In his first season at Evansville, head swimming and diving coach Stu Wilson announced the upcoming schedule for the 2019-20 season on Thursday (July 18).

The schedule features four home meets and eight road contests for the Purple Aces.

“The team and the coaching staff are excited about the upcoming season,” Wilson said. “We have a great opportunity to make it a very eventful year.”

The six-month schedule kicks off with a trip to the Butler Quad on September 29 before the home opener against Eastern Illinois on October 12. Six days later the Aces travel to Lebanon, Ill. to take on McKendree University.

Rounding out the month of October the Aces face conference foe Valparaiso on the road. Events return home on November 2 as the Aces take on Arkansas at Little Rock and Indiana State with a women’s only meet.

The Aces will then travel to Birmingham-Southern College (November 9) and the SIU Invitational (November 21-23) to close out 2019.

Opening up the spring season with a trip to Missouri State (January 11) before returning home for a men’s only event against Ball State (January 17).

Closing out the regular season, the Purple Aces head to St. Louis on January 18, then are home against Illinois State (women only) on January 24 and at Southern Illinois on February 1.

“The schedule will be challenging but the team will be ready for anything that will come their way,” Wilson said. “We hope to see a lot of the fans come out and support our team at all of the meets.”

The women’s Missouri Valley Conference championship is held in Columbia, Mo, February 19-22, while the men will compete in the MAC Championship March 4-7.

After a scoreless first two innings in game one, the Otters broke through against Slammers starter Keegan Long in the bottom of the third inning.

Hunter Cullen’s one-out double in the inning gave the Otters their first hit of the game.

He would score on David Cronin’s second home run of the season, a two-run shot over the fence to give the Otters a 2-0 lead.

The Otters would break game one open with a six-run fifth inning, sending 10 batters to the plate.

Dakota Phillips ripped a double to lead off the inning. He would score on a two-run blast by Cullen, his seventh homer of the season, giving the Otters a 4-0 lead.

Evansville would get back-to-back jacks as J.J. Gould followed with a solo shot for his third home run of the year to extend the Otters lead to five.

Keith Grieshaber would continue the Otters’ offensive outburst with an RBI single to score Cronin, giving the Otters a 6-0 cushion.

Ryan Long ended his offensive slump with an RBI double to score Grieshaber and would go on to touch home on a fielder’s choice RBI from Jack Meggs.

Evansville would carry an 8-0 lead into the sixth inning.

Keegan Long was responsible for seven of Evansville’s eight runs, tossing four innings and allowing the seven runs on seven hits. His record falls to 2-7.

Joliet’s Dash Winningham hit an RBI single in the top of the sixth, but that would be the only blemish on Tyler Beardsley’s line. The Otters right-hander threw six strong innings, allowing a run on four hits. He earned the victory, improving his record to 5-3.

Evansville took game one by a final of 8-1.

The Otters would continue their hitting ways in game number two, scoring in the bottom of the first inning.

With the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the first, Dakota Phillips hit a hard ground ball to Slammers shortstop Chaz Meadows, who was unable to get the ball out of his hands to make a play. Cronin scored from third as an error was charged to Meadows, allowing Phillips to reach first and give the Otters a 1-0 lead in game two.

The Slammers tied the game at one on an RBI groundout by London Lindley that scored Jimmy Roche in the top of the third.

Evansville responded in the bottom half of the inning as Phillips launched his sixth home run of the season, a three-run bomb give the Otters a 4-1 lead.

Joliet started to come back again, loading the bases with two outs.

Jimmy Roche stepped to the plate and ripped a two-run single to score Meadows and Oliver Nunez, cutting the Otters lead to 4-3.

Arias would be pulled in the inning, going 3.2 innings, surrendering three runs on four hits and ringing up five Slammers.

Lefty reliever Cam Opp was able to get the Otters out of the fourth, striking out Jared Morello for the final out of the frame.

Evansville picked up an insurance run in both the fifth and sixth innings off a two-out RBI single by Phillips to score Cullen and a sac fly by Ryan Long to score Jake Gozzo, respectively. The Otters would take a 6-3 lead into the top of the seventh.

All-Star reliever Taylor Wright pitched a clean inning, earning his eighth save of the season.

Opp was credited the win, his first an Otter, after tossing 1.1 innings with three strikeouts.

Joliet’s Scot Hoffman was dealt the loss in game two, allowing five runs – four earned – in 4.2 innings pitched while striking out six Otters. His record dropped to 3-4.

Game three will be Thursday at 6:35 p.m. with Jake Welch on the mound for the Otters and Tyler Jandron for the Slammers.

Indiana University swimmer Michael Brinegar won bronze in the open water mixed 5k relay with Team USA on Wednesday at the 2019 FINA World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea.

The American foursome of Haley Anderson, Jordan Wilimovsky, Ashley Twichell and Brinegar won bronze in the event with a time of 53:59.00, 25 seconds clear of fourth-place Brazil.

Brinegar nearly chased down both gold-medal winning Germany (53:58.70) and silver-medal winning Italy (53:59.90) in the final stretch of the event. The ending was so close that officials had to go to a review to determine the final order among the medal-winning squads.

Earlier at the FINA World Championships, Brinegar took 12^th in the men’s open water 5k, finishing as the top American with a time of 53:37.10.