Aces baseball back at home for an in-state midweek showdown

The Purple Aces left Springfield with a big win over the Missouri State Bears on Sunday afternoon. In UE’s final MVC series at Hammons Field, Evansville had a big offensive showing in the series finale. The Aces outlasted an almost four-hour slugfest against the Bears, picking up a 16-11 win.  UE had a season-high 17 hits against Missouri State in the win. Prior to Sunday’s game, Evansville had three 16-hit games earlier in the season, with the most recent coming back in March during the Aces’ first weekend of conference play at Murray State. UE had three batters combine for nine of the team’s 17 hits, while nine of the 10 batters in the lineup recorded at least a hit.

Evansville returns home for the next week, starting with a return visit from Indiana in the team’s home-and-home series. In their first meeting of the year, IU came out on top in a 7-4 midweek battle back on March 18. The Aces kept things close in the first game but weren’t able to come back from an early 2-0 deficit that began in the third inning. UE will come close to evening the series with the Hoosiers at home with a win on Tuesday night, as IU currently holds a 14-12 advantage in Evansville.

Indiana comes into Tuesday night’s game with a 23-21 overall average and an even 10-10 Big Ten Conference record. The Hoosiers were swept over the weekend by the Iowa Hawkeyes and will be looking to break their losing streak behind offensive leader outfielder Devin Taylor with a .366 batting average, a team-high 38 walks, and 50 RBIs.

Evansville added four home runs over the weekend at Hammons Field for its best slugging week of the season with five total long balls and 15 multi-base hits in four games. UE had its first back-to-back games with multiple home runs this season in Springfield, while sophomore Charlie Longmeier (Seymour, Ind. / Seymour HS) had a home run in each game. Longmeier had a big weekend for Evansville as he along with senior infielder Cal McGinnis (Kimberly, Wis. / Bradley) batted .429 in 14 at-bats in Hammons Field. Longmeier was one of three players with six hits against Missouri State on the weekend, and he was also the only Ace to record multiple home runs with his fourth and fifth career homers on Saturday and Sunday.

Also stepping up for UE was freshman first baseman Jake McGhee (Fenton, Mo. / Christian Brothers Academy) as he led the team’s starters in batting average over the weekend, slashing .462/.533/.538 as he was six of 13 at the plate. McGhee also added an RBI, and two runs scored over three games in Springfield. But it wasn’t just Evansville’s younger players showing up at the plate at Hammons Field. Despite dropping the series to the Bears, over half the Aces’ lineup batted over .300 on the weekend. In only three at-bats this weekend, senior catcher/pinch hitter Evan Waggoner was a perfect three-of-three from the plate with two doubles. While McGhee, McGinnis, Longmeier, infielder Drew Howard (Ferdinand, Ind. / Forest Park HS), and outfielder Harrison Taubert (Casper, Wyo. / Northeast CC) all had batting averages over .300.