EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The University of Evansville baseball team will wrap up a season-long eight-game homestand on Tuesday night at German American Bank Field at Charles H. Braun Stadium, as the Purple Aces will host long-time rival Austin Peay State University at 6 p.m. Tuesday’s game can be heard live in the Tri-State area on 107.1 FM-WJPS.
Evansville will bring an 11-16 overall record into Tuesday night’s game after winning two out of three games against Southern Illinois over the weekend. Redshirt sophomore Kevin McCormick’s pinch-hit RBI single in the bottom of the tenth inning capped a three-run rally for UE in Saturday’s series finale, as the Purple Aces rallied for an 11-10 victory over SIU to win the series. The win was career victory #400 for head coach Wes Carroll, as he is just the 11th head coach in Missouri Valley Conference history to reach the 400-win barrier with all 400 wins coming as a member of the Valley.
Evansville will bring a .298 team batting average into Tuesday’s contest. The Purple Aces rank third in NCAA Division I baseball behind only Virginia (87) and Tennessee (80) in terms of doubles, as UE has knocked 76 doubles on the year. Junior outfielder Harrison Taubert and graduate third baseman Brent Widder are currently tied for the team and MVC lead with 11 doubles each this year. Taubert hit a team-best .500 last week in four games, with three doubles in four contests. Overall, Taubert is second on the team in hitting with a .330 batting average to graduate outfielder Mark Shallenberger’s .380 team-leading average.
Austin Peay, meanwhile, will bring a 16-11 overall record into Tuesday’s game. The Governors rank among the NCAA’s top 10 in six different offensive categories, including team batting average (8th-.329), doubles (6th-72), hits (9th-315), home runs (4th-60), scoring (9th-9.7) and slugging percentage (4th-.609). Two-way standout Lyle Miller-Green paces the Austin Peay attack with a .388 batting average, 12 doubles, 15 home runs and 41 RBI. He ranks third in NCAA Division I baseball in home runs and is ninth in RBI.
All-time, UE leads the series over Austin Peay, 43-26-2. The two teams have not met since 2022, when Evansville won both ends of a home-and-home series by scores of 20-4 and 10-5. UE leads the all-time series in Evansville, 21-9-1, and the Purple Aces have won five-straight meetings at home dating back to the 2010 season. Freshman left-hander Kevin Reed (2-0, 7.62) is expected to the get the start on the mound for UE.
