Senior named an honorable mention

ST. LOUIS – Thirteen conference softball student-athletes have been named to the 2017 MVC Scholar-Athlete first team, including three repeat first team selections, as voted on by the league’s softball sports information directors and announced by the Missouri Valley Conference office.

Six additional student-athletes garnered honorable mention accolades, including Purple Aces senior Morgan Lambert.  A steady slugger for the University of Evansville, Lambert finished second on the team with eight home runs and 27 RBI.

Starting 50 games, Lambert has notched 323 putouts at first base.  Lambert completed the season with a .261 batting average.  Her top game of the season came against Tennessee State where she hit a grand slam.  Lambert has posted a 3.79 GPA as an Elementary Education major.

In order to be eligible, student-athletes must have at 3.2 GPA or higher, be at least a sophomore in athletic and academic standing and meet certain playing requirements.

The 19th-ranked (NCBWA) University of Southern Indiana baseball team begins 2017 NCAA Division II Tournament action with the Midwest Regional May 18-22 at Gerace Baseball Stadium in Midland, Michigan. The Screaming Eagles (32-19), who enter the tournament as the second seed, start tournament action against Saint Joseph’s College (34-20), the seventh seed, at 4 p.m. (CDT) Thursday.

Prior to the USI-Saint Joseph’s match-up, fourth-seeded Drury University (36-18) plays fifth-seeded Bellarmine University (34-19) at 9 a.m. (CDT) to start the regional, while top-seeded and host Northwood (43-11) takes on eighth-seeded Kentucky Wesleyan College (27-22) at 1:30 p.m. (CDT) to finish the first session. Third-seeded Quincy University (32-20) and sixth-seeded Wayne State University (31-19) follow the USI-Saint Joseph’s game with the final contest Thursday at 7:30 p.m. The automatic qualifiers in the regional are Quincy (GLVC), ninth-ranked (NCBWA)/17th-ranked (Collegiate Baseball) Northwood (Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference), and Kentucky Wesleyan (Great Midwest Athletic Conference).

Live coverage of the Screaming Eagles baseball games this week can be found on GoUSIEagles.com, while NCAA II Midwest Regional information, including the bracket, ticket information, and directions to Gerace Baseball Stadium, can be found at GoNorthwood.com.

SCREAMING EAGLES BASEBALL NOTES:

USI versus the Midwest Regional Field. USI is 10-7 against the 2017 NCAA II Midwest Regional Field (1-2 vs. Drury; 2-2 vs. Bellarmine; 2-1 vs. Quincy; 3-1 vs. Saint Joseph’s; 2-0 vs. Kentucky Wesleyan; and 0-1 vs. Wayne State). The Eagles are hitting .289 as a team versus the field, led by senior designated hitter Jaylen Quarles‘ .455 average. Junior shortstop Sam Griggs drove in a team-best 14 RBIs against the tournament field, followed closely by junior leftfielder Drake McNamara and junior rightfielder Nick Gobert with 13 and 10 RBIs, respectively.

On the mound, senior right-hander Justin Watts leads the hurlers with a 0.73 ERA, while senior right-hander Lucas Barnett has a team-high three wins.

Eagles all-time versus the regional field and in NCAA II Tournament. USI is 294-230 all-time, 4-2 in NCAA II Tournament action, versus the NCAA II Midwest Regional field (vs. Saint Joseph’s: 45-42 all-time, 0-0 NCAA II Tournament; vs. Quincy: 36-40 all-time, 1-0 NCAA II Tournament; vs. Wayne State: 7-3 all-time, 2-1 NCAA II Tournament; vs. Bellarmine: 79-70 all-time, 0-0 NCAA II Tournament; vs. Drury: 21-9 all-time, 1-1 NCAA II Tournament; vs. Kentucky Wesleyan: 97-64 all-time; 0-0 NCAA II Tournament; and vs. Northwood: 9-2 all-time; 0-0 NCAA II Tournament).

USI history in the NCAA II Tournament. The Screaming Eagles are making their seventh appearance in the Midwest Regional in the last 11 seasons and their 13th appearance overall in the NCAA II Tournament. USI has won the Midwest Regional four times (2007, 2010, 2014, 2016) and the NCAA II National Championship twice (2010, 2014).

USI in national polls. The Screaming Eagles climbed to 19th in final the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Top 25 of 2017. USI fell out of the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Top 30 poll after going 0-2 in the GLVC Tournament.

The difference of a month. The Eagles went 21-7 in May and April with the team hitting .290 and posting a 2.72 ERA, compared to 11-12 in February and March with a team batting average of .259 and a 3.88 ERA. Senior designated hitter Jaylen Quarles has seen the biggest turn around amongst the players, going from .154 (3-19) in nine games during February/March to .378 (28-74) in 24 of the 28 games during April and May. On the mound, junior right-hander Kyle Griffin went from 2-3 with a 5.25 ERA to start the year to 4-0 with a 1.64 ERA in the last six weeks.

Season hitting leaders. Junior designated hitter/leftfielder Drake McNamara (.367) and senior designated hitter Jaylen Quarles (.333) are the Eagles hitting over .300  this season. McNamara leads USI with a team-best seven home runs and 43 RBIs.

Season pitching leaders. Senior right-hander Lucas Barnett has the Eagles’ best ERA among the starting pitchers with a 2.64 ERA in 13 games, 12 starts, and 75.0 innings of work. Barnett, senior right-hander Colin Nowak, and junior right-hander Kyle Griffin all have six victories, while Griffin recorded a team-high 86 strikeouts in 12 games.

Griffin posts single-game high; season record. Junior right-hander Kyle Griffin struck out a season-high 12 batters versus Saint Joseph’s and set a USI single-season record with 86 strikeouts this season. Griffin broke the record of 84 set by Jonathon Wandling during USI’s run to the national championship in 2014.

Archuleta at USI. USI Head Coach Tracy Archuleta is USI’s all-time winningest coach with a record of 410-211 (.660) in nine-plus seasons and is 558-335 (.625) 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.

NCBWA Top 25 Poll
Rank  Team -First Place Votes-
1. Mount Olive (N.C.) -8-
2. Chico State (Calif.) -1-
3. Mercyhurst (Pa.) -6-
4. Delta State (Miss.) -1-
5. Angelo State (Texas) -1-
6. Southern New Hampshire
7. Minnesota State
8. Northwood (Mich.)
9. North Georgia
10. Tampa (Fla.)
11. Azusa Pacific (Calif.)
12. Colorado Mesa
Emporia State (Kan.)
14. West Chester (Pa.)
15. USC Aiken
16. Dixie State (Utah)
17. Nova Southeastern (Fla.)
18. West Texas A&M
19. Southern Indiana
20. St. Cloud State (Minn.)
21. New Haven (Conn.)
22. Catawba College (N.C.)
23. UC San Diego (Calif.)
24. Florida Southern
25. Lubbock Christian (Texas)