Jon Harris and Missouri State will be tested in the Springfield Regional by Iowa, Oregon and Canisius. Eric Sorenson breaks them all down.

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2015 Springfield Regional Preview

Springfield Regional Participants Missouri State Bears Springfield, MO 45-10 18-3 (1st MVC) Automatic Roster Statistics Iowa Hawkeyes Iowa City, IA 39-16 19-5 (2nd Big Ten) At-Large Roster Statistics Oregon Ducks Eugene, OR 37-23 16-14 (6th Pac-12) At-Large Roster Statistics Canisius Golden Griffins Buffalo, NY 34-28 16-8 (2nd MAAC) Automatic Roster Statistics

Regional Superlatives

Most Exciting Player: Eric Toole, Iowa. He dives for everything, whether he’s running down a gap shot in the meadow or stealing another base.

Best Hitter: Connor Panas, Canisius. With the pitching in this regional, if he continues to hit .379 it will be a miracle. But he is capable.

Best Defender: Jake Mangler, Iowa. The Hawkeye second baseman made a grand total of three errors in 55 starts.

Best Pitcher: Matt Hall, Missouri State. Leads the nation in strikeouts per nine innings with 12.67 and has 136 Ks in all.

X-Factor: The wide-eyed. MSU is hosting a Regional for the first time ever and Iowa is playing in its first postseason in decades. Will they be freaked out by the Big Stage? Advantage: Oregon.

Best Starting Rotation: Missouri State. The one-two punch of Matt Hall and Jon Harris can pitch the Bears to Omaha.

Best Bullpen: Iowa. Relievers Luke Vandermaten, Nick Hibbing and Ryan Erickson combined for 111 innings and gave up a total of 22 runs.

Best Offensive Team: Canisius. The Griffins have the most diversity at the dish. The power bats of Connor Panas and Brett Siddall are going to love the cozy confines of Hammons Field.

Best Defensive Team: Iowa. It’s really just splitting hairs between the Hawkeyes and Mo State in the field, but the Hawks have a tad more experience.

No. 1 Seed Win Probability (1-10): 6. Canisius is a dangerous four-seed and Oregon and Iowa are two teams who have gone on the road and played in some tough environments, so nothing will be easy here.

Team Breakdowns

Missouri State

Missouri State’s Matt Hall (Missouri State Athletics)

The Bears were part of an amazing season for the Missouri Valley Conference, winning both the regular season crown and the MVC tournament championship. After a 12-7 start, the Maroons won an impressive 33 out of their last 36 games, and they head into the NCAAs on a 16-game win streak. Head coach Keith Guttin admits, his team will ride its two big horses Jon Harris (6-1, 2.08) and Matt Hall (9-2, 2.38), who are both strong All-America candidates and “can match up with anyone in the country.” Harris has electric stuff and could be a high first-round draft pick, while the wily Hall has a funky three-quarters delivery that helps his 86-89 fastball play up and good feel for his 74-78 breaking ball. The biggest key to their postseason run is the performance of their No. 3 and No. 4 starters in Jordan Knutson (4-1, 2.97) and Andy Cheray (3-3, 5.40) and their closer Bryan Young (7-0, 1.01, 12 saves). The Bears were ranked seventh in the nation with a 2.74 team ERA. The offense doesn’t scare the bejesus out of anyone, hitting a decent .292 as a team, but they are notoriously patient and show a mature approach with 283 walks, which means their on-base percentage is 13th in the country at .395. Center fielder Tate Matheny is another top-round talent but hit just .294 with four home runs and 37 RBIs. He has had five multi-hit games in the last nine. Eric Cheray missed action from late February to late April due to injury, but his return has been a huge boon, hitting .436 in his 24 starts this season.

Iowa

Iowa’s Tyler Peyton (Iowa)

What a great story these guys are, huh? I mean, we’re talking about Iowa as a two-seed in the NCAA tournament. Yes, that’s not a typo. Rick Heller has done a great job in just his second season at the long woebegone program, leading them to a second place finish in the Big Ten. And talk about a team built on pitching and defense, the Hawkeyes were second to Illinois in the Big Ten in ERA at an even 3.00 and second in fielding behind Nebraska with a .978 fielding percentage. The all-righty rotation of Calvin Matthews, Blake Hickman and Tyler Peyton is solid, but none are blow-you-away strikeout artists, though Hickman has plus fastball velocity. Although senior Nick Hibbing leads the bullpen with seven saves and a 1.74 ERA in 22 appearances, six different pitchers picked up saves for the Hawkeyes this year and there are many options to mix and match the opposing offenses. The aforementioned Peyton also leads the Hawkeyes at the dish with a .352 average. CF Eric Toole (.309) is one of the more dangerous players in the country with 27 stolen bases. Six of the eight field starters returned this year and there is a lot of speed to burn. Senior middle infielder Jake Mangler (.307) and junior double-play mate Nick Roscetti (.301) are solid rocks on that stellar defense. These guys are hyper-experienced and just don’t beat themselves.

Oregon

Oregon closer Garrett Cleavinger (Shotgun Spratling)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we hear you people out there. The Ducks were the most controversial at-large selection in the country, sitting way down at No. 62 in the RPI. But look at the flip-side too, they were much higher in BoydNation.com’s ISR rankings (No. 36), and they finished very strong, with five straight series wins to land above .500 in the rugged Pac-12. So it’s good to see the committee didn’t just take the RPI on face value. Oddly, the Green and Gold (and whatever other color Nike puts in their voluminous amounts of uniform combos) is one of the worst-hitting teams in the field, batting just .254 as a team. They have one hitter that goes .300-plus in Mitchell Tolman (.329). Their biggest home run threat is catcher Shaun Chase, who hit five yard calls on the year — but his batting average is just .191. They don’t rely on power (27 home runs) or blazing speed (56 stolen bases), but rather patience (287 walks, seventh nationally). Plus, they somehow manage to score 5.4 runs per game. The pitching staff is built around lefties Cole Irvin and David Peterson, who each started 15 games but had slightly higher than expected ERAs in the 4.00-plus range. The strength of the Ducks is in the ’pen, where they have a lot of options. Stephen Nogosek (37 appearances, 2.05 ERA) and Cooper Stiles (25 appearances, seven walks in 53.1 innings) are good set-up men for closer Garrett Clevinger, a mid-90s fireballer who has nine saves and hundreds of intimidating glares to his game. Don’t let these guys get a lead on you.

Canisius

Connor Panas (Canisius)

Before we get to the Griffins, let’s do a slow-clap for head coach Mike McRae. Despite coaching at a program in Buffalo, N.Y., the Griffs have posted 36, 42, 40 and now 34-win seasons the last four years. That’s good stuff. After a 7-13 start to the season — which you’d expect from a Northern team dealing with lake-effect snows until April — the Griffins finished 27-15, including a 13-3 record in May. Like Oregon above, the Griffs show their maturity and patience by culling 274 free passes and also 85 plunkings this year. That’s why their on-base percentage is a stout .390, despite hitting a respectable but not overwhelming .289. Connor Panas leads the offense with a .379 average, 10 home runs and seven triples. He’s complemented by OF Brett Siddall’s .353 average and team-leading 12 home runs. This team also likes to apply the pressure, stealing 75 bases in 62 games. The pitching staff is deep and has experience, led by senior starter Devon Stewart (7-6, 3.65) and junior Alex Godzak (5-5, 4.34). Iannick Remillard might have the best name in the Regional and also saved 10 games this year, allowing only five inherited runners to score in his 33.1 innings.