EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The University of Evansville baseball team returns home this weekend, hosting IPFW for a three-game series starting Friday at 6:00 p.m. CDT at Braun Stadium.







THIS WEEKEND’S SCHEDULE

LAST OUTING 
Evansville (12-9, 0-0 MVC) comes off a 1-1 mid-week, topping the University of Southern Indiana, 3-0, on Tuesday night and falling to Saint Louis University, 6-5, on Wednesday. Freshman Ryan Billo earned his first career win on the mound, throwing six scoreless innings, allowing just four hits, no walks, and striking out one against USI as the UE pitching staff combined for a shutout. Against SLU, UE fell into a five-run hole and couldn’t recover as Jared Baehl led the Aces with three hits and Cody Fick hit his third home run of the season. Sophomore Josh Biggs had a quality relief appearance, coming out of the bullpen to toss four strong scoreless innings, giving up just two hits and striking out five.

SCOUTING THE MASTODONS
IPFW (4-13, 0-0 Summit League) comes off an 8-1 loss to Purdue on Tuesday. The Mastodons are 2-3 in their last five games and 2-8 in their last 10. Will Faulkner leads the squad with a .361 average at the plate, marking the only IPFW player currently hitting above .300. The Mastodons are looking for their first triple and/or home run this weekend as the squad owns a .254 slugging percentage. Samuel Walker leads the pitching staff with a 1-1 record and 2.84 earned run average. He is scheduled to start Sunday’s game. As a team, the Mastodons are hitting .226 and own a collective 6.80 ERA.

ALL-TIME SERIES
Evansville leads the all-time series with IPFW 3-0. Evansville picked up two wins against the Mastodons in 2006 by scores of 3-2 and 7-6, and most recently, UE topped IPFW, 2-1, on March 13, 2009 in the first game of the Dunn Hospitality Classic. Greg Wallace scored UE’s first run of that game, while Nate Smith went 2-for-2 including the game-winning RBI in the eighth inning.

PITCHING PROBABLES
1: RHP Kyle Lloyd (1-2, 6.37 ERA) vs. LHP Nick Opitz (1-3, 5.04 ERA)
2: LHP Cole Isom (3-2, 4.11 ERA) vs. RHP Lucas Kesterson (0-3, 9.16 ERA)
3: RHP Cody Fick (4-0, 1.73 ERA) vs. RHP Samuel Walker (1-1, 2.84 ERA)

WE’RE GOING STREAKING
Eric Stamets, Cody Fick, and Nate Smith are currently on a hot-streak as Fick has recorded a hit in six straight games, and Stamets and Smith have hit in five consecutive. All five of Stamets’ have also been multi-hit games, recording two in each contest.

ACE MAINSTAYS
Shortstop Eric Stamets and centerfielder Greg Wallace have started every game this season and mark the only players on UE’s roster who haven’t shared their position with another Ace this spring nor the 2010 season, as well. Stamets has hit in the leadoff spot of the batting order every game this year. Cody Fick and Trentt Copeland have also started every game this season, but have split time among multiple positions in the infield and pitcher’s mound.

HOME RUN CLUB
Greg Wallace (4), Cody Fick (3), Ryan Oesterle (2), Jared Baehl (1), and Eric Stamets (1) are all members of the 2011 home run club, each knocking at least one out of the park this spring. Fick’s home run in the seventh inning at Saint Louis gave him his 31st career dinger, passing Ed Kothera (1985-87) on UE’s career leaders list for second all-time. Fick is now nine home runs shy of Jeff Starks’ (1979-82) program record of 40. A transfer from Jefferson College, Fick has been able to reach second all-time in just three seasons with the Aces. In 2010, the Freeburg, Mo. native belted 19 home runs, one shy of tying UE’s single-season record.

TURN TWO
UE has made 25 double plays this season heading into the weekend, while hitting into just nine. The duo of Stamets at short and Copeland at second has been spectacular, including a standout play in Tuesday night’s game versus USI when Copeland dove up the middle and flipped the ball out of his glove to Stamets who bare-handed it and threw the runner out at first.

MR. CLUTCH
There is nobody better to have at the plate than Cody Fick when the Aces have ducks on the pond. Fick is a whopping 11-for-12 (.917) when there’s a runner on third and less than two outs, almost always picking up an RBI. With any runners on base, he is hitting .500 (24-for-48) and with runners in scoring position he is 16-for-34 (.417).

HOT BATS
Six of eight of UE’s regularly starting position players are currently hitting well above .300 on the season. Right fielder Nate Smith (.421), third baseman Cody Fick (.381), centerfielder Greg Wallace (.350), shortstop Eric Stamets (.337), left fielder Jared Baehl (.329), and first baseman Ryan Oesterle (.329) lead the Aces’ bats.

LET’S GET SOME RUNS
Scoring 127 runs so far this season, the Evansville offense has allowed its pitching staff some room for error. When the Aces hold their opponent to less than six runs, they have a perfect 11-0 record.

EARLY AND OFTEN
When the Aces cross the plate first, they own an 11-2 record this spring, but when their opponent tallies a run in the first inning, they are winless, 0-7.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Senior Cody Fick led Evansville to a 2-1 mark last week, as he hit .769 across three games and picked up a win on the mound over Big Ten opponent Indiana University, earning himself Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week as well as College Baseball Insider’s Central Region Player of the Week honors. Fick went 10-for-13 at the plate with two home runs, five doubles, five runs scored, and 11 runs batted in, as he recorded a 1.615 slugging percentage and .750 on-base percentage on the week. Against UT-Martin, Fick belted home runs in his first two at-bats, tallying six RBI in the contest and scored four runs in the 18-6 win. In a doubleheader with Indiana, Fick led the Aces with six hits, two runs scored and five RBI, going 3-for-4 in both games. The Freeburg, Mo. native lined three doubles in game one, including a ground-rule double in the 10th inning that kept the Aces’ hopes alive in the one-run game and would have actually tied the score had the ball not hopped the fence as UE fell 6-5. In the nightcap, Fick helped his own cause with three hits, including a double and two RBI while throwing six complete innings on the mound, allowing three runs on eight scattered hits to earn his fourth straight win in UE’s 7-5 victory. Fick leads the UE pitching staff with a 4-0 record and 1.73 ERA on the season despite third base being his primary position.