Life in the Valley

Just 3 Conference Series Left in Fast-Moving Season

Weekends don’t offer me a lot of time to write. So that’s why the weekend series have been summarized here on Mondays. This weekend, I had the idea to present quickie game recaps on X-Twitter, just so everyone knows what happened, how games went, who stood out, etc. I hope it’s well received.

It also opens up the Monday blog to look at things a little deeper and to go into more detail on things that caught my eye over the weekend. So having said that, here’s the first edition of the Monday 9.

1. Rivals Draw Close, but Sycamores Don’t Panic

Heading into Sunday, there was a scenario in play where if now 24th-ranked Indiana State lost at Southern Illinois, while Evansville won at home vs. Missouri State, we would have had a tie this morning at the top of the Valley standings – somewhat unthinkable given the level of baseball the Sycamores have played. But SIU did beat Indiana State on Friday, and the Purple Aces had taken the first 2 from the Bears. Add a UIC win yesterday to that scenario, and the Flames would have just been 1 game back of the co-leaders. Spicy stuff.

As you no doubt know by now, none of that happened. Indiana State rode another strong performance from Luke Hayden to a 7-2 win at SIU, clinching their 16th consecutive series win. UE fell, 19-8, at home to Missouri State, who hit 2 grand slams (Cody Kelly, Zack Stewart). And UIC … well, um, see … they lost a 20-0 squeaker to Valparaiso, who for a day at least, looked like the ’27 Yankees, hitting 8 homers.

So we awoke today instead to State holding a 2-game lead and seeming comfortable. The Sycamores have already won a series against UIC, but still have UE to play. But given the pitching they’ve gotten from Hayden and Brennyn Cutts, among others, and a lineup that’s now hitting .286 as a team – 50 points higher than opponents – it’s hard to see Indiana State dropping a series to anyone. And if, as last year, they make the final of the Valley Tournament unblemished – who in the league can beat them twice in a row?

2. About that Valpo Barrage

According to the Valpo game recap on the team website, the 8 home runs the Beacons hit yesterday are the most by Valpo in a game in at least 2 decades. Carson Husmann hit 2 blasts, and was joined by Kaleb Hannahs, Brady Renfro, Kyle Schmack (you know he wasn’t going to miss out on this fun), Connor Giusti, Alex Ryan, and Kade Reinertson. The Beacons homered in 5 different innings – including each of the first 4 – as they constantly piled on to their lead before the 7-inning run rule mercifully brought the game to an end. Renfro had 4 hits and 4 RBIs, Husmann drove in 5, and Hannahs had 3 hits and 3 runs.

What made Sunday all the more amazing for Valpo is that prior to the game, the Beacons had only hit a modest 46 homers in 40 games. To put that in perspective, if you look at the current NCAA leaders for team homers, 46 team HRs would put Valpo in a tie for 137th, with the likes of Cincinnati, Southern Illinois, and Wichita State. So, Valpo hit nearly 15% of its home runs for the season in Sunday’s game.

Schmack leads the Beacons with 14 homers and is tied for the team lead in RBIs with 31 (with Husmann).

3. Where Does UIC Go from Here?

On the bright side for the Flames is that Sunday’s debacle only counts for 1 loss. But it was a pretty important loss. UIC entered Sunday with an RPI of 54, outside the area where teams get selected for at-large bids to NCAA Regionals, but within range of moving up to the bubble with a really strong finish to the season (especially since UIC and Evansville haven’t played yet).

However, Valparaiso entered Sunday’s game 234 in RPI. Losses of any kind to bottom 100 teams are really painful when trying to build your own RPI. They are the losses that stick out when it comes time to decide between at-large resumes for the last remaining spots for regionals.

UIC’s remaining schedule includes the aforementioned 3-game set with Evansville, along with midweek games vs. Northwestern, Purdue and at Iowa. The Wildcats and Boilermakers find themselves at opposite ends of the Big Ten standings, with Northwestern (13-26, 2-13) last and Purdue (29-15, 11-4) first. Purdue just swept Northwestern over the weekend. Iowa is 6th at 24-18, 10-8. Other conference opponents remaining for UIC include at Bradley and home to Illinois State. With 12 games left, UIC might need to win out and make the Valley Tournament final to have a shot at regionals, but any wiggle room UIC had is gone.

