Life in the Valley

Two conference weekends are now complete (this one was extra long with Murray State and Valparaiso playing today to finish their doings for the week). Here’s a detailed look at the current Missouri Valley Conference standings and a look at how each team got to where it’s currently at.

The Top of the Valley
Belmont, Indiana State, and Southern Illinois are the three teams tied for the MVC lead after 2 weekends, all at 5-1. The Bruins are perhaps most noteworthy of this trio, given that this is Belmont’s first season in the MVC after coming from the Ohio Valley Conference. Over the weekend, Belmont hit the road and dominated in a 3-game sweep at Evansville, beating the Purple Aces by a combined score of 24-10. Jeff Clarke had 4 RBIs in the Saturday win (Friday was rained out), while ace, pardon the pun, Andy Bean, pitched 6 strong innings and struck out 7 to improve to 3-3. In Sunday’s doubleheader, Blake Barton doubled and homered, driving in 5 runs as Belmont took the opener, 9-1. In the nightcap, Belmont needed 13 innings to finish off UE, 7-5, the winning runs scoring on a Clarke homer – he had 4 more RBIs in the game. Belmont, now 17-12 overall, hosts Tennessee Tech on Tuesday before a big weekend series at SIU.

Speaking of the Salukis, SIU (15-13) won a conference road series, as well, taking 2 of 3 at Bradley to retain their spot in the tie at the top of the conference. After a 9-5 win and a 6-5 loss to open the set, SIU erupted for 16 runs in the series finale, hammering the Braves, 16-4. Up 7-0 after 4 innings, the Salukis went nuts in the 5th, scoring 9 more times. Pier-Olivier Boucher’s 3-run homer was the big belt of the inning, and one of 2 he hit in the game to drive in 5 runs. Boucher entered the weekend 3rd in the Valley in hits with 34. He picked up 8 more knocks at Bradley, and is now hitting .353 with 9 HRs and 27 RBIs in 28 games. He leads SIU with a 1.086 OPS. SIU has outhomered its opponents this season, 40-24. Not to be forgotten in the blowout, Tanner Lewis threw 5 shutout innings with 4 strikeouts.

After a 10-7 loss Friday to UIC that gave Illinois-Chicago its first ever Valley conference win, Indiana State bounced back to win the road series from the Flames, 2-1. Indiana State’s bats were on full display in the victories, that came by scores of 13-7 and 10-1. Like SIU, the Sycamores (14-12) used the long ball to punish the Flames, as 7 different Indiana State batters combined f0r 9 HRs. Mike Sears (9 HRs, 24 RBIs) hit 2 in the 13-7 win, and produced the numerically pleasing box score line of 3-3-3-3 for AB, R, H, and RBI. Seth Gergely continued his hot streak, going 4-for-6 in Game 3 with a double and 3 singles. Gergely leads the Sycamores with a .360 and 1.010 OPS. Lane Miller got the start and win in the finale, pitching 8 innings and allowing just 1 run on 3 hits with 3 walks and 4 strikeouts.

Even Steven

Evansville, Bradley, and Murray State all find themselves tied for 4th at 3-3 in Valley play. Despite a 4-2 loss Monday to Valpo, the Racers are the happiest of these 3 teams at the moment, as they are only one to reach 3-3 by winning its weekend series. In its first 2 games against the Beacons, the Racers … raced … to 14-3 and 14-5 victories. Brennan McCullough went 4-for-4 in the series opener, while Taylor Howell homered twice and drove in 4 runs. Jacob Pennington turned in his normal workhorse effort, going 7 innings with 0 walks. McCullough wasted no time in Game 2, hitting a 3-run homer in the 1st inning. Dustin Mercer went 4-for-5 with 3 runs and 3 RBIs in the 14-5 win, including a triple. Leadoff hitter and LF Cade Simmons scored 5 runs for Murray State in the rout. Murray State hosts Illinois-Chicago this weekend after a Tuesday home date with SEMO.

Evansville (16-11) never got on track vs. Belmont. Tyler Dent got the start in the delayed series opener instead of Nick Smith, but gave up 5 runs in 5 1/3 innings, though he struck out 5. Shane Harris had a strong outing in the finale, striking out 7 over 6 innings and allowing only 2 runs on 6 hits. But he got a no-decision as UE fell in 13. Simon Scherry went 4-for-6 for th Purple Aces in the finale, while Chase Hug had 2-hit games in each of the first 2 games of the series. Eric Roberts hit 2 more homers in the finale for UE, including another leadoff homer in the 1st inning. Roberts now has 12 HRs and 35 RBIs in 27 games. Despite an 0-for-6 in the series finale, Hug still leads UE with a .396 average, .541 on-base percentage, and 1.234 OPS.

Bradley’s (10-13) only win of the weekend came in the middle game against SIU, a 6-5 triumph in which Connor O’Brien hit a 3-run homer and Logan Delgado had 2 hits. O’Brien is Bradley’s clear leader in HRs and RBIs, with 8 and 28, respectively. Delgado is second on the team with a .353 batting average and sports a .460 on-base percentage thanks to 10 walks. Ryan Vogel (.396) continues to lead the Braves in average and has 36 hits on the season. Jacob Norris threw 4 innings of scoreless relief to get the win in the middle game, while Connor Langrell picked up his MVC-leading 7th save.

Looking to Improve

Illinois State and Missouri State are tied for 7th in The Valley at 2-4, while UIC and Valpo bring up the rear at 1-5. Missouri State (13-13), who hosts Bradley this weekend, shook off a 7-game losing streak by taking the first 2 games from Illinois State before dropping the finale. The Bears haven’t struggled for power – outhomering opponents, 41-22, this season. The 41 homers have MSU in the top 50 nationally. The duo of Zack Stewart and Spencer Niven have combined to hit 14 homers and drive in 47 runs. The Redbirds (9-13) worked 10 innings to salvage a win in the series finale against the Bears. Greg Nichols singled home the game-winning run in the 10th as Illinois State took a 2-1 decision. Nichols had 3 hits in the game and is hitting .266 on the season. Daniel Pacella now has 8 homers for the Redbirds.

UIC (9-13) has lost 5 of its last 7 overall but their first-ever conference win on Friday over Indiana State kept the Flames from being on the wrong end of a home sweep. Cole Conn went 4-for-5 in the win with 2 doubles, 3 runs, and 3 RBIs, while Charlie Szykowny homered twice and drove in 4 runs. A.J. Henkle also drove in 2 runs for UIC. Tyler Ingram worked 2 scoreless innings to get his first save.

Valpo (9-12) had lost 8 of its last 9 before beating Murray State on Monday, 5-2. Matt Olive singled and drove in 3 runs for the Beacons in the victory. The win was a total team effort offensively, as Valpo had 8 hits from 8 different batters. Seven of the hits were singles. Bobby Nowak got the win, going 6 innings, allowing just 2 runs on 4 hits with only 1 walk and 9 strikeouts. Nathan Chasey threw 3 scoreless innings to pick up the save. Chasey leads the Beacons with a 1.90 ERA in 8 appearances, including 20 strikeouts in 23 2/3 innings.