EVANSVILLE – After picking up consecutive weekend series victories, the University of Evansville baseball team will be hoping to make it three in a row as the Purple Aces will welcome Wichita State to Charles H. Braun Stadium on Friday to start off Missouri Valley Conference play.

The Aces (15-12) have won four of their last five games, and one of the major components of their success has been a balanced line-up that currently ranks among the most powerful in recent UE history. With 27 home runs on the season, the Aces have already left the park more than any other team since 2010, and perhaps even more impressively, 11 different players have done so, which the highest total since 2001.

Overall, UE trails just Missouri State in homers this season, but they’ve been able to hit for average as well as six players currently boast of a .300-or-better mark, led by Trey Hair’s MVC-best .408 batting average.

On the mound, the Aces will have to turn to Patrick Schnieders once again on Friday night. The junior right-hander has been the regular Saturday arm for the Aces this season, but he’s excelled in a couple of Friday opportunities as well, including a 10-strikeout performance against Central Connecticut State last month. For the season, the Westphailia, Mo., native is 3-1 with a 2.27 earned run average over 39.2 innings, and he’s coming off a complete game last Saturday against Florida Gulf Coast.

On Saturday and Sunday, the Aces will turn to the freshman duo of Brandon Gomer and Alex Weigand. Gomer, a right-hander out of Lenexa, Kan., tossed a scoreless frame at Western Kentucky earlier this week, and in his last start, which was washed out at Indiana, he surrendered just one hit over four innings. Weigand, who will be making his sixth start of the season, is 2-1 with a 6.00 ERA over 30 innings of work.

Meanwhile, Wichita State will be looking for its first series victory since taking two out of three at Northern Colorado to open the season. The Shockers (10-19) have played one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the MVC, featuring seven games against ranked opponents. Earlier this week, the team picked up a 15-8 victory over Oral Roberts.

This weekend will also be notable in that the Aces baseball team will play host to over 100 former players and family members for alumni weekend at Braun Stadium. The highlight of the event will take place on Saturday as members of the 1976 team will celebrate the 40^th anniversary of their Indiana Collegiate Conference title and the 2006 squad will celebrate the 10^th anniversary of their Missouri Valley crown. Both teams ultimately went on to play in the NCAA tournament.

First pitch on Friday is slated for 6 p.m., and Saturday’s game will begin at 2 p.m., with the pregame alumni festivities beginning with a noon lunch. Sunday’s finale is scheduled for 1 p.m. Also, the contests on Friday and Sunday will mark the first-ever ESPN3 broadcasts for Aces Baseball.

NOTES: Since 1978, UE is 27-56 against Wichita State … Last season, the Aces were swept in Wichita, but UE picked up two out of three in the Shockers’ last trip to Evansville in 2014 … The first meeting between the two squads was in 1995, the first year that UE was in the MVC … UE dropped three of four games that season before eliminating the Shockers from the Valley tournament … The first series win for UE was in 2005 … Since 1978, the first season that UE participated in NCAA Division I baseball, WSU is the only team from Kansas that the Aces have played … All-time, the Aces are 8-13 in MVC openers and 32-36 in MVC opening series … This weekend marks the third time that UE will start conference play with WSU … Previously, the Shockers took three out of four in both 1995 and 2002.

Aces near the top in several statistical categories

The official completion of the men’s basketball team has seen the University of Evansville finish near the top of the NCAA in several statistical categories.

Evansville’s top rank was 8^th in the country in assists per game.  Over the course of the season, the Purple Aces finished with an average of 17.5 per game.  That was 3.6 more per game than any other Missouri Valley Conference school.  In a similar statistic, the squad finished the season with a total of 595 assists, finishing 11^th in the country.

Another top ten ranking came in field goal percentage.  As a team, UE shot 49.0% on the year, finishing ninth in the nation.  It also was the top percentage in the MVC.  Throughout the season, Evansville ranked near the top of the league in several categories.  The Aces finished the year ranked in the top three in 13 out of the 21 statistical categories in the conference.

Getting to the line was something that brought great success to the team as it won 25 games overall and 49 combined games in the last two years.  With 610 free throws made and 843 attempts, the Aces finished 25^th in the nation and tops in the MVC.

Defensively, UE played at an elite level, giving up 65.3 points per game.  That total was 33^rd in the nation and was the lowest total allowed by a UE team since the 1996-97 squad gave up 64.5.  That comes on the cusp of the 2014-15 team that gave up 65.6 PPG.

UE also held opponents to 40.5% shooting on the season.  That finished the season 39^th in the country and second in the conference.  The tenacious defensive effort for the season was the best in 21 seasons for the Aces with the 1994-95 team holding opponents to 39.5% shooting.  That was also the second-lowest total given up by a team since the 1963-64 National Championship team.

Behind Egidijus Mockevicius’ nation-leading 11.5 defensive rebounds per game, the Aces were 29^th in the NCAA with 27.79 defensive caroms per contest.

To put Evansville’s 25 victories into perspective, it was the first time the program reached that mark since 1988-89.  It is also only the second time since the undefeated 29-0 team in 1964-65 that the program reached the 25-win plateau.  It tied the Division I program mark.

The University of Evansville Women’s Tennis Team (7-13, 0-1) will begin a busy weekend on Friday when they play host to Indiana Wesleyan at 3:00 P.M. CST or 6:00 P.M. CST depending on the weather. If the match is outside it will be played at Wesselman Park and if it is indoors it will be played at Tri-State Athletic Club. The Aces will then continue conference play with matches this weekend at Illinois State on Saturday and at Bradley on Sunday. The match against the Redbirds is slated for a 1:00 P.M. CST start and the match against the Braves is slated for a 10:00 A.M. CST start.

Evansville is coming off their conference opener this past weekend when they traveled to Southern Illinois to take on the Salukis. SIU was able to defeat the Aces by a score of 7-0.

Head Coach Jayson Wiseman said on the match, “This was just another tough loss and definitely not how we wanted to start out MVC schedule. Give all the credit to SIU, their team came ready to play and won almost every key point. We had some very close matches but SIU just out executed us today. Our team is resilient and will be ready to play next week. Hopefully we will have our line up at full strength with three matches scheduled for next week.”

Indiana Wesleyan, a NAIA school, comes into the match on Friday with a record of 24-5. They have also won two out of their last three with their last win coming over Campbellsville. The Redbirds of Illinois State enter Saturdays match with a record of 10-7 with a 1-0 mark in conference play. Their first conference win was a 5-2 victory over Bradley. Bradley currently has a record of 9-9, with their most recent match being their loss to Illinois State.

On April 16th the Aces will play host to Drake. This will mark their first home conference match of the year. They will follow that up with a home match against UNI the next day.