4. Bears Near a Different .500 Mark

With their 6 homers in Sunday’s win over Evansville, Missouri State (18-24, 7-11) are nearing the .500 mark, but not the one you would ordinarily think of given their 18-24 record. No, Missouri State is nearing the .500 mark in team slugging. They currently sit at .497 through 42 games, good for 51st in the nation and 2nd in the Valley (Murray State, .511).

This is what we expected the Bears to be offensively for most of the season, but it didn’t seem to come together until Caden Bogenpohl was moved to the leadoff spot about a month ago. Since then, the Bears have hit 46 homers in 17 games, which projects out to a monstrous 152-homer pace for a full 56-game college season. Through 42 games, that pace would yield 114 homers, which would be good enough for 3rd in the country right now.

Bogenpohl, Zack Stewart, and Dylan Leach have now combined for 44 homers this season, with Stewart’s 18 leading the way. With teams having 10-12 games remaining, it certainly seems like it’s going to take 21-23 homers to win that conference crown this season. The races for home run king, batting title, and OPS are going to be fun to watch right down to the final day.

5. Guess Who’s Back, Back Again; Murray’s Bats, Tell a Friend

Ten games ago after a game at Southern Illinois, Murray State’s team batting average slipped to .286 – still impressive, but it was the lowest the Racers’ hitting clip had been since very early in the season when such averages tend to seriously fluctuate game to game. But from a March 26 game against Western Kentucky where the average stood at .304, it had consistently dropped over the Racers’ next 10 games, to the .286 mark on April 13. This was a team far too talented with the composite aluminum to be dropping in offensive statistics.

Any thought that Murray State’s offense had disappeared, however, was greatly exaggerated. The Racers’ average is back up to .296 after Sunday’s 15-12 win over Illinois State. Murray State has 110 hits in its last 9 games, an average of 12.2 per contest. They’ve scored 74 runs in that span (8.2) with 22 homers and 17 doubles in those 9 games. The Racers are a modest 5-4 in that span, though it’s featured tough opponents such as SIU, UIC, Illinois State, and SEMO.

Big catalysts for the turnaround have included Jonathan Hogart, who is 19-for-37 (.514) in those 9 games, with 6 homers, 16 runs, 19 RBIs, and a 1.135 slugging percentage. Dan Tauken is hitting .444 in the 9 games with a 9-game hitting streak; 2 hits each in 5 straight games, and 10 RBIs. Drew Vogel has hit 6 homers and scored 12 runs; Dustin Mercer has scored 10 runs and is riding an 11-game hitting streak; and Taylor Howell has 14 RBIs and 4 homers.

Murray State will be a team many don’t want to face in the Valley Tournament due to their offensive potential.

6. Deverman Becoming an Ace for … the Aces

While much of the focus has been on Evansville’s offense and their assault on outfield walls across the midwest, what with their 115 doubles this season (2nd in the country behind Austin Peay’s 117), a developing story line for the Purple Aces has been the recent pitching of freshman Kenton Deverman.

Deverman now leads the staff (among qualifiers) in ERA at 3.89. Deverman, from Dardenne Prairie, Mo. (Fort Zumwalt West), has allowed 2 earned runs or less in 4 of his last 6 starts, including 7 innings of scoreless ball in a win over Illinois State on April 12, and just 1 run over 9 innings in UE’s win over Missouri State on Friday night (more on complete games later). Deverman gave up just 4 hits, walked 2, and struck out 6 in the victory, which improved Deverman to 6-1 on the 2024 season through 9 starts and 69 1/3 innings pitched.

Degerman’s control has been excellent – he’s only allowed 18 walks and carries a 3:1 strikeout:walk ratio. He’s also mostly kept the ball in the park, having only allowed 6 home runs, or an average of 1 every 11.55 innings. Deverman leads the Purple Aces in wins, innings, and strikeouts.

