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Quick Hits
• The 19th-ranked Central Missouri Mules travel to Arkadelphia, Ark. to take on Ouachita Baptist in a four game series beginning on Friday.
• UCM is ranked No. 19 in the ABCA/Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Preseason Poll and the Mules are ranked in all four preseason publications.
• Central Missouri is the preseason favorite to win the MIAA as chosen by the league coaches.
• The Mules were 36-13 a season ago and advanced to the 27th NCAA Tournament in school history, and the 20th straight.

The Series
    Central Missouri leads the all-time series with Ouachita Baptist 4-2. All six games have come during the Tom Myers era.
    The teams did not meet last season. The Mules beat OBU 9-4 in the 2012 season opener and took two out of three from the Tigers in the 2011 season-opening series in Arkadelphia.
    The teams also split a doubleheader at Ouachita Baptist during the 2010 season.

Ouachita Baptist
    Ouachita Baptist enters the weekend at 2-2 overall after splitting a four-game series with No. 3-ranked St. Edward's in Austin, Texas.
    The Tigers swept the first doubleheader of the series, winning 1-0 and 8-6 before dropping Sunday's doubleheader by scores of 4-2 and 6-4.
    The Tigers are batting .159 through the first four games. Keegan Ghidotti is hitting .375 after appearing in two games last weekend. Evan Ruiz and Will Wallace lead the team with two RBI apiece.
    The pitching staff sports a 4.20 ERA after the season-opening series. Davis Ward and Josh Reeves picked up the wins for OBU. Ward was named the National Pitcher of the Week after tossing a seven-inning complete game, allowing just three hits and striking out five in the 1-0 game one victory.
    Defensively, the Tigers committed five errors in the four games and have a .966 fielding percentage.  They turned three double plays during the series.

The Mules
    Central Missouri enters the series at 2-2 overall after the season-opening Houston Winter Invitational.
    The Mules enter the weekend hitting .241 as a team with five doubles, two triples and 20 RBI. Miles Orscheln leads the team hitting .500 after going 4 for 8 in his first college action. Barrett Noirfalise is hitting .455 with a pair of RBI, while Trevor Jones (.429 avg) and Tony Sandifer (.308) are tied for the team lead with four RBI each.
    The pitching staff sports a 2.65 ERA in four games. Ricky Rivera is 1-0 with a 0.00 ERA after tossing five innings of one-hit ball in the tournament finale against Winona State. Jake Heissler is also 1-0 after allowing just three hits in five innings in the win over Henderson State. The UCM pitchers struck out 32 batters in 34.0 innings pitched in Houston.
    The Mule defense committed three errors and sports a .979 fielding percentage. They turned one double play in the season-opening tournament.

Worth Noting
• The Mules have scored at least one run in 351 of the 355 games played under head coach Tom Myers.
• The Mules won four straight conference series to close out the 2013 regular season.
• Senior outfielder Kevin Gratza was named to the NCBWA Preseason All-Central Region First Team.

Last time out
    February 4, 2014 - (HOUSTON, Texas) -- The 19th-ranked Central Missouri Mules held off Winona State 3-2 on Tuesday morning at Minute Maid Park. The win gave UCM a 2-2 record at the season-opening Houston Winter Invitational.
    The Mules jumped on top 2-0 in the first inning. After Trevor Jones and Brad Wilson reached on singles, Tony Sandifer roped a double to the gap in left center scoring both.
    Central Missouri tallied another run in the third. Sandifer reached on an error, went to second on another error and scored on Miles Orscheln's base hit to left field to give UCM a 3-0 lead.
    The Warriors (1-3) got on the board in the seventh. Back-to-back walks put two runners on with one out when Nathan Krause roped a double down the left field line to pull WSU within 3-2. Kyle Gehrs was able to pitch out of the jam and keep UCM in front by one.
    The Warriors again threatened in the ninth with back-to-back singles with only one out, but Zach Davis induced a foul out and line out to left to give Central Missouri the win.
    Ricky Rivera (1-0) picked up the win in his UCM debut, tossing 5.0 innings allowing just one hit with two walks and two strikeouts. Davis picked up his first save of the season allowing two hits with one strikeout in 1.1 innings of relief.
    Chase Blazier (0-1) took the loss for Winona State after giving up three runs, two earned, on five hits in five innings.

