Four games of the University of Southern Indiana baseball team’s 10-game road swing have been converted to home games as the Screaming Eagles will hosts the University of Wisconsin-Parkside for a conference series Saturday and Sunday at the USI Baseball Field due to the forecast for inclement weather in Wisconsin. The Screaming Eagles and the Rangers are slated to play noon doubleheaders Saturday and Sunday. Live coverage four-game series versus UW-Parkside can be found at GoUSIEagles.com.
SCREAMING EAGLES BASEBALL NOTES:
Eagles split with UIS, fall at UMSL. USI split a four-game series with the University of Illinois Springfield last weekend, dropping both ends of a doubleheader on Saturday, 9-8 and 5-1, before rebounding to sweep the twin bill on Sunday, 9-1 and 14-1. The Eagles started this week with an 8-1 non-conference loss to the University of Missouri-St. Louis in what was to start a 10-game road swing.
Leaders in the last 10 games. Senior shortstop Kyle Niemeier (Evansville, Indiana) has led the way over the last 10 games, posting a .424 average with a team-high 12 RBIs. Senior centerfielder Hamilton Carr (Evansville, Indiana) follows with a .366 average and seven RBIs. Junior right-hander Lucas Barnett(Sellersburg, Indiana) has been the Eagles top hurler, going 1-1 with a  0.75 ERA in two starts.
Leading the GLVC in pitching. Freshman right-hander Austin Krizan (Mt. Vernon, Indiana) and junior right-hander Devin Williams (Evansville, Indiana) are ranked seventh (1.93) and ninth (2.14), respectively, for ERA in the GLVC. Junior right-hander Lucas Barnett is third in the league in strikeouts (44).
USI in the national polls. USI fell out of the ABCA/Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Top 30 poll, but remained ranked at 14th in the unofficial HeroSports.com Top 25.
Kempf chasing records. USI senior rightfielder Kyle Kempf (Evansville, Indiana) is chasing several school records this spring. Kempf, currently, is third all-time with 254 hits (record 270); fifth with 48 doubles (record 63); tied for ninth with 145 runs scored (record 183); and 12th with 184 games played (record 213).
Carr hoping to steal a record. USI senior centerfielder Hamilton Carr is closing on the Eagles’ stolen base record with 70 career thefts (record 86).
Archuleta at USI. USI Head Coach Tracy Archuleta reached 500 all-time victories and became the Eagles’ all-time winningest coach in program history. Archuleta has a USI record of 356-182 (.662) in eight-plus seasons and is 504-306 (.622) in 13-plus seasons as the 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. Archuleta also has earned a pair of GLVC Coach of the Year awards (2011 and 2014) at USI.
USI vs. UW-Parkside. USI leads the all-time series with UW-Parkside, 39-26, after sweeping four-game series last year at the USI Baseball Field.
UW-Parkside in 2016. The Rangers, who are still looking for their home opener due to the change of venue, are 4-19 and are still looking for their first GLVC win of 2016 with a league mark of 0-8.
