• Series Notes (PDF)
• AcesTV's Live Video Coverage
• Free Live Game Audio (Courtesy of WUEV)
• Live Game Statistics
The term “must-win game” gets thrown around loosely in sports these days. That won’t be the case this weekend at the University of Evansville though, as the Purple Aces’ baseball team literally must win all three games of its weekend series against Southern Illinois in order to advance on to the 2009 State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.
The two schools will open their pivotal three-game MVC series on Thursday night at 6:00 p.m. at UE’s Charles H. Braun Stadium. The series will continue on Friday night at 6:00 p.m. and conclude Saturday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. on UE’s “Senior Day.” All three game of the series can be heard live on 91.5 F.M.-WUEV, with live video also available on-line on AcesTV at www.gopurpleaces.com.
Evansville will bring a 25-27 overall record and 7-14 MVC mark into this weekend’s series after dropping a 10-8 extra-inning decision to Indiana on Tuesday. The Purple Aces currently sit in seventh place in the MVC standings, three games behind Southern Illinois for the sixth and final spot in the State Farm MVC Tournament field, as the Salukis will bring a 20-26 overall mark and 8-9 Valley record into the weekend. With three wins, Evansville will finish 16 percentage points ahead of SIU for the sixth and final playoff berth. One Evansville loss though, and the season will conclude on Saturday for UE.
Regardless of the series outcome, this weekend’s series will be the final home series for UE seniors J.R. Carbonell, John Foley, Tom Freeman, Andrew Gher, Mark Obenchain, Andy Smith, Peter Tountas, Jim Viscomi, and senior athletic training student Stephanie Schulmeyer. A majority of those players were part of UE’s MVC regular-season and tournament championship squad in 2006, and they know the importance of having to sweep a regular-season series finale in order to reach a goal. In 2006, UE had to sweep back-to-back series from Southern Illinois and Bradley in order to clinch the regular-season title.
Foley (6-3, 4.04 ERA) is expected to get the start in Thursday’s series opener, as he will be opposed by SIU senior RHP Adam Curynski (1-4, 4.61 ERA). Junior RHP Wade Kapteyn (2-9, 5.28 ERA) will likely battle SIU junior LHP Jimmy Cornell (2-1, 2.59 ERA) in Friday night’s contest, with fellow junior RHP Keegan Dennis (2-4, 7.06 ERA) expected to get the start for Saturday’s “Senior Day” affair. Dennis is expected to oppose SIU senior RHP Andrew Dunn (6-4, 2.31 ERA).