Mules picked first in MIAA Preseason Poll
    Central Missouri was picked to finish first in the MIAA according to the 14 league coaches in the preseason poll released on Thursday. The Mules received 12 of a possible 13 first place votes and tallied 168 points to claim the top spot. Missouri Western received one first place vote and tallied 144 points to come in second.
    Central Oklahoma received the other first place vote and totaled 139 points to come in third. Emporia State and Missouri Southern each received 128 points to tie for fourth.
    UCM opens MIAA play Feb. 21-23 hosting Southwest Baptist in a four-game series at Crane Stadium/Tompkins Field.

Mules in the Polls
    Central Missouri is ranked No. 19 in the nation in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Preseason Poll. The Mules are ranked in all four preseason publications including 12th in the D2BaseballNews.com poll, tied for 14th in the NCBWA poll and 23rd in the College Baseball Lineup poll.
    The Mules have been ranked in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper top 25 for 92 consecutive weeks with their No. 19 preseason ranking. UCM finished last season ranked 20th in the ABCA/Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll. The Mules are the only MIAA school ranked in every poll.
    The last time UCM was unranked was April 21, 2008, but the Mules finished that season ranked No. 4 in the nation.

Mules in non-conference action
    Central Missouri is 92-35 in non-conference games during the Tom Myers era after going 2-2 at the season-opening Houston Winter Invitational last weekend. The Mules were 8-5 against non-conference competition last season.

Mules in MIAA play
    Central Missouri is 186-42 in MIAA play under head coach Tom Myers. The Mules were 28-8 in conference play last year as they finished in second place in the league standings.

Mules on the road
    The Mules were 18-5 on the road last season and are 127-32 in road games during the Tom Myers era.
Mules in Arkansas
    The Mules are 17-3 in games played in the state of Arkansas during the Tom Myers era. UCM was 3-0 last year, sweeping a series at Henderson State.

The Myers way
    Central Missouri head coach Tom Myers has a 278-77 (.783) record in his seventh season leading the Mules' program. The Mules 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 13 All-Americans during Myers' tenure.

Mules Baseball history
    In the 58th season of UCM baseball the Mules have compiled a 1,726-672-9 (.719) record in 2,407 games played. The Mules have won 40 or more games 17 times, including 14 straight seasons from 1999-2012, 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)
• 23 MIAA Titles (15 of the last 20)
• 20 MIAA Tournament Titles (16 of the last 20)
• 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 695-160 (.813) record since 2000, the most wins of any program in NCAA Division I, II, or III. That is an average of 49.5 wins per season over the last 14 years.
A Tradition of Excellence in Athletics
• Central Missouri has won a combined 193 MIAA regular-season conference championships in 14 league sports to lead all schools.
• Last season, UCM captured three MIAA regular season titles and one tournament championship.
• 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 550 Central Missouri student-athletes received 375 Academic Awards from the MIAA office for the 2012-13 academic year.
• 305 UCM student-athletes were named to the MIAA Academic Honor Roll with a 3.0 GPA or higher.
• 37 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.
• 33 UCM student-athletes were named MIAA Academic Excellence Award winners with a 4.0 GPA.
• UCM had eight student-athletes earn Academic All-America honors in their respective sports, including Brent Vogel being named the Capital One/CoSIDA Academic All-American of the Year for Men's Track & Field.

Upcoming
• The Mules are scheduled to open MIAA play on Friday, Feb. 21 hosting Southwest Baptist for a 2 p.m. game. It is the first game of a four-game series. Saturday's doubleheader will start at 1 p.m. with Sunday's single game also starting at 1 p.m.