach Tom Myers
• The Mules were 34-4 in conference play last season as they captured their third straight MIAA regular season crown and the 23rd title in school history.

Mules in non-conference action
• Central Missouri is 88-29 in non-conference games during the Tom Myers era and 6-1 this season after sweeping a three-game series at Henderson State April 6 and 7.

Mules at home
• The Mules are 9-2 at home this season after sweeping a three-game series from Emporia State and 113-27 at the friendly confines of Crane Stadium/Tompkins Field under Tom Myers.
• Central Missouri was 20-5 at home last season. The Mules' best home record under Myers was a 23-3 mark during the 2011 campaign.
• The Mules are 693-136-1 (.836) in 830 games played during their 38th season playing home games at Crane Stadium/Tompkins Field.

Mules on the road
• The Mules are 18-5 in road games this season after beating Missouri Western two out of three games in St. Joseph over the weekend.
• UCM is 127-32 in road games during the Tom Myers era.

Mules at neutral sites
• The Mules are 7-2 this year when playing on a neutral site field and 34-12 overall during the Tom Myers era after taking two out of three from Washburn in St. Louis earlier this season.
• UCM opened the season 3-1 at the Astros In Action D-II Invitational and then swept a doubleheader from Truman State in Bolivar.

Mules in the MIAA Tournament
• The Mules open MIAA tournament play on Friday in search of their fourth straight tournament title and fifth crown overall under head coach Tom Myers.
• UCM is 16-4 in the MIAA Tournament under Myers. The Mules have won 20 tournament titles in school history, including 16 of the last 19.
• The Mules were 3-0 at last year's MIAA Tournament winning their three games by a combined score of 15-2.

Regional Rankings
• Central Missouri continues to hold down the No. 1 spot in the latest NCAA-II Central Region Rankings released on Wednesday. The top six teams in the final rankings will qualify for the NCAA-II Central Region Tournament May 16-19 at a campus site to be determined.
• Minnesota State was ranked No. 2 in the poll followed by Missouri Western, Southern Arkansas, Southwestern Oklahoma State and St. Cloud State rounding out the top six.
• The complete Central Region rankings can be found on page five of the notes.

Mules in the Polls
• Central Missouri moved up one spot to No. 7 in the country in this week's ABCA/Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Poll. The Mules are ranked in the top seven in all four publications including fourth in the NCBWA poll, fourth in the College Baseball Lineup poll and sixth in the D2BaseballNews.com poll.
• The Mules have been ranked in the Collegiate Baseball News Top 25 for 89 consecutive weeks with their No. 7 ranking this week. The Mules have been ranked, in order, 4, 7, 9, 9, 8, 5, 4, 3, 5, 7, 5, 8, 8 and 7 so far this season by CBN.
• The last time UCM was unranked was April 21, 2008, but the Mules finished that season ranked No. 4 in the nation.

The Myers way
• Central Missouri head coach Tom Myers has a 274-71 (.794) record in his sixth season leading the Mules' program.
• The Mules have won at least 44 games in each of his first five seasons and recorded 52 wins during the 2010 campaign.
• The Mules have had 20 first team All-MIAA selections and 11 All-Americans during Myers' tenure.

Mules Baseball history
• In the 57th season of UCM baseball the Mules have compiled a 1,722-666-9 (.720) record in 2,397 games played.
• The Mules have won 40 or more games 17 times, including 14 straight seasons and have won 50 or more games nine times.
• The Mules have won or shared 23 MIAA championships, 16 regional titles and two national championships.

Martinez Watch List
• Prior to the season, over 150 players from across the country were named to the Tino Martinez Award Watch List for the most outstanding player in Division II baseball. Central Missouri senior infielder John Oropeza, senior outfielder Kyle Grieshaber and junior shortstop Samuel Domingue were among the names selected for consideration for the award. Junior outfielder Kevin Gratza was added to the list midseason. The award is named after Tino Martinez, former Olympian and MLB All-Star, who played collegiately at Division II University of Tampa.

New region for the Mules in 2013
• As has been the case for all UCM sports this year, the MIAA has moved into a new region for postseason play in 2013.
• The MIAA, the Northern Sun and Great American Conferences now make up the NCAA-II Central Region.
• This year's regional will take place at a campus site to be determined May 16-19.

Mules Baseball by the Numbers
• 26 NCAA Regional Appearances (last 19 in a row)
• 23 MIAA Titles (15 of the last 19)
• 20 MIAA Tournament Titles (16 of the last 19)
• 16 Regional Championships
• 15 Regionals as host site
• 13 Top five national finishes
• 4 Third place finishes
• 1 National Runner-Up
• 2 National Championships

Mules Baseball: Winningest Team of the Millenium
• The Central Missouri baseball program has had unprecedented success in the last 20 years and has been even more impressive since the year 2000.  The Mules have a 691-154 (.818) record since 2000, the most wins of any program in NCAA Division I, II, or III. That is an average of 49 wins per season over the last 13-plus years.

A Tradition of Excellence in the Athletic Arena
• At the conclustion of the winter 2012-13 athletic season, Central Missouri has won a combined 193 MIAA regular-season conference championships in 14 league sports to lead all schools.
• During the 2011-12 school year UCM captured seven MIAA regular season and three tournament championships.
• Since 1983, the tenure of Athletic Director Jerry Hughes, UCM has won or shared 139 MIAA championships, more than any other league school.
• Central Missouri has won five national championships since 1980 (men's and women's basketball in 1984, baseball in 1994 and 2003, and women's bowling in 2003) and seven national championships overall.

A Tradition of Excellence in the Classroom
• The 500+ Central Missouri student-athletes received 245 Academic Awards from the MIAA office for the 2011-12 academic year.
• 195 UCM student-athletes were named to the MIAA Academic Honor Roll with a 3.0 GPA or higher.
• 32 UCM student-athletes were named MIAA Scholar Athletes with at least a 3.5 GPA and having earned All-MIAA honors in their respective sport.
• 18 UCM student-athletes were named MIAA Academic Excellence Award winners with a 4.0 GPA.
• UCM had 10 student-athletes earn Academic All-America honors, including Shawn Boss being named the CoSIDA Academic All-American of the Year for Track & Field.

Up next
• The winners of the four first round series will move on to Community America Ballpark in Kansas City, Kan. for games beginning on Thursday, May 9.
• The NCAA Division II Central Regional will take place May 16-19 at a campus site still to be determined.