Eagles play Missouri S&T in the first round
EVANSVILLE, Ind. — The University of Southern Indiana baseball team starts the 2019 post-season with the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament May 9-12 at U.S. Ballpark in Ozark, Missouri. The Screaming Eagles (29-19, 21-12 GLVC), who enter the tournament as the sixth-seed, begin tournament action against Missouri University of Science & Technology (30-15, 22-11 GLVC), the third seed, at 12:30 p.m. Thursday.
In addition to the USI-Missouri S&T match-up on Thursday, the first round of the GLVC Tournament features fourth-seeded University Illinois Springfield (34-14-1, 22-11 GLVC) versus fifth-seeded Drury University (29-19, 20-13 GLVC) at 9 a.m.; second-seeded Maryville University (27-20, 22-11 GLVC) versus fifth Drury University (29-21, 21-12 GLVC) at 4 p.m.; and top-seeded Quincy University (30-16, 22-11 GLVC) versus eighth-seeded Lewis University (27-22, 19-14 GLVC) at 7:30 p.m.
Live coverage of the Screaming Eagles baseball games this week can be found on
GoUSIEagles.com, while GLVC Tournament information, including the bracket, ticket information, and directions to U.S. Ballpark, can be found at
GLVCSports.com.
SCREAMING EAGLES BASEBALL NOTES:
USI in the GLVC Tournament. USI is 44-42 in the GLVC Tournament since 1980, winning the conference tournament championship in 1983, 1985, 1993, and 2010. The Eagles went undefeated in the tournament during 1985, 1993, and 2010.
USI vs. the GLVC Tournament Field. USI was 11-10 against the 2019 GLVC Tournament Field (1-2 vs. Missouri S&T; 1-2 vs. Drury; 2-1 vs. Bellarmine; 0-3 vs. Illinois Springfield; 1-2 vs. Quincy; 3-0 vs. Lewis; and 3-0 vs. Maryville). The Eagles, who are hitting .288 as a team versus the field, are led by freshman catcher
Lucas McNew, who is batting .370 with eight home runs and 25 RBIs against the field.
USI all-time versus the GLVC Tournament Field. The Eagles are 265-208 (.560) all-time versus the GLVC Tournament Field (24-8 vs. Missouri S&T; 22-10 vs. Drury; 83-75 vs. Bellarmine; 22-11 vs. Illinois Springfield; 38-45 vs. Quincy; 68-58 vs. Lewis; and 8-1 vs. Maryville).
Kuester's late game heroics clinched USI's spot. USI senior first baseman
Nathan Kuester hit a walk-off grand-slam to clinch a spot in the GLVC Tournament for the Eagles in the 7-6 game-two victory over Maryville.
Eagles beginning to roll in the last 10 games. USI has begun to roll at the end of the regular season, going 7-3 in the final 10 games. Sophomore centerfielder
Bryce Krizan has led the team over the last 10 games with a .429 batting average (142 points better than his season average), while sophomore leftfielder
Aaron Euler has blasted nine home runs and is tied with freshman catcher
Lucas McNew with a team-high nine RBIs each.
Second NCAA II Regional Ranking. USI remained 10
th in the second
NCAA Division II Midwest Region poll that was released May 1 (the final regional poll will be released May 8). USI was a part of a GLVC contingent that featured six league teams in the poll for the second-straight week. The top eight teams -- three automatic conference qualifiers and five at-large – will be selected for to the NCAA II Midwest Regional, scheduled for May 16-19, that will be split into two four-team sub-regionals this season. The winners of the four-team regionals advance to a super-regional that will be hosted by the highest remaining seed May 24-26.
Hitting Leaders. Freshman third baseman/catcher
Lucas McNew leads USI with a .348 batting average and a team-high 44 RBIs. Junior rightfielder/designated hitter
Manny Lopez follows with a .333 average. Sophomore leftfielder
Aaron Euler has team-best 10 home runs.
Euler takes over the lead. With four home runs in the last 10 games, sophomore leftfielder
Aaron Euler took over the USI home run lead with 10 round trippers this season, while freshman catcher/third baseman
Lucas McNew follows with nine blasts.
Multi-Home Run Games for USI. Three USI hitters – junior rightfielder
Manny Lopez, sophomore leftfielder
Aaron Euler, freshman catcher/third baseman
Lucas McNew – have combined for six multi-home run games this season. Euler has three multi-home run games, while McNew has a pair and Lopez has one.
Pitching Leaders. Senior right-hander
Austin Krizan, and senior right-hander
Austin Gossmann are tied for the team-lead in wins with five each. Gossmann has a team-best 3.99 ERA in 12 games and 58.2 innings of work, while Krizan has struck out a team-high 71 batters.
Archuleta at USI. USI Head Coach
Tracy Archuleta is USI's all-time winningest coach with a record of 475-256 in 12-plus seasons and is 623-380 in 17-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 2007, 2016 and 2018. Archuleta also has earned a pair of GLVC Coach of the Year awards (2011 and 2014) at USI.
