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The University of Evansville baseball team will begin Missouri Valley Conference play on Friday night at 6:00 p.m. at Charles H. Braun Stadium in Evansville, as the Purple Aces will host the Bradley University Braves in the opener of a three-game set.  All three games this weekend can be heard live on 91.5 F.M.-WUEV.

Evansville will be trying to turn around its fortunes from a tough non-conference start, as the Purple Aces will bring a 1-15 overall record into Valley play.  The slow start has overshadowed career years already by junior infielder Andy Smith and sophomore utility player Andy Pascoe.  Smith, a former Evansville North High School standout, currently leads the Purple Aces in hitting at .368.  He enters the weekend needing just three more hits to equal his hit total of a year ago.

Pascoe, meanwhile, will enter Valley play hitting .302, with a team-best four doubles, a home run, and 12 RBI offensively.  Pascoe has posted a team-best seven multi-hit games so far this year, while splitting time at both catcher and third base.  He has not only shined at the plate, but also behind it defensively, as he has already gunned down nine would-be base stealers, the best mark in the MVC so far.

Bradley, meanwhile, will enter Valley play with a 6-8 overall record.  The Braves are coming off of a week-long stay in Florida, where Bradley went 2-4 by winning two of its last three games.  Junior outfielder Colby Luttrell currently paces the Braves’ offense with a .357 batting average and six RBI.  Fellow junior Dan Brewer, a preseason all-MVC selection and a Cape Cod League All-Star this past summer, has gotten off to a slow start, hitting just .222, although Brewer finished Bradley’s Florida trip going 3-for-8 with a home run and four RBI in the last two games.

Evansville leads the all-time series over Bradley, 33-27, although the Braves took three out of four meetings from UE last year, including an 8-4 decision at the 2007 MVC Tournament in Springfield, Missouri.  This weekend’s series will consist of single games on Friday night (6:00 p.m.) and Saturday (2:00 p.m.) and Sunday afternoons (1:00 p.m.).