Aces and Patriots set to close out regular season

5/17/2017 5:34:00 PM

EVANSVILLE – Conference tournament positioning will be on the line this weekend as the University of Evansville baseball team will be looking to improve its seeding when Dallas Baptist pays a visit to Charles H. Braun Stadium to close out the regular season.

The Aces, who enter the seires in sixth place in the conference with a 7-10 league mark and a 16-35 record overall, can mathematically finish anywhere from fourth through seventh in the eight-team Missouri Valley Conference. UE currently holds a 2.5-game edge over Bradley for the No. 6 seed and trails both Wichita State and Southern Illinois by 1.5 games for the fourth and fifth seeds.

Missouri State has already locked up the No. 1 seed and regular season championship with a 17-0 league record, and DBU has grabbed the second thanks to owning the tiebreaker and a three-game lead on Indiana State heading into the final series.

DBU is 34-18 overall and 13-5 in the MVC.

With a short turnaround coming up due to next week's conference tournament, the Aces will slightly alter their rotation for the final league series. Patrick Schnieders will still get the nod in Thursday's opener. With 83 strikeouts to his name, the Westphalia, Mo., native leads the MVC in the category and boasts of four starts this season with 10-or-more punchouts. He is 3-6 on the year with a 4.37 earned run average.

Strain, who ranks third in the Valley in ERA at 2.44, will not start game two, but he's expected to return to the rotation for next week's championship. In his stead will be Austin Allinger ((3-3, 4.35 ERA), who put in an incredible outing out of the bullpen in last Saturday's 17-inning win at Wichita State. The sophomore tossed six innings while giving up just two hits and fanning eight to keep the Shockers off the board.

Justin Hayden (4-6, 5.09 ERA) will start Saturday's finale.

On offense, Andrew Tanous will hope to carry over his 4-for-4 performance from Tuesday's game with Belmont. The junior out of Katy, Texas, leads the team with a .299 batting average, and he's touched home 28 times this season and knocked in 28 more. Trey Hair, his former Fort Scott Community College teammate is second on the squad with a .293 mark as well as team-best totals in doubles (19), homers (7), walks (33), runs scored (35) and RBI (35).

Travis Tokarek, who shares the home run lead with Hair, is hitting .273 with 29 runs and 30 RBI.

Hair, Schnieders and Strain will each be honored with a special Senior Day ceremony prior to Saturday's first pitch.

Saturday will also mark the Purple Aces Club Cookout. Members of the club will be serving hot dogs, bratwurst, chips and soft drinks throughout the afternoon, and it will be offered for free to fans wearing their Purple Aces gear.

First pitch is set for 6 p.m. on Thursday and the series will continue on Friday at 4 p.m. before concluding Saturday with an 11 a.m. start.

=== #AcesAces ===

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