7. Bradley’s Vogel Continues to Climb the Hit Chart

Ryan Vogel has spent 5 years as a Bradley Brave, starting out in the shortened COVID-19 season of 2020, then capitalizing on 4 remaining years of eligibility to stay with the Bradley program. Many might have transferred or tried to pursue other opportunities, but Vogel is a right true college baseball player and he recently passed a milestone, getting the 200th hit of his career on April 10 against Lindenwood. He actually picked up hits 200 and 201 that game, going 2-for-5 with 2 runs scored in an 11-9 Bradley loss.

Vogel, a .304 career hitter, batted .382 a season ago, collecting 73 hits in 191 at-bats. Also the Braves’ all-time leader in stolen bases with 55, he’s swiped 11 this season to put him in the top 10 among Valley base stealers.

Vogel has another milestone in front of him, as well. He needs just 3 more RBIs to reach 100 for his Bradley career.

8. Touching Base with SIU

If you’re a believer in on-base percentage as one of the signs of a good offense, the Southern Illinois Salukis have been your team this season. The Salukis have a team on-base percentage of .390, having drawn 248 walks in 44 games (along with 35 HBP and 438 hits), which is tied for 21st in the country and leads the Valley. The hits alone add up to nearly 10 baserunners a game, but add the walks and HBP, and Southern Illinois is putting 16 base runners aboard a game, or almost 2 per inning.

It’s a style the Salukis have needed to embrace in a year where their power numbers are somewhat down. SIU has hit 46 homers in 44 games, led by 9 each from Cole Christman and Hesston Gray. Remember above, the Missouri State Bears have hit 46 homers in their last 17 games! If you just looked at the homers (SIU does have 91 doubles), you’d think the Salukis would struggle to score. But by getting all these runners aboard, that hasn’t been the case. SIU averages 7.4 runs per game and is outscoring their opponents, 324-281.

Another impressive stat for SIU’s offense? You would think an unintended negative consequence of all these baserunners would be a plethora of double plays. Not so fast, my friend. The Salukis have bounced into only 13 twin-killings all season, and no one on the SIU roster has hit into more than 3. Another reason for that is SIU has stolen 64 bases while being caught just 10 times. Their running is taking the possibility of double plays away from opposing defenses, led by 13 steals for Mathieu Vallee; 11 for Jake Allgeyer; and 9 for Gray. Combined, they’ve only been caught twice.

9. All Hail the Complete Game

Whether the 7- or 8-inning run-rule variety, or the full 9-inning shift, complete games in college baseball are a rarity. Complete-game shutouts even more so. In this era of college baseball, where games feature 17 total runs in the 1st inning (I’m looking at you, Georgia & Texas A&M), or teams are scoring 20+ runs (hi, Valpo), the starting pitcher assignment is one of the most challenging ones in the sport. Getting through the lineup a couple of times without much damage is a success. Going the distance is really impressive. There are only 27 pitchers in the entire country with more than 1 complete game to their credit this season.

There have been 10 complete games by Valley pitchers. So consider this a bit of an honor roll. Three of those pitchers punctuated their complete games by throwing shutouts – Illinois State’s Tyrelle Chadwick; Belmont’s Joe Ruzicka; and most recently, Valparaiso’s Bryce Konitzer. The recipient of all those homers and run support on Sunday, Konitzer threw a 7-inning shutout and earned MVC Pitcher of the Week honors.

Other complete games this season have been authored by:

Dominic Baratta, Belmont
Jack Stellano, Bradley
Kenton Deverman, Evansville
Brennyn Cutts, Indiana State
Luke Hayden, Indiana State
Cameron Mabee, Illinois State
Connor Lockwood, Valparaiso

Tip of the hat to these Valley pitchers who have registered complete games this season in a time where college offenses make such a feat extremely rare.

Today on Valley Diamonds: All is quiet.

If You’re Starved for More College Baseball: Like many Mondays late in the season, it’s a stretch to find some baseball, but I’ve got a game for you. At 5:05 p.m. Central on ESPN+, it’s Utah Valley (22-22, 13-8 WAC) at Utah Tech (10-33, 8-16 WAC) in what will count as a non-conference game. Enjoy!