Life in the Valley

Valley Season More than Half Over as Bears Maintain Slim Edge

College baseball’s season goes by faster and faster the older we get. Here we stand, feeling like we just started back in mid-February, and now the weather has warmed up in most places, Spring has long since sprung, and we’ve turned past the halfway mark in the Missouri Valley Conference baseball season.

There’s plenty to review from the weekend, which produced some surprising results that shook up the conference standings. We’ve got just 4 more conference weekends before the MVC Tournament, and the all-important race to land in the top 4 and avoid the single-elimination games on Day 1 is getting heated.

But speaking of heated races, let’s start this edition of the Monday 9 with a look at an individual Valley race that you should be paying attention to as we hit the homestretch toward the postseason.

1 – Who Wins the Batting Title?: One of my favorite individual stat races each season is the batting title. It’s almost always really close, involves players from quite a few teams, and keeps us all on the edge of our seats looking up boxscores to see how everyone involved in the race did on a particular day.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at where the race stands now with 15 of 27 conference games in the books and a handful of non-conference, mid-week matchups still to play.

.400, Daniel Pacella, Illinois State
.380, Luke Mistone, Murray State
.380, Luke Nowak, UIC
.371, Pete Daniel, Belmont
.367, Nick Rodriguez, Missouri State
.366, Jake McCutcheon, Missouri State
.366, Dom Decker, Murray State

Pacella’s 20-point lead might look large here, but one weekend swing can turn the race upside down. Pacella has been fairly consistent, however, coming out of the last couple weekends hitting somewhere between .400 and .410. Mistone and Decker are parts of a deep, solid Murray State lineup, which, much like those for Missouri State and Illinois State, make it tough for pitchers to work around any particular hitter, allowing these players to see better pitches and do more damage.

Though 5th currently, Rodriguez might be the name to watch here. He’s on a 25-game hitting streak, and in Valley play, Rodriguez is hitting .400 with 8 homers and 27 RBIs in 15 games. McCutcheon is also hitting .400 in the Valley – each Bear has 26 hits in conference games this season.

Daniel has been clutch for the Bruins, hitting at the top of their lineup. Nowak is hitting .413 in conference play with 26 hits and a 1.142 OPS, so he’s very much in the race, as well. It will be fascinating to see how it all pans out.

2 – Suddenly, Bradley is Red Hot: After an 0-11 start in conference play and one stretch where it lost 21 of 22 games, the Bradley Braves have found something to build on and won 4 straight games. Bradley traveled to Normal, Ill., over the weekend and swept the Illinois State Redbirds, winning 6-5, 14-13, and 7-5, to improve to 8-27 overall and 4-11 in the Valley. The winning streak also has moved the Braves to within 2 games of the 8th spot in the Valley standings, currently held by Belmont, which is the last transfer position into the Valley Tournament.

Bradley got a monster weekend from leading power threat Timmy O’Brien, who went 5-for-12 at the plate with 3 homers (1 in each game vs. Illinois State), and 10 RBIs. O’Brien is now hitting .258 with 14 homers and 36 RBIs for the season. His 14 homers are nearly half of Bradley’s team total of 34. O’Brien’s final hit of the weekend was the 100th of his Bradley career.

Bradley hit 7 homers over the weekend. Along with O’Brien’s 3, Beau Durbin and Cole Luckey also connecting in the series opener; Jackson Smith going yard in Game 2; and Bobby Atkinson hitting a bomb in the finale.

3 – Flames Derail Bears: A funny thing happened along the way to Missouri State’s run to the Valley regular-season title. UIC rose up over the weekend and took 2 out of 3 from the front-running Bears in Chicago, winning 9-6 on Friday, then splitting a Saturday doubleheader to clinch the series. UIC has to be hoping this is the start of a good run in the conference, as the next 2 weekends, UIC hosts Bradley and makes the short road trip to Valparaiso. Illinois State is the only team left on the Flames’ conference schedule that’s currently in the top half of the standings.

UIC built a 7-1 lead in the opener and then held on for the 9-6 win. UIC handed Missouri State a taste of its own medicine, hitting 5 homers. Lucas Smith led the way with 3 his, including a homer and a double. The Bears returned the favor in Saturday’s opener, scoring 5 in the 4th to take a 7-2 lead. Down 10-5, UIC scored 3 in the 7th to get within 2 but could draw no closer. Smith hit another homer and drove in 3 more runs for the Flames, while Rodriguez, McCutcheon, and Max Knight all drove in 2 each for the Bears. McCutcheon went 3-for-4 with 2 runs and a walk. Jackson Holmes threw 2 scoreless innings for the save. In the finale, a 6-run 2nd was enough to propel the Flames to victory. Thomas Curry homered and drove in 4 while Nowak went 3-for-5. Rodriguez homered in the 8th to extend his hitting streak. He was 5-for-14 in the series with 6 driven in.

4 – Rivalry Revelry as UE Walks Off Sycamores Twice: After losing the Thursday series opener, 2-0, Evansville rallied for walk-off wins both Friday and Saturday, to win the series at the start of a very tough set of games for the Purple Aces. UE is at Western Kentucky Tuesday before traveling to Missouri State this weekend, then hosting Indiana on April 29.

