• Series Notes (PDF)
• Free Live Game Audio (Courtesy of WUEV)
• Live Game Statistics
When the University of Evansville and Indiana State met last year in baseball, state bragging rights were really the only thing at stake. Much more than that will be on the line this weekend, though, as the two teams will meet in an important three-game Missouri Valley Conference series at Sycamore Field in Terre Haute beginning on Friday night at 5:00 p.m. central time. All three games can be heard live on 91.5 F.M.-WUEV.
Evansville will bring a 25-23 overall record and 7-11 MVC mark into this weekend’s series. The Purple Aces currently sit in seventh place in the MVC standings, 1.5 games back of both Illinois State and Southern Illinois with six games to play. While UE will host SIU in the final week of the regular-season, UE’s post-season hopes could hinge on what happens this weekend in Terre Haute, as only the top six teams advance on to the State Farm MVC Tournament in two weeks.
The Purple Aces will enter the weekend series off of their third victory over nationally-ranked competition this spring, as UE downed No. 25 Illinois, 4-3, in 10 innings on Wednesday night in Champaign, Illinois. Senior outfielder
Jim Viscomi went 2-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI at the top of the order, and junior outfielder
Jared Baehl came through with a key RBI double in the eighth inning to help UE rally from an early 3-1 deficit. With the two hits, Viscomi moved his career total to 195, and he will enter this weekend’s series needing five more hits to become just the 21st player in UE baseball history to reach the 200-hit plateau.
Indiana State, meanwhile, finds itself in the race for the MVC regular-season championship, as the Sycamores currently sit in second place in the league standings with a 30-14 overall record and 12-4 conference mark. The Sycamores are 1.5 games back of league-leading Creighton with six Valley games to play. Indiana State has won four MVC series in a row and features the league’s top offense, as ISU sports a league-best .315 team batting average led by four of the league’s top 10 hitters in senior outfielder Brady Shoemaker (2nd-.384 average), junior outfielders Nick Ciolli (3rd-.380) and Ryan Strausborger (10th-.344) and junior third baseman Luke Fieser (4th-.373).
The series will begin Friday night at 5:00 p.m. and continue on both Saturday and Sunday afternoon at 12 noon central time. UE senior RHP John Foley (6-2, 3.75 ERA) is expected to get the start in Friday night’s opener, with juniors Wade Kapteyn (2-7, 4.97 ERA) and Keegan Dennis (2-3, 6.51 ERA) expected to start on Saturday and Sunday for UE.
