EVANSVILLE, Ind. — The University of Southern Indiana baseball team is set for an NCAA Division II showdown when the fourth-ranked University of Tampa (31-5) comes to the USI Baseball Field for a three-game set Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Start times for the USI-Tampa series are set for 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday, prior to concluding the three games with a noon first pitch Sunday.
Following the USI-Tampa series, the Eagles (19-16) will be on the road for the next two games to start next week. USI visits Kentucky Wesleyan College Tuesday for a 3 p.m. contest and the University of Evansville Wednesday for a 6 p.m. first pitch. The next homestand is next weekend, April 28-29, when the Eagles welcome McKendree University to the USI Baseball Field for a GLVC four-game series.
Game coverage of the Screaming Eagles baseball games this season can be found on
GoUSIEagles.com. Watch Twitter, Facebook, and GoUSIEagles.com for any schedule changes due to weather.
SCREAMING EAGLES BASEBALL NOTES:
USI starts this week with a 10-2 win. USI started the week off on the right track with a 10-2 victory over cross-river rival Kentucky Wesleyan. USI senior first baseman/leftfielder
Drake McNamara (Mt. Vernon, Indiana) led the Eagles with three-RBIs and a home run, while senior utility player
Nick Gobert (Jasper, Indiana) had a team-best three hits. Senior right-hander
Nick Coudret (Newburgh, Indiana) won his first start of the year, allowing two runs in seven innings and striking out a career-high seven batters.
USI goes 2-3 last week. USI saw its winning streak go to nine games with a victory over Oakland City University, 6-3, to start last week's action before going 1-3 in GLVC action over the weekend at Bellarmine University. The Eagles, in the four-game set with Bellarmine, lost the opener 6-5; game two, 8-5; and game three, 7-6; and rallied to salvage game four,13-8.
USI at the plate this season. Senior first baseman/leftfielder
Drake McNamara leads USI hitters in 2018 with a .386 batting average and a team-high 40 RBIs, 16 doubles, and seven home runs. Senior utility player
Nick Gobert, who has seen action at first base, third base, right field, and on the mound, follows with a .368 batting average and ranks second on the squad with 35 RBIs, while rightfielder
Buddy Johnson is third with a .359 batting average and 33 RBIs.
Among the national leaders. USI sophomore centerfielder
Bryce Krizan (Mt. Vernon, Indiana) has a team-high 27 stolen bases that ranks first in the GLVC and fifth in the NCAA II.
USI on the mound this season. Senior right-hander
Devin Williams (Evansville, Indiana), senior right-hander
Kyle Griffin (Morganfield, Kentucky), senior utility player
Nick Gobert, and sophomore right-hander
Tyler Hagedorn lead the Eagles with three wins each. Griffin also has a team-best 55 strikeouts.
Out of the bullpen. Junior right-hander
Dalton Lewis (Parker, Colorado) has USI's best ERA in 13 appearances in relief (2.03). Lewis, sophomore right-hander
Jacob Bowles, and sophomore right-hander
Tyler Hagedorn are tied with one save each.
Moving up the charts. Senior first baseman/leftfielder
Drake McNamara and senior third baseman/shortstop
Sam Griggs (Evansville, Indiana) are moving up the USI all-time record book.
McNamara
- Fourth in home runs (23)
- Sixth in total bases (331)
- Ninth in RBIs (143)
- Tied ninth in doubles (44)
- Tied 10th in hits (212)
Griggs
- 12th in RBIs (121)
- 14th in games started (171)
- 14th in total bases (269)
- 15th in hits (202)
USI Head Coach
Tracy Archuleta is USI's all-time winningest coach with a record of 429-229 (.652) in 10-plus seasons and is 577-353 (.620) in 15-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. Tampa. USI trails the all-time series with fourth-ranked Tampa, 6-3, after the Spartans took two of three from the Eagles to start the 2017 campaign. The Eagles are 2-5 against the Spartans during the regular season meetings and 1-1 during the two match-ups in the NCAA II National Championship Series. USI infielder Joe Redburn led the Eagle hitters in last year's three-game series at Tampa with a .500 average (four-of-eight) and tied for a team-high with four RBIs and junior right-hander
Austin Krizan (Mt. Vernon, Indiana) picked up USI's only win in relief.
Tampa in the rankings. Tampa is ranked in both of the NCAA II national polls. The Spartans are ranked number four in the ABCA/Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll and number two in the NCBWA/D2SIDA poll.
USI vs. Kentucky Wesleyan. USI leads the all-time series with the KWC Panthers, 98-64, after taking the first meeting on Tuesday. USI has won the last three meetings with the Panthers.
USI vs. Evansville. USI trails the University of Evansville, 33-19, in the all-time series after losing a rain-shortened game, 5-1, last spring
