SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – The University of Evansville baseball team will turn to two of the top arms in the Missouri Valley Conference to get things going this week as the Purple Aces' quest for an MVC tournament crown will begin bright and early Wednesday morning at Hammons Field.
MVC Championship Central //
Tournament Notes
UE vs. Indiana State (Wednesday, 9 a.m.): Live Stats |
91.5 WUEV |
The Valley on ESPN3 |
ISU Website
The sixth-seeded Aces, who are looking to rebound from a 17-37 regular season, put together an 8-12 mark in conference play. The team was paced by an impressive pitching rotation, beginning with All-MVC first-teamer Connor Strain, who ranked second in the conference with a 2.44 earned run average. The fifth-year senior will earn the nod in Wednesday's opener against third-seeded Indiana State (27-24, 12-9 MVC).
In the second game, which will be against either No. 2 Dallas Baptist or No. 7 Bradley, Patrick Schnieders will get the start. Another senior, Schnieders is the top strikeout pitcher in the conference with 89 so far this season. He boasts of a 4.08 ERA, and he's racked up 10-or-more punchouts in four of his 14 starts.
With a win in either of the first two games, the Aces would guarantee at least one game on Friday, which could see Justin Hayden or Austin Allinger take to the mound.
Offensively, the team will look for the all-conference duo of Trey Hair and Travis Tokarek to lead the way. Hair, a senior out of Firth, Neb., owns a .297 average with team-best marks in runs (36), runs batted in (40), walks (34) and doubles (21). Tokarek and his .269 average leads the team in homers with eight.
Andrew Tanous, who has scored 29 runs and knocked in 29 more, owns a team-best .299 batting average.
As a team, the Aces will be looking to build off a tournament run a season ago at Indiana State's Bob Warn Field that saw UE advance to play on Friday before being eliminated by eventual champion Dallas Baptist. UE has not won a conference tournament crown since the 2006 season.
UE fell in two out of three contests to the Sycamores this season, with the lone win a 4-1 victory in game two. Strain toed the rubber for the Aces in the contest, tossing seven scoreless frames while striking out eight for his first victory of the season.
Strain's counterpart on Wednesday will be ISU's Will Kincanon, who tossed the rubber game of that three-game set. In that contest, he gave up just five hits and struck out seven over 6.1 frames for what was then his second win of the season.
First pitch on Wednesday is slated for 9 a.m., and the winner of the contest will move on to face either No. 2 seed Dallas Baptist or No. 7 seed Bradley on Thursday afternoon. The loser will play in an elimination game at 9 a.m.
All games of the 2017 MVC Championship will be broadcast live on The Valley on ESPN3, and each UE contest will be presented on 91.5 WUEV.
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