The University of Southern Indiana baseball team completes its five-game homestand Tuesday when it hosts Kentucky Wesleyan College for a non-conference game before resuming Great Lakes Valley Conference action on the road when it travels to Lewis University this weekend. The first pitch for the USI (21-14, 13-3 GLVC) and KWC (18-17) non-conference showdown is 6 p.m. Tuesday, while the GLVC road games at Lewis (8-27, 4-12 GLVC) are slated for noon Saturday and Sunday.
Game coverage of the Eagles in 2017 can be found on GoUSIEagles.com.
SCREAMING EAGLES BASEBALL NOTES:
USI posts season-best nine-game winning streak. The Screaming Eagles are on a season-best nine-game winning streak after getting a win over the University of Missouri-St. Louis and a four-game sweep of McKendree University. USI’s hitters are batting .312 and averaging seven runs a game as a team, while the pitching staff is posting a 1.36 ERA and holding the opposition to .194 at the plate during the last nine games. Sophomore catcher Logan Brown leads the Eagles during the winning streak with a .519 batting average and three triples. Junior designated hitter/leftfielder Drake McNamara is batting .433 with a team-best 15 RBIs.
Brown has big week for the Eagles. Sophomore catcher Logan Brown had a big week for the Eagles, hitting .625 (10-16) and tying for the team-lead with seven RBIs against UMSL and McKendree. Brown also batted .818 (9-11) in the four GLVC games versus McKendree.
McNamara reaching base. Junior designated hitter/outfielder Drake McNamara has reached base in each of the last 17 games.
USI over .500. The nine-game winning streak has pushed USI to a season-best seven games over .500.
Eagles hold a two-game lead in GLVC East. The Eagles have flown into a two-game lead in the GLVC East Division by winning 11 of the last 12 conference games. USI also holds a one-game lead in the race to be the top seed in the upcoming GLVC Tournament next month.
Griffin named NCBWA Midwest Region Pitcher of the Week. Junior right-hander Kyle Griffin ended last week as the NCBWA Midwest Region Pitcher of the Week. Griffin was named the GLVC Pitcher of the Week earlier in the week after shutting out UW-Parkside, 6-0, on April 8.
Pitchers doing the job. USI’s pitching staff has been doing the job in the last 20 games, posting a 2.01 ERA and holding opposing hitters to a .230 batting average. In the first 11 games, USI hurlers had a 5.13 ERA, while the opposition had a .307 batting average.
Individual win streaks. The Eagles have won each of junior right-hander Kyle Griffin‘s last five starts with the hurler posting a 4-0 record. Senior right-hander Lucas Barnett has four-straight victories, while the Eagles have won six of his last seven starts.
Season hitting leaders. Sophomore shortstop Jacob Fleming and junior designated hitter/leftfielder Drake McNamara are the only Eagles over .300 with .349 and .324 batting averages, respectively. McNamara leads USI with a team-best five home runs and 28 RBIs.
Season pitching leaders. Sophomore right-hander Austin Krizan has the Eagles’ best ERA at 1.88 (minimum 15 innings) in his 11 appearances and 36.0 innings of work. Senior right-hander Lucas Barnett has the team lead in victories with five, while junior right-hander Kyle Griffin has recorded a team-high 57 strikeouts in nine games.
Archuleta at USI. USI Head Coach Tracy Archuleta is USI’s all-time winningest coach with a record of 399-206 (.660) in nine-plus seasons and is 547-330 (.624) in 14-plus seasons all-time as a 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 and the ABCA Division II Midwest Region Coach of the Year after leading USI to the regional crown in 2016. Archuleta also has earned a pair of GLVC Coach of the Year awards (2011 and 2014) at USI.
USI vs. Kentucky Wesleyan. USI leads the all-time series, 95-64, after KWC took the only meeting in Owensboro, Kentucky, 13-7, last year. The Eagles have won nine of the last 10 meeting since the Panther left the GLVC and joined the G-MAC in the 2012-13 season.
USI vs. Lewis. USI leads the all-time series with Lewis, 59-56, after splitting the four-game set at the USI Baseball Field last spring. The Eagles are 35-11 against the Flyers since 2007, going 13-6 versus Lewis in Romeoville, Illinois.
