EVANSVILLE, Ind. — The University of Southern Indiana baseball team completes its five-game road trip Tuesday when it visits Kentucky Wesleyan College for a non-conference game before resuming Great Lakes Valley Conference action at home when it hosts the University of Indianapolis this weekend. The first pitch for the USI (24-16, 15-5 GLVC) and KWC (20-20) non-conference showdown in Owensboro, Kentucky, is 3 p.m. Tuesday, while the final regular season home series versus UIndy (25-17, 9-11 GLVC) are slated for 2 p.m. Saturday and noon Sunday. Sunday's doubleheader is Senior Day for USI.
Game coverage of the Eagles in 2017 can be found on
GoUSIEagles.com.
SCREAMING EAGLES BASEBALL NOTES:
USI winning streak snapped, goes 3-2 last week. The Screaming Eagles saw its season-best winning streak snapped at 10 games and went 3-2 in the five games last week. USI reached the season-high 10-straight wins with a victory over Kentucky Wesleyan College before splitting a four-game series with Lewis University over the weekend. Senior designated hitter
Jaylen Quarles led the way, hitting .500 (7-14), while junior designated hitter/outfielder
Drake McNamara followed with a .471 average and a team-high six RBIs.
McNamara reaching base. Junior designated hitter/outfielder
Drake McNamara has reached base in each of the last 22 games.
Eagles tied for first GLVC East. The four-game split with Lewis dropped the Eagles into a first place tie in the GLVC East Division with the University of Illinois Springfield at 15-5 in league play. USI and Illinois Springfield also hold a slim one game lead over third-place Bellarmine University. The Eagles have the tie-breaker with Illinois Springfield, while Bellarmine has the tie-breaker over USI.
Pitchers doing the job. USI's pitching staff has been doing the job in the last 20 games, posting a 1.81 ERA and holding opposing hitters to a .220 batting average.
Leading the way in the GLVC, NCAA II. USI ranks first in the GLVC and ninth in the NCAA Division II with a 3.02 ERA. The hurlers also lead the GLVC and are seventh nationally with a 3.13 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
Season hitting leaders. Junior designated hitter/leftfielder
Drake McNamara (.344)
, sophomore infielder
Jacob Fleming (.325), and senior designated hitter
Jaylen Quarles (.304) are the only Eagles over .300 this season. McNamara leads USI with a team-best six home runs and 34 RBIs.
Season pitching leaders. Sophomore right-hander
Austin Krizan has the Eagles' best ERA at 2.06 (minimum 15 innings) in his 12 appearances and 48.0 innings of work. Senior right-handers
Lucas Barnett and
Colin Nowak are tied for the team lead with five victories each, while junior right-hander
Kyle Griffin has recorded a team-high 65 strikeouts in 10 games. Griffin's 65 strikeouts also rank first in the GLVC.
Archuleta at USI. USI Head Coach
Tracy Archuleta is USI's all-time winningest coach with a record of 402-208 (.659) in nine-plus seasons and is 550-332 (.624) in 14-plus seasons all-time as a head coach. He has been named the ABCA Division II Coach of the Year twice (2010 and 2014) after leading the Screaming Eagles to a pair of national championships and the ABCA Division II Midwest Region Coach of the Year after leading USI to the regional crown in 2016. Archuleta also has earned a pair of GLVC Coach of the Year awards (2011 and 2014) at USI.
USI vs. Kentucky Wesleyan. USI leads the all-time series, 96-64, after winning the first meeting of the year last Tuesday, 2-0. The Eagles have won 10 of the last 11 meeting since the Panther left the GLVC and joined the G-MAC in the 2012-13 season.
USI vs. UIndy. USI trails the all-time series with UIndy, 52-50, but won three of the four of the series last spring to win the GLVC East Division. The Eagles also have won 12 of the last 17 games with the Greyhounds, including five of eight at the USI Baseball Field.
