EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The University of Evansville baseball team will return home to German American Bank Field at Charles H. Braun Stadium this weekend to open up its home slate, as the Purple Aces will host Eastern Michigan in a three-game series. The series will begin Friday afternoon at 3 p.m. and continue on both Saturday (2 p.m.) and Sunday (1 p.m.) afternoon.
Evansville (0-4) will be looking for its first win of the 2023 campaign after dropping a three-game series at Troy and a 6-3 decision at Kentucky on Tuesday. Since German American Bank Field was constructed at Braun Stadium in February 2020, UE has posted a 38-23 overall record at GAB Field. UE went 17-9 a season ago at home, and the Purple Aces have lost only four of 16 series played at the renovated facility.
UE’s middle infield combo of junior shortstop Simon Scherry (Santa Claus, Ind./Heritage Hills) and junior second baseman Kip Fougerousse (Linton, Ind./Linton-Stockton) currently lead the Purple Aces’ offense. Scherry is hitting a team-best .375 (6-for-16) through four games, while also boasting a team-best .474 on-base percentage. Fougerousse, meanwhile, is second on the team in hitting at .350 (7-for-20) and he ranks eighth nationally in home runs with three. He enters this weekend’s action just two home runs shy of the national lead.
Eastern Michigan will bring a 1-2 overall record to Evansville after a season-opening series against Northern Kentucky that was played in Hoover, Alabama. The Eagles rallied for five runs in the bottom of the eighth inning of the series finale to earn a 13-9 victory. Reigning Mid-American Conference Player of the Year Matt Kirk currently lead the EMU offense, as the fifth-year outfielder is hitting .500 (5-for-10) with a home run and two runs driven in. Fifth-year shortstop Taylor Hopkins (.400/1/8) and senior third baseman Glenn Miller (.364/0/0) also hit above .350 this year for the Eagles.
Evansville and Eastern Michigan have met only once on the baseball diamond – the 1999 UE Diamond Classic hosted at Evansville’s old Carson Center Field. The Purple Aces picked up a 10-2 victory that day behind a 3-for-4 effort by then-sophomore and current head coach Wes Carroll. The next day, Eastern Michigan was supposed to face Dayton, but that EMU game never happened, as UE and Memphis played to a 4-4 tie in 21 innings that day, which is still the longest collegiate baseball game ever played in Indiana. The old Carson Center Field did not have lights, and EMU and Dayton were never able to take the field, as the game was called at 4 p.m. local time to allow Evansville to catch a flight to Florida to take part in the Rollins College Baseball Challenge.
Evansville will send junior RHP Nick Smith (0-1, 13.50 ERA) to the mound for Friday’s opener looking for UE’s first victory of the year. He will be opposed by EMU RHP Thomas House (0-1, 8.31 ERA). Friday’s game can be seen live on ESPN+.
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