DATES:  February 14-16
TIMES:  4:00 p.m.  |  2:00 p.m.  |  1:00 p.m.
LOCATION:  Nashville, Tenn. (Dugan Field)
MEDIA CENTER:  Live Stats
NOTES:  Evansville


EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The University of Evansville baseball team will open its 2014 season this weekend, when the Purple Aces travel to Nashville, Tenn., for a three-game set with host Lipscomb Feb. 14-16.  UE and the Bisons will open the series Friday at 4 p.m., with Saturday's game scheduled for 2 p.m. and Sunday's series finale slated for 1 p.m.
 
Sixth-year head coach Wes Carroll's Evansville squad returns 19 letterwinners from last year's team that finished 24-34 overall and placed fifth in the Missouri Valley Conference with a 10-10 mark in league play.  The Aces also add 13 newcomers to their 2014 roster, including four transfers and nine freshmen.
 
Preseason All-MVC selections in senior Jake Mahon and redshirt junior Kevin Kaczmarski return as UE's top offensive threats.  Mahon appeared in just 34 games last season due to injury, but posted a .322 average with five doubles, a pair of triples and 14 RBI.  The Plain City, Ohio native posted a .421 slugging percentage and .418 on-base percentage, after drawing 14 walks and getting hit with eight pitches.  Kaczmarski, an All-MVC First Team selection in 2013, led Evansville in several offensive categories a year ago, including batting average (.339), slugging percentage (.504), runs scored (48), doubles (15), triples (3), home runs (6) and stolen bases (15).
 
Other key offensive returners from the Aces include redshirt senior Johnny Day, junior Kyle Pollock and sophomores Jonathan Ramon and Shain Showers.  Day hit .259 last season, driving in a team-high 32 runs on seven doubles.  Pollock posted a .234 average with six doubles, three homers and 24 RBI, while Ramon and Showers hit .260 and .258, respectively.
 
Junior lefty Kyle Freeland highlights the Aces' pitching corps, as he returns as UE's top starter from 2013.  Freeland, who burst onto the national scene after a breakout summer in the Cape Cod Baseball League, was selected to Baseball America's Preseason All-America Second Team and was named the MVC Preseason Pitcher of the Year by both Baseball America and Perfect Game USA.  Freeland posted a 4-8 record with a 4.34 ERA during his sophomore campaign, racking up 84 strikeouts against only 26 walks in his 93.1 innings of work.
 
Senior Cole Isom and sophomore Connor Strain are slated to complete Evansville's rotation in its season-opening series, as Strain will get the ball on Saturday afternoon and Isom is slotted as Sunday's starter.  Strain limited opposing hitters to a .194 batting average in his 9.0 innings of work as a freshman, while Isom went 4-6 in his 10 starts in 2013, accumulating 48 strikeouts and a 4.57 ERA in 69.0 frames on the mound.
 
Lipscomb finished 25-34 overall last season and returns 11 letterwinners from its squad that placed sixth in the 2013 Atlantic Sun standings with a 13-14 record in league play.  The Bisons are under the direction of eighth-year head coach Jeff Forehand, who owns an overall record of 384-370-1 in his 13-year collegiate coaching career and has posted a 173-228 record in seven previous seasons at LU.
 
Tyson Ashcraft returns as the top bat for Lipscomb, as the junior infielder hit a team-best .303 last season with five home runs, seven doubles, a triple and 29 RBI in 45 games last season.  Ashcraft, who is a two-way player, also made 14 appearances on the mound for the Bisons, going 2-3 with a 3.86 ERA in 18.2 innings out of the LU bullpen.  Drew Adams and Chad Shannon return as the top run producers for Lipscomb, as each drove in 31 runs last season.  Adams also posted a team-best .406 on-base percentage and swiped 10 bags in 2013.
 
On the mound, Will Blalock return's as the top starter for the Bisons and is scheduled to take the hill for LU on Saturday afternoon.  Blalock went 2-5 with a 5.24 ERA in his 15 starts last season, tallying 53 strikeouts with 43 walks in a team-high 77.1 innings.  Jacob Knott, Lipscomb's projected Friday night starter, went 2-4 last season, posting a 4.91 ERA.  Knott tossed 51.1 innings, struck out 36 opposing hitters and put up a team-best .260 opposing batting average a year ago.  LU's Sunday starter, Denton Norman, made 10 appearances, including five starts, last season and went 2-1 with a 4.19 ERA in 38.2 innings.
 
Evansville and Lipscomb have met 12 previous times on the diamond with the Aces hold an 8-4 advantage in the all-time series.  The previous meeting between UE and the Bisons occurred during the 2012 season with Evansville capturing a 5-0 win in a midweek contest at Braun Stadium.