Murray State University Athletics
Murray State
Evansville
MSU Set For Back-to-Back Non-Conference Tilts
4/11/2016 3:47:00 PM | Baseball
GAMES 36-37
Murray State (16-19) vs. Evansville (17-13) and at Saint Louis (16-16)
April 12-13, 2016
First Pitch: Â 6 p.m. both days
Series History: UE leads 38-15 and MSU leads 22-15
Last Meeting: MSU 10, UE 11 – May 12, 2015 and MSU 12, SLU 2 – March 14, 2010
Venue: Reagan Field and Billiken Sports Complex
Dimensions: 330 (LF), 400 (CF), 330 (RF) and 330 (LF), 403 (CF), 330 (RF)
Live Stats: Evansville | Saint Louis
Watch Live: OVC Digital Network (Evansville)
Twitter In-Game: @RacersBaseball
First Pitch
The Racers and Purple Aces will be making the first of their two meetings this season. Evansville won both meetings in 2015, 15-2 in Evansville, Ind., and 11-10 at Reagan Field. MSU is coming off a 1-2 weekend at conference leader Jacksonville State while the Purple Aces opened conference play winning 2-of-3 against Wichita State.
The Racers close their back-to-back midweek contests with a trip to Saint Louis. Wednesday's contest will be MSU's last game of the week as the Racers will have the weekend off as this is their OVC-bye week. Head Coach Kevin Moulder coached at SLU for seven seasons as an assistant prior to taking over the MSU program in 2015.
Inside the Matchups
Tuesday will be the fifth season in a row that the Racers and Purple Aces will play a home-and-home with each other. The Racers are 12-13 all-time at home against Evansville. The first-ever meeting in this series took place in 1948. UE has won the last three contests in the series and 18 out of the last 21. The two teams will next meet May 10 in Evansville.
This will be the first meeting between MSU and SLU since 2010. The Racers are 5-5 all-time at Saint Louis, having lost their last contest there in 2009, 4-1. This will be SLU's fourth game in 2016 against an OVC opponent, having played Morehead State, Eastern Illinois and SIU Edwardsville earlier this season.
Scouting Evansville
Trey Hair leads the Purple Aces offense with an incredible .414 batting average. Hair also leads the team with 14 doubles and 19 extrabase hits. Hair's five home runs rank second on the team, as do his 27 runs scored. His 24 RBIs are third-most on the team.
Jonathan Ramon leads UE with nine homers and 33 RBIs on the season. Ramon also has a team-high two triples in 2016. Boomer Synek is second on the team with 32 ribbies and Eric McKibban leads the team with 32 runs scored. Josh Jyawook leads the Purple Aces with six stolen bases on the year. As a team, UE is 17-for-28 on stolen base attempts and is hitting .291.
Connor Strain leads the team with a 0.68 ERA and is 3-1 in five starts this season. Patrick Schnieders is 3-2 with a 2.82 ERA and has a team-high 44.2 innings pitched and 29 strikeouts in 2016. Brent Jurceka leads the Purple Aces with three saves this season. UE is led by Head Coach Wes Carroll who is in his eighth season.
Scouting Saint Louis
Josh Bunselmeyer leads the team with a .320 batting average and is one of three Billikens hitting .300 or better. Bunselmeyer leads the team and the Missouri Valley with 10 home runs and has 39 RBIs in 2016.
Bunselmeyer, Braxton Martinez and Parker Sniatynski are all second on the team with 22 runs scored while Martinez and Sniatynski are hitting .315 and .303, respectively. Michael Bozarth leads SLU with 24 runs and is an incredible 18-for-22 on stolen bases.
Ryan Lefner leads the Billikens with a 2.41 ERA this season and is second on the team with 14 appearances. Closer Nick Vichio leads SLU with 15 appearances and five saves in 2016. Starters Matt Eckelman and Miller Hogan are a combined 9-6 and lead the team with 49 and 41.1 innings pitched, respectively. Eckelman is also the team leader with 45 strikeouts.
Head Coach Darin Hendrickson is in his ninth season with the Billikens.
