UE baseball travels to Illinois State for a series and ESPNU matchup The Purple Aces return to road for more conference action NORMAL, ILL — The University of Evansville baseball team will try to get back in the win column against one of the top teams in the Missouri Valley Conference.

 The Purple Aces return to the road for MVC play after a brief stop at home for a midweek game against Butler. UE struggled to keep the Bulldogs’ bats quiet in the 17-5 loss on Tuesday night as Evansville used seven members of its pitching staff. UE goes for its third series win in Valley action over the weekend at Illinois State. Last season, Evansville swept the Redbirds for the first time since 2022 to get the series within five games. The Aces also succeeded over Illinois State in postseason play with two run-rule wins during the MVC Tournament.

It’ll be a different series this year, as the Redbirds have had more success in 2024. Illinois State has a 15-16 overall record and a 6-3 conference record to be tied for second in the league with Southern Illinois. The Redbirds had a big win to start March as they defeated 25th-ranked Oklahoma State in their series opener 12-6. Illinois State did drop the next two games of the series for its first-ranked win of the year and its first win over a ranked non-conference opponent since 2023. The Redbirds have the third best offense in the Valley at a .298 average, led by junior outfielder Daniel Pacella with a .407 average. Pacella leads the MVC in batting average and slugging percentage at .708.

Evansville will play in its first of two nationally televised games this weekend in Normal. Sunday afternoon’s matchup between the Aces and the Redbirds will be simulcast on ESPN+ and ESPNU. UE had an ESPNU game last season on the road as well at Indiana State when the Sycamores were ranked 14th in the nation. Evansville will then have its first nationally televised game at home since 2018 when the Saturday game of its series with Dallas Baptist was on ESPNU.

With two steals against Butler on Tuesday, senior outfielder Ty Rumsey has the most stolen bases in a season for the Aces since 2012. Rumsey currently has 21 steals midway through the season to lead the MVC. He is also 20th in the nation in stolen bags while being 27th in stolen bases per game. Rumsey has a ways to go to take the season record for stolen bases from Eric Stamets, who had 43 in the 2010 season.

Sophomore left-hander Kenton Deverman pitched his first complete game of the season over the weekend. Deverman spent eight innings on the mound in the opening game of UE’s series at UIC. Through eight innings of work, Deverman allowed seven hits, four runs, only two earned runs, walked a batter, and struck out seven. With only five walks on the season, Deverman leads the MVC in walks allowed per nine innings at 1.40 to be 20th in the nation. He is also 59th in strikeout-to-walk ratio at 4.67 to lead Valley pitchers.