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Quick Hits
• The 12th-ranked Central Missouri Mules have earned their 20th straight NCAA Regional bid and the 27th overall in school history.
• Central Missouri takes on eighth-ranked St. Cloud State in the first round of the double elimination NCAA Central Regional on Thursday at 3:30 p.m. at Franklin Rogers Park in Mankato, Minn.
• The Mules are 35-11 overall after dropping two out of three games to Pittsburg State in the first round of the MIAA Tournament two weeks ago.
• UCM is ranked No. 12 in this week's ABCA/Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Poll and the Mules are ranked in the top 15 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 St. Cloud State have met three times on the diamond with the Huskies holding a 2-1 series lead.
• This will be the first meeting between the two schools since 2007. That year the teams split a doubleheader in Port Charlotte, Fla. The Mules won the opener 6-1 before falling 7-3 in the nightcap.
• The only other meeting between the two schools came at the 1971 Midwest College Division Regional, also played in Mankato. The Huskies won that game 4-1.

On the air
• All of Central Missouri's games during the postseason 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.

St. Cloud State
• The Huskies come into the NCAA Central Region Tournament as the No. 5 seed at 34-9 overall. They won the Northern Sun Regular Season Championship with a 19-3 conference mark, their first title since 1994.
• St. Cloud State is batting .310 as a team and are led by Garrett Fischer's .412 average.  Six players are hitting .300 or better, including Zach Hoffman at .355, he also is tied for the team lead with three home runs. Sean Borman also has three homers and leads the squad with 37 RBI.
• The SCSU pitching staff has an 2.34 team ERA, tops in NCA-II, allowing just 106 runs, 87 earned, in 355.0 innings. Chris Kubitz leads the staff with a 0.64 ERA in 12 appearances. Reese Gregory is 2-0 with a 1.35 ERA in 19 relief appearances. Kyle Fischer is 10-2 with a 2.02 ERA in 12 appearances, including 10 starts.
• Opponents are batting .213 against St. Cloud State pitching.
• The pitching staff has issued just 91 walks while striking out 291 in 335.0 innings pitched.
• The Huskies have committed 42 errors in the field and have a .971 team fielding percentage.

The Mules
• Central Missouri enters the NCAA Central Region Tournament as the No. 2 seed at 35-11 overall.
• The Mules are batting .335 as a team and are led by Kevin Gratza's .392 average. Kyle Grieshaber is hitting .366 and leads the team with nine home runs and 55 RBI. John Oropeza is hitting .351 with 50 runs driven in, while Brad Wilson is batting .345 with three long balls and 53 RBI.
• The UCM pitching staff has an ERA of 3.98 and opponents are hitting .262 against them. Travis Higgs is 5-2 with a 3.36 ERA in 11 starts and leads the team with 48 strikeouts in 59.0 innings. Jake Heissler is 5-0 with a 2.29 ERA and 38 K's in 19 relief appearances. Kurtis Schuyler has recorded 46 K's in 50.0 innings pitched. Andrew Urban is 5-3 with a 2.49 ERA and five saves in 25 relief appearances, while Zach Davis has six saves and 3.33 ERA in 17 appearances out of the bullpen.
• The Mules have a .973 fielding percentage and have turned 29 double plays on the year.

Worth Noting
• This is Central Missouri's 20th straight NCAA Tournament appearance and 27th overall.
• The Mules have won 16 regional championships in 26 NCAA appearances.
• The Mules have scored at least one run in 344 of the 348 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
    May 5, 2013 - (HAYS, Kan.) -- The seventh-ranked Central Missouri Mules rallied from three runs down in the eighth inning to force extra innings, but fell 9-7 to Pittsburg State in 10 innings on Sunday afternoon at Larks Park. The loss eliminates UCM from the MIAA Tournament and the Mules must now wait until next Sunday to find out their NCAA postseason fate.
    The Mules (35-11) took a first inning lead when Brad Wilson doubled home Samuel Domingue to put UCM in front. The Gorillas (28-22) tied the game in the second inning on a Jacoby Martin sacrifice fly.
    UCM went back in front in the bottom of the frame on Jon Cotter's sacrifice fly to take a 2-1 lead. Pittsburg State took the lead in the third on a Ryan Bilovesky two-run home run to grab the 3-2 advantage.
    PSU pushed the lead to 4-2 on Luke Bordewick's solo home run in the fourth. The Mules got a run back in the bottom of the fourth on a Barrett Noirfalise RBI groundout.
    The Gorillas pushed their lead to 7-3 in the fifth scoring three runs on four hits in the frame.  UCM got a run back in the sixth when Noirfalise homered to deep center field to pull within 7-4.
    The lead stood until the eighth when the Mules scored three times to knot the score at 7-7. Trevor Jones' bases-loaded double plated two runs and Cotter's sacrifice fly tied the game. The go-ahead run was at third with two outs, but Domingue grounded out on a close play at first to end the inning.
    Neither team was able to muster much in the ninth to force extra innings. The first two batters reached in the 10th for PSU and both runners moved up 90 feet on a wild pitch. Following a strikeout, Austin Lastimado singled up the middle past a drawn in infield to score both runs. The Mules were retired in order in the bottom of the inning giving PSU the win and eliminating UCM from the MIAA Tournament.
    Andrew Urban (5-3) took the loss for the Mules after giving up two runs on four hits in 1.1 innings of relief. Jake Heissler threw 4.1 innings of four-hit relief to keep the Mules in it.
    Ryan McKay (4-1) earned the win for the Gorillas after tossing 2.2 innings of relief allowing one run on two hits.

