Southern Illinois' Austin Montgomery and Creighton's Ty Blach have been named the league's initial Baseball Player and Pitcher of the Week, respectively.
The Missouri Valley Conference’s annual baseball Coach of the Year award will be named in honor of the late Dan Callahan, the league announced today.
Missouri State, which returns a dominating young pitching staff and a wealth of depth from last year's squad, has been tabbed as the league favorite in the annual coaches' preseason poll. The Bears tallied 60 points and were a close favorite over second-place pick Creighton (53 points).