Aces set to open Valley play in Carbondale

3/30/2017 5:26:00 PM

EVANSVILLE — Consistency will be key for the University of Evansville baseball team when it opens Missouri Valley Conference play this weekend with a three-game set against Southern Illinois at Itchy Jones Stadium in Carbondale.

The Aces (8-17) will be looking to notch their second series victory of the season and their first since taking two out of three at Campbell in Buies Creek, N.C.

UE, which fell in a pair of tightly-contested contests at Indiana and against SIUE earlier this week, has put together stretches of strong hitting and strong pitching separately, but as the schedule turns over to the league slate, head coach Wes Carroll will be hoping to see it all come together at the same time.

"We're starting to show more consistency defensively, but we still haven't played complementary baseball," said the ninth-year head coach. "Our pitchers haven't picked up our offense when we needed it, and our offense hasn't picked up our pitchers when we needed it. We just need to keep working and try to find ways to win."

The Aces have started to excel at the plate at times in recent weeks, thanks in large part to the local contingent in the line-up. Korbin Williams, a junior out of Newburgh, has seen his average climb to .337 for the season after stringing together four consecutive multi-hit games. Kenton Crews, a freshman out of Lincoln City, actually leads the team offensively with a .363 average, and Jasper product Craig Shepherd is second on the team at .360.

Trey Hair, a preseason All-American, is hitting .294 this season with team-best totals in doubles (13), runs (16) and RBI (18), and Travis Tokarek has excelled over the past week, hitting three home runs in his past four games.

On the mound, Patrick Schnieders (2-3, 2.48 ERA) will get the start on Friday with Connor Strain (0-2, 5.23) and Justin Hayden (2-3, 7.39) slated to get the nods on Saturday and Sunday.

SIU (12-14) will also be looking to round into form after dropping five of their last six games. The Salukis were picked to finish second in the Valley in the preseason poll.

First pitch on Friday in Carbondale is set for 6:30 p.m.

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