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 7-3 this season after dropping two of three games in the MIAA Tournament to Pittsburg State.

Mules at home
• The Mules are 9-2 at home this season after sweeping a three-game series from Emporia State to close out the regular season 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 back on April 20-21.
• UCM is 127-32 in road games during the Tom Myers era.

Mules at neutral sites
• The Mules are 8-4 this year when playing on a neutral site field and 35-14 overall during the Tom Myers era after dropping two of three games to Pittsburg State in Hays, Kan. two weeks ago.
• UCM opened the season going 3-1 at the Astros In Action D-II Invitational in Houston.

Mules in the NCAA Tournament
• The Mules are 22-11 in the NCAA Tournament under head coach Tom Myers and 93-53 overall in 26 previous NCAA postseason appearances.
• UCM was 4-2 at last year's South Central Regional falling in the “if necessary” championship game to St. Mary's.
• UCM is 19-5 in regional play during Myers' tenure.
• Central Missouri is 4-1 in first round regional games under Myers. UCM lost to St. Edward's 8-6 in the first round of last year's South Central Regional.

Regional breakdown
• The Mules come into the Central Regional as the No. 2 seed and will play fifth-seeded St. Cloud State in the first round. Other matchups include top-seeded and host Minnesota State taking on the No. 6 seed Missouri Southern and No. 3 Southern Arkansas against No. 4 Missouri Western.

Mules in the Polls
• Central Missouri dropped five spots to No. 12 in the country in the latest ABCA/Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Poll. The Mules are ranked in the top 15 in all four publications including seventh in the College Baseball Lineup poll, ninth in the D2BaseballNews.com poll and 15th in the NCBWA Poll.
• The Mules have been ranked in the Collegiate Baseball News Top 25 for 90 consecutive weeks with their No. 12 ranking last week. The Mules have been ranked, in order, 4, 7, 9, 9, 8, 5, 4, 3, 5, 7, 5, 8, 8, 7 and 12 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.

All-MIAA Mules
• The Mules had 10 players named to the All-MIAA team, including three first-teamers. Chase Graskewicz (C), Kevin Gratza (OF) and Andrew Urban (RP) were all first team selections.
• Second Team honors went to Travis Higgs (SP), John Oropeza (1B), Samuel Domingue (SS) and Kyle Grieshaber (UT).
• Mules earning honorable mention honors were Jake Heissler (RP), Jon Cotter (2B), and Brad Wilson (OF)

The Myers way
• Central Missouri head coach Tom Myers has a 275-73 (.790) 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 23 first team All-MIAA selections and 11 All-Americans during Myers' tenure.

Climbing the Charts
• Senior first baseman John Oropeza has moved into 10th place on Central Missouri's career doubles list with 46. He is two doubles shy of tying Boomer Berry (2000-03) for ninth on the all-time list.
• His 18 doubles this season ranks just outside the top 10 for a single season.
• Additionally, his 882 career putouts ranks third all-time in school history.

Mules Baseball history
• In the 57th season of UCM baseball the Mules have compiled a 1,723-668-9 (.720) record in 2,400 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.

Mules Baseball by the Numbers
• 27 NCAA Regional Appearances (last 20 in a row, including 2013)
• 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 692-156 (.816) 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
• If the Mules win game one, they will play on Friday at 7 p.m. against the winner of No. 3 Southern Arkansas and No. 4 Missouri Western. If they lose, then their elimination game will take place on Friday at 12 p.m. against either Minnesota State or Missouri Southern.
• The winner of the Central Regional will advance to the NCAA Division II Baseball Championships May 25-June 1 in Cary, N.C.