MAX McEwen and Gavin Morris appeared to have Indiana State well on its way to a successful weekend, throwing a 4-hit combined shutout with 12 strikeouts Thursday. Morris got the save, fanning 6 in just 2 1/3 innings. Carter Beck homered. Friday, UE appeared about to even things, before a wild pitch brought home the tying run in the top of the 9th. But UE responded when Matt Flaherty, who already had a walk-off homer vs. Valpo earlier this season, did the trick again, launching a blast to left that gave UE a 6-5 win. Saturday’s nationally televised finale on ESPNU was a treat for the neutrals, with UE rallying from 6-0 and 8-5 deficits to tie the game in the 9th on Cal McGinnis’ 2-run single. In the 11th, with UE down 10-8, McGinnis delivered again, with an another single bringing home Charlie Longmeier and Ty Rumsey to make it 10-10. Kevin McCormick’s single scored Aaron Nehls with the winning run in an 11-10 triumph. Thomas Emerich had 4 hits for the Sycamores, who had 5 doubles. The Aces’ top-of-the-order trio of Rumsey, Longmeier, and Flaherty combined to go 8-for-16 with 6 runs and 3 RBIs.

5 – Murray Sweeps into Title Contention: Winners of 5 straight, Murray State climbed into a tie for 2nd in the Valley standings with a weekend sweep at Valparaiso. The Racers scored 32 runs in the series, and after prevailing in a wild 11-10 affair on Thursday, Murray State outscored the Beacons, 21-3, in the final 2 games.

It took a big comeback for the Racers to win the opener, however, as Valpo held a 10-6 lead in the 9th. But after so many games the past couple seasons where the Beacons had a big late rally, this time the tables were turned as the Racers scored 5 in the 9th. Mistone’s 3-run triple tied the game at 10, then he scored on an error for the eventual game-winning run. Mistone went 2-for-5 with 2 runs and 3 RBIs. Decker also drove in 3 and had 3 hits. Valpo hit 3 homers in the loss. There was no such drama Saturday, as Murray State scored 9 runs in the first 4 innings then added 7 in the 6th to win by run-rule, 16-2 in 7 innings. Conner Cunningham hit 2 of the Racers’ 4 homers, while Dan Tauken drove in 5 runs. Nic Schutte pitched a complete game, giving up 2 runs on 6 hits with 8 strikeouts.

However, teammate Issac Silva played a game of can you top this on Saturday, throwing a 9-inning complete game, allowing just 1 run on 6 hits with 8 Ks in Murray State’s 5-1 win. The Racers scored 4 in the 1st and that way all they needed thanks to Silva, who got his 6th win of the season and needed just 103 pitches to finish off the Beacons. Silva averaged a Greg Maddux-like 3.81 pitches per out.

6 – Salukis Blank Bruins in Finale for Sweep: After winning a pair of 1-run games to clinch the series, Southern Illinois won its 5th straight game in the doubleheader nightcap on Friday, 8-0. Meade Johnson started and went 8 innings, giving up just 5 hits on 102 pitches. He got offensive support in the form of 4 homers, 1 each from Cecil Lofton, Gabe Petrucelli, Mason Schwalbach, and John Lemm. Lemm and Petrucelli’s homers came as part of a 6-run 4th inning.

In the opener, SIU came up with yet another walk-off win, downing Belmont 5-4 in 10 innings, on Matthew Simay’s RBI single that scored Lofton with the winning run. Matt Schark doubled and drove in 3 runs in the win. Sam Frizzi worked 2 scoreless innings for the win. In the Friday opener, all the scoring came early, as SIU scored 4 in the 2nd and Belmont 3 in the 3rd, and that was it. Three of SIU’s runs came on Jordan Bach’s 3-run homer in the 2nd. Pete Daniel homered as part of the Bruins’ 3rd-inning rally, but Alec Nigut, Jackson Payne, and Frizzi shut out Belmont the rest of the way. Nigut improved to 7-1 on the season.

7- Five Weekends Down, Four to Go: We’ve turned the corner. Here’s where the field is sitting as we look toward the final 4 weekends of the Valley regular season. Remember, the top 4 teams go straight to the double-elimination round. Seeds 5-8 play each other in a knockout game on May 20. The final 2 teams in the standings at season’s end don’t make the tournament:

11-4, Missouri State
10-5, Murray State (0-0 vs. SIU)
10-5, Southern Illinois (0-0 vs. Murray)
9-6, Illinois State
8-7, Indiana State
7-8, UIC (2-1 vs. UE)
7-8, Evansville (1-2 vs. UIC)
6-9, Belmont
4-11, Bradley
3-12, Valparaiso

8 – Mid-Week Madness: It’s a full slate of mid-week games this week, with 9 Valley teams in action on Tuesday, while Illinois State hosts Northern Illinois on Wednesday. Tuesday, Valley teams again face 3 Power-4 opponents, as Missouri State hosts Missouri; Indiana State welcomes Illinois; and UIC is at Northwestern. In addition, Evansville plays at a double-tough Western Kentucky team on Tuesday. In other action Tuesday, Murray State hosts North Alabama; Southern Illinois travels to SEMO; Belmont tries to end its 5-game losing streak with a game at Tennessee-Martin, while Bradley tries to win its 5th straight at home against SIU-Edwardsville. Look for preview capsules on the X feed during the day Tuesday.

9 – Early Look at the Weekend: There are 5 key series this weekend from top to bottom in the Valley standings. As Valparaiso battles to get into the MVC Tournament, the Beacons will spend the weekend in Nashville, taking on Belmont. UIC is home again this weekend taking on suddenly resurgent Bradley, as the Braves try to make their way out of the bottom 2 while the Flames are seeking a pathway into the top 4. Murray State looks to continue its winning ways this weekend in a key series at Indiana State. The road ahead for the Racers is tough, as the Sycamores, SIU, and Missouri State all still await Murray State on the schedule. Speaking of the first-place Bears, Missