Life in the Valley

It wasn’t a great season debut weekend for baseball programs in the Missouri Valley Conference, as Valley teams suffered through a 14-18 slate overall. All but 1 team (Evansville) did pick up a win, however, and there were several individual highlights – well, as you can guess from the name of the post, 10 – that we’ll highlight here before flipping on some midweek action.

Lightly Regarded Flames Make Statement Out West
Illinois-Chicago, one of the MVC’s newer arrivals and picked to finish 8th in the league this year by the conference’s coaches, wasn’t having any of that talk as they went west and took 3 out of 4 games at Saint Mary’s. Five different Flames homered in the 4 games. Pitcher Aiden Pavoris got a no-decision in his start but pitched 6 innings of scoreless ball, allowing only 3 hits with 5 strikeouts. The sophomore from Algonquin, Illinois was making his UIC debut.

Bears’ Bats Come Alive at Cal Poly
Despite losing 2 of 3 at Cal Poly over the weekend, a team picked to finish 4th in the always competitive Big West Conference that includes stalwarts such as Cal-State Fullerton, UC-Irivine, and Long Beach State, Missouri State hit .316 as a team and scored 25 runs. Nick Rodriguez went 7-for-14 (.500) while Mason Greer hit .417 with a homer and 6 RBIs. Missouri State posted an impressive .909 team OPS for the weekend.

Belmont’s Mason Landers Wins MVC Player of the Week Honor
Landers, a junior from Shelbyville, Tennessee, was named the top player in The Valley for Opening weekend, and his numbers show why. Landers, who had just 3 homers in 56 career games coming into the season, hit 3 over the weekend, driving in 6. Landers went 6-for-14 and also doubled as Belmont split 4 games against UT-Martin. He homered twice in the second game Sunday vs. UTM, driving in 3 and scoring 3 runs as part of a 3-hit game.

Kip Fougerousse, Evansville
Despite the 0-3 start for the Purple Aces, Fougerousse was a standout for The Valley or just about any other conference opening weekend, hitting 3 home runs and leading UE with a .438 batting average. He had 7 hits in UE’s 3 games at Troy, scoring 4 runs and driving in 5. He posted a 1.438 OPS for the weekend. The junior from Linton, Indiana, led off and played 2B in all 3 games.

Loden Carries the Load for Salukis
Steven Loden hit a pair of homers to lead an SIU offense that had 5 long balls in 4 games over the weekend – including a win over Towson and a 1-2 series loss to Wofford. Loden exits the weekend with a .982 OPS, second-best in the lineup behind Cole Christman’s 1.000. Loden hit both homers in SIU’s season opener, a 9-4 SIU win over Wofford.

Indiana State Piitching
The Sycamores only got to play 2 games over the weekend, an extra-inning loss to Iowa from the Big 10, and a win over Quinnipiac. But ISU pitchers were on point in the 2 games, posting a 3.20 ERA and a 0.81 WHIP. More impressively, the Sycamores’ arms walked just 3 batters for the weekend while striking out 23. Zach Davidson and Brayden Lybarger combined to throw 6 innings, allowing 2 hits, 0 runs, 1 walk, and 10 strikeouts.

Nichols Carrying a Hot Bat
Illinois State’s Greg Nichols went 7-for-14 over the weekend for a nice, round, plump .500 average. Nichols doubled and homered and had 5 singles and his teammates did a great job of getting their fellow Redbird around the bases, as Nichols and teammate Luke Cheng lead Illinois State with 6 runs scored each. Despite hitting just 3 homers in 3 games, the Redbirds manufactured 28 runs, an average of 9.3 per game.

Beacon Balance and Lockwood Lockdown
Valpo went 1-2 over the weekend against Big 12 opponent Kansas, winning the middle game. The Beacons offense had no standouts, but great balance as 9 different Valpo batters got at least 1 hit, with Ryan Maka and Nolan Tucker leading the way with 3 each. On the mound, Connor Lockwood pitched 7 innings of 2-hit, shutout baseball in his first start of the season. He had no walks and 6 strikeouts and opposing hitters batted just .091 against him.

Vogel Flying Past .500 Mark
Bradley’s Ryan Vogel went 6-for-11 over the weekend, adding a double for a 1.207 OPS to lead the Braves. Vogel scored 2 runs and drove in 3. Vogel and Conner Manthey had 11 of Bradley’s 22 total hits in a 2-1 series loss at Louisiana-Monroe.

Murray Mound Duo Shines
Jacob Pennington and Bryce Valero led the way for the Racers over the weekend on the mound, combining to pitch 10 innings with no earned runs allowed (Valero allowed 1 unearned run). The duo combined to walk just 4 and strike out 15. Pennington threw 6 no-hit, no-run innings with 2 walks and 8 strikeouts. The Racers went 1-2 over the weekend.

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