Game Notes
EVANSVILLE, Ind. -- The University of Evansville baseball team continues its non-conference schedule Wednesday, taking on the Western Kentucky University Hilltoppers. First pitch is set for 6:00 p.m. CT at Nick Denes Field.
CATCH THE ACTION
PITCHING PROBABLES
Evansville
Ryan Billo (So., RHP) (0-0, 3.18 ERA)
Western Kentucky
GJ Strauss (So., RHP) (0-0, 5.00 ERA)
THE SERIES: WKU leads the all-time series 33-27. The teams last met in the 2008 season. In the home-and-home series, the Hilltoppers won both meetings by scores of 10-1 and 11-3.
WKU (4-7) – WKU comes off its first series win of the year, overcoming the Kent State Golden Flashes in 2-of-3 games. Hitting .276 as a team, WKU is led by Jared Andreoli (.355), Scott Wilcox (.349), and Ivan Hartle (.341). The pitching staff owns a 5.62 collective ERA.
EVANSVILLE (6-5) – The Aces come off a four-win week, going 3-1 in their own Dunn Hospitality Diamond Classic. UE beat IPFW twice (4-2, 9-1) and Eastern Illinois, 5-1, in the final game. Offensively,
Eric Stamets (.308) and
Jason Hockemeyer (.300) lead the squad. As a team, UE is batting .229, while the pitching staff owns a 2.65 ERA.
LAST TIME OUT: Freshman southpaw
Kyle Freeland’s strong outing on the mound led the University of Evansville baseball team to a 5-1 victory over Eastern Illinois University in the final game of the Dunn Hospitality Diamond Classic Sunday afternoon at Braun Stadium. In his second start of the season and first on the Aces’ home field, Freeland (1-1) tossed seven innings, allowing just one run, five scattered hits, a walk, and struck out four. Junior
Jake Naumann threw a perfect seventh inning, and
Josh Biggs closed the ninth, giving up one infield hit and struck out one. Jake Mahon led the Aces at the plate, going 2-for-3 with two RBI, as the squad recorded 10 hits in the game.
WHAT’S ON DECK: After Wednesday, the Aces then travel to Tennessee Tech for a three-game series, Friday-Sunday.
KINGS OF THE HILL: In 95 innings of work, Evansville’s experienced pitching staff has recorded a miniscule 2.65 earned run average.
Kyle Lloyd (3-0, 15.0 IP),
Josh Biggs (6.0 IP), and
Peter Spear (2.0), Kyle Spencer (1.0), and James Kohler (1.0) all have yet to give up an earned run.
LLOYD EXPRESS: Kyle Lloyd improved his season record to 3-0 versus IPFW, tossing 6.1 innings, allowing just two scattered hits, one unearned run, while striking out five. In the 9-1 victory, Lloyd kept the Mastodons off the board through the first six frames, tossing a no-hitter through 3.1 innings. Lloyd has yet to allow an earned run in three appearances and 15.0 innings of work, marking the only pitcher in the MVC to own a 3-0 record and 0.00 ERA.
EARLY RUNS: Evansville has scored first in 7-of-11 games this season, striking right of the bat in the first inning five times. When they score first, the Aces own a 4-3 record. When they score in the first inning UE is 3-2.
BIG SIXTH: Evansville’s best offensive inning this season has been the sixth, recording 12 total runs in the frame. However, the sixth has also been the inning in which the Aces have given up the most runs, allowing eight.
A RARE SHUTOUT: In 207 total games, UE has been shut out just two times, including the Aces’ 2-0 season-opening loss at Belmont (2/17). Getting shut out just once last season – a 4-0 loss vs. Creighton (5/14/11) – Evansville scored at least one run in every game in the 2009 and 2010 seasons.
RETURNS TO THE HILL: Right-handed pitchers
Sam Johns (0-1, 5.40 ERA) and
Zach Taylor (2-1, 4.70 ERA) are back in commission this season after both suffering season-ending injuries in the first inning of UE’s first two games in 2011. After getting elbow surgery last spring, Johns made his return to the mound vs. Lipscomb, hurling 5.0 innings and got the no-decision. Taylor took a line drive to the ear in his first start last year (at Memphis 2/19). In his first appearance since the incident, Taylor came out of the bullpen in UE’s second game at Arkansas State and took the loss, throwing four innings, allowing two runs, two hits, three walks, while striking out two. In his last two outings, however, he has earned the win.
PITCHERS GALORE: Evansville returns 12-of-13 pitchers from last season and also adds three newcomers to the staff, including
Kyle Freeland, a 35th round pick by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 2011 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft.
PRESEASON ALL-CONFERENCE: For the second consecutive year, shortstop
Eric Stamets was named to the Missouri Valley Conference preseason all-conference team, voted on by the league’s eight head coaches. Stamets, a junior from Dublin, Ohio, projects to be one of the best shortstops in the nation this year. Last season, Stamets hit .292 with a team-high 51 runs scored and 27 stolen bases. Defensively, he led the Aces with 181 assists and helped the squad to a program-best .977 fielding percentage with a record-low 48 errors as a team. In addition, Stamets turned heads in the summer, playing for the Hyannis Harbor Hawks and was named a Cape Cod League All-Star. Stamets was a consensus Freshman All-American and the MVC Freshman of the Year in 2010.
