Life in the Valley

Most Individual Awards Still Up for Grabs

On to the next to last weekend of the Missouri Valley Conference baseball regular season and while today’s news cycle has mostly been about Missouri State, there’s plenty to study and appreciate among this week’s stat leaders.

The batting race is still far too close to call, with Evansville’s Mark Shallenberger holding a 3-point advantage of surging Kendall Ewell of UIC. Those two are also battling it out for the slugging percentage and OPS crowns, with Ewell leading Shallenberger in slugging (.777 to .744), while Shallenberger has the OPS edge at 1.280, just barely head of Ewell (1.268). Shallenberger’s .536 on-base percentage has been boosted by a 19-game on-base streak he takes into Evansville’s big series this weekend at Indiana State.

Speaking of the Sycamores, Luis Hernandez now leads the conference in RBIs with 59, while Mike Sears is 2nd in homers (18), 1 behind Missouri State’s Zack Stewart. Taylor Howell (Murray State) and Mason Landers (Belmont) also sit on 18 dingers. Eighteen is the key number in the stolen base race, with UIC’s Zane Zielinski leading the conference on 18 swipes, 1 ahead of J.T. Sokolove of Illinois State and Belmont’s Sam Slaughter.

Luke Lawrence (Illinois State) is the first in the conference to reach 70 hits, but he got to that mark just 1 ahead of Shallenberger and Hernandez, and 2 in front of Ewell. With Zielinski in 5th at 67, the top 5 in the hits race in the conference are separated by just 3 knocks. For teams, UIC is the leading hitting bunch at .300.

On the mound, Indiana State carries a team ERA of 4.49, more than a full run better than anyone else in the MVC. Luke Hayden and Brennyn Cutts, both 6-1, are tied for 4th in the wins race, as Murray State’s Cade Vernon is now 8-2 with 2 regular-season starts left. Hayden (2.92) and Cutts (2.94) are 1-2 in the Valley in ERA and Hayden (70) is 3rd in strikeouts. Reece Lawler of UIC continues to lead the saves race with 10, though he’s just 1 ahead of SIU’s Anthony Pron.

Evansville’s Kenton Deverman has been the workhorse so far, throwing 75 1/3 innings, a third of an inning ahead of Vernon. SIU’s Aidan Foeller is still the strikeout king with 84, 12 ahead of Vernon.

Here’s a look at the stat leaders. Next week, we’ll add a few more stats into the mix as the season’s final weekend approaches. Then, prior to the MVC Tournament, we’ll have top-10 leaders for all the categories.