EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The University of Evansville baseball team continues Missouri Valley Conference play this weekend, hosting Missouri State for a three-game series at Braun Stadium. Game one is scheduled for Friday at 6:00 p.m. CT.

 

LAST WEEK’S RESULTS 

4/19	vs. MURRAY STATE	W	8-3	8-11-1 / 3-8-2	Billo (W, 3-0)
4/23	at  Bradley	L	2-3	2-6-1 / 3-7-2	Lloyd (L, 3-4)
4/23	at  Bradley	W	6-0	6-11-0 / 0-2-2	Isom (W, 4-4)
4/24	at  Bradley	W	2-0	2-8-0 / 0-7-2	Fick (W, 6-2)

THIS WEEKEND'S SCHEDULE

Fri. April 29	vs. MISSOURI STATE	6:00 p.m.	Live Stats	Listen (91.5 FM)	Watch
Sat. April 30	vs. MISSOURI STATE	2:00 p.m.	Live Stats	Listen (91.5 FM)
Sun. May 1	vs. MISSOURI STATE	1:00 p.m.	Live Stats	Listen (91.5 FM)	Watch

PITCHING PROBABLES
RHP  Kyle Lloyd (3-4, 5.18 ERA) vs. Nick Petree (6-0, 2.70 ERA)

LHP Cole Isom (4-4, 4.37 ERA) vs. Grant Gordon (3-4, 4.14 ERA)

RHP Cody Fick (6-2, 2.62 ERA) vs. Blake Barber (6-2, 3.36 ERA)

 

SCOUTING THE ACES
Evansville (22-15, 3-6 MVC) comes off a 2-1 series victory over Bradley last weekend. The Aces have been gradually climbing the ladder, going 0-3 in the Valley series opener with Southern Illinois, then went 1-2 at Wichita State. UE enters the weekend hitting .301 as a team with five Aces batting above .300 – Cody Fick (.397, 8 HR), Greg Wallace (.349, 7 HR), Trentt Copeland (.333, .424 OB%), Jared Baehl (.329, 5 3B), and Ryan Oesterle (.305, 5 HR). The UE pitching staff owns a 4.49 ERA, piloted by Fick’s 6-2 record and 2.62 ERA.

 

SCOUTING THE BEARS
Missouri State (24-15, 6-3 MVC) comes off a 5-2 victory over Missouri on Wednesday. The Bears held MU scoreless after the third inning and were led offensively by Derek Mattea and Luke Voit who each had a two-RBI hit in the road win. In Valley play, the Bears have gone 2-1 in each of their three series with Wichita State, Southern Ilinois, and Indiana State. So far, the Bears have fallen in every MVC game two. As a team, MSU is hitting .307 with seven players batting above the .300 mark. Aaron Conway (.354, 12-16 sb-att) and Brock Chaffin (.350, 4 HR) lead the squad offensively, while Brent Seifert has belted a team-high seven home runs this year. On the mound, Nick Petree (6-0, 2.70 ERA) and Blake Barber (6-2, 3.36 ERA) are both 3-0 in Valley games, while the staff owns a 4.38 ERA and has held their opposition to a .279 batting average.

 

ALL-TIME SERIES WITH BEARS
The Aces trail the all-time series with Missouri State, 31-41. Last season, Evansville fell, 7-4, in game one, but came back to win games two and three by scores of 6-4 and 3-2 in Valley-opening weekend. UE also topped MSU, 7-2, in the MVC Tournament.

 

Cody Fick, Sr., INF/RHP, Freeburg, Mo.
Last week, senior Cody Fick led Evansville to a 3-1 mark, including a series win over Bradley, batting .333 on the week and extending his hitting streak to eight games. Against Murray State, Fick belted his eighth home run of the season, while scoring two runs and knocking in two. He recorded a hit and RBI in each game of Saturday’s doubleheader versus the Braves. In the nightcap, he scored two of Evansville’s six runs in the 6-0 victory. In Sunday’s rubber match, Fick (6-2) hurled all nine innings on the mound, allowing seven scattered hits, just two walks, and struck out seven in his second complete game shutout of the season. He also helped his own cause, recording two hits at the plate, a double and RBI single, in the 2-0 win. Fick leads the squad with a .397 batting average on the season.

 

ACE PITCHER OF THE WEEK
Cole Isom, Fr., LHP, Hopkinsville, Ky.

In his last outing, freshman Cole Isom hurled a two-hit complete game shutout with a career-high eight strikeouts, piloting Evansville to a 6-0 win over Bradley. Isom (4-4) gave up a hit to lead off the game and a single in the seventh inning, but that was all as the freshman went nine strong, facing just three over the minimum number of batters. The southpaw threw six perfect innings in the contest, and ended each of the first five innings with a strikeout. Isom completely shut down the Braves, as they managed just a .071 batting average against him. The victory marked his fourth of the season and second complete game shutout of the year.

In 2010, the Aces neither shut out nor were shut out by an opponent. Also, no UE pitcher threw a complete game. This season, the Aces have recorded seven shutouts, four complete game shutouts (two each for Cody Fick and Cole Isom), and five complete games.

 

SHUTTIES II
Isom and Fick’s back-to-back complete game shutouts versus Bradley marked Evansville’s sixth and seventh shutouts of the season. The last time UE recorded back-to-back shutties was in the 2006 season when the Aces topped Nothern Iowa, 7-0, on Apr. 15 and then beat Murray State, 10-0, on Apr. 19. The last time Evansville pitchers threw back-to-back complete game shutouts was in the 1997 season when Jeremy Brown and Ryan Miller topped Bradley 1-0 (5/9/97) and 6-0 (5/10/97), respectively.

 

CIRCLING THE CYCLE
Against Murray State senior Greg Wallace finished a triple shy of the cycle, hitting a double, home run, and single in his first three at-bats. No one in the history of UE baseball has hit for the cycle, but the Aces have been very close this season. For a total of seven times, a UE player has been one away. Jared Baehl was a home run shy at Saint Louis (3/30), Fick was a home run shy at Jacksonville (3/9) and a triple shy both vs. UT-Martin (3/23) and Wichita State (4/15), and in addition to Murray State, Wallace was a triple away at Arkansas State (2/25) and a home run away vs. IPFW (4/3).

 

Junior Trentt Copeland has been named this week’s Prairie Farms/Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Week. Copeland led Evansville with a .467 batting average on the week, leading the Aces to a 3-1 mark, including a series victory over Bradley. The Guelph, Ontario native recorded at least one hit in every contest, and had multi-hit games in all three with the Braves. In UE’s two conference victories over the weekend, Copeland tallied two hits and an RBI in each win, and also belted a double and scored a run in the series opener. Playing second base, Copeland recorded a perfect fielding percentage with 24 chances, including 17 assists. Copeland leads the Aces in Valley play with a .452 batting average and owns a .333 average overall. A marketing major, Copeland has also excelled in the classroom with a 3.69 cumulative GPA.

 

On this alumni weekend for baseball and softball, the Aces will be honoring the 2006 Missouri Valley Conference Championship team. In the conference tournament UE beat Missouri State, 2-1, in the title game. The ’06 team finished with 43-22 overall record and advanced to the Charlottesville (Va.) Regional Final. One of the most memorable moments from that season was when Robbie Minor capped a seven-run 9th-inning rally with his only career home run, a walk-off grand slam, to beat Lehigh, 10-6, in an elimination game. UE then beat Virginia and South Carolina by scores of 15-4 and 15-5 to advance to the regional final.

 

2011 HOME RUN CLUB
#Cody Fick# (8)
#Greg Wallace# (7)
#Ryan Oesterle# (5)
#Jared Baehl# (1)
#Eric Stamets# (1)
#Trentt Copeland# (1)

 

TURN TWO
UE has turned 41 double plays this season, while hitting into just 16. The duo of Stamets at short and Copeland at second has been spectacular, turning two 23 times up the middle this year. Stamets has had a hand in a team-high 27 double plays and leads the club with 132 assists. The sophomore set UE’s single-season assist record last season with 226. As a team, UE broke the program record in 2010 for defensive double plays with 69.

 

UE SHORT HOPS
- The Aces are 12-2 when leading after the first inning.
- The Aces are 18-4 when they score first.
- The Aces are 6-1 when they hit two or more home runs in a game.
- The Aces are 19-2 when they hold the opposition to five or less runs in a game.
- The Aces are 6-0 in two-run games.
- The Aces are 6-0 when they score 10 or more runs in a game.
- The Aces have shut out their opponents seven times this season.

- The Aces have 11 wins when they play at home, when they play away, when they play during the day, and when they play at night.
- #Cody Fick# and #Trentt Copeland# enter the weekend on an eight-game hitting streak.
- Reliever #Tyler Miller# has not given up a run in his last four outings and has only allowed two runs in eight appearances this season.

 

PRESEASON ALL-CONFERENCE
Sophomore #Eric Stamets# and seniors #Greg Wallace# and #Cody Fick# were chosen to the MVC’s Preseason All-Conference Team. 
Cody Fick - Third baseman and power hitter Fick garnered first-team all-conference honors last season after slugging a Valley-leading 19 home runs which also ranked 36th nationally.
Greg Wallace - Centerfielder Wallace tied former Major League great Joe Carter’s single-season MVC record for triples with a school-record 13, the fourth-highest single-season total in NCAA Division I history and also broke UE single-season records for both hits (91) and RBI (75), while hitting a team-best .371.  
Eric Stamets - Sophomore shortstop Eric Stamets was a consensus Freshman All-America selection after earning MVC Freshman of the Year laurels, ranking as the nation’s top freshman stolen base thief with a school-record 43 steals. Overall, Stamets hit .321 in his rookie campaign with 15 doubles, four home runs and 27 RBI.

 

RECORD BREAKING YEAR
In the 2010 season, the Aces broke or tied 19 different single-game, single-season and career records, including one MVC mark as the Aces finished the year 32-27 overall and 10-11 in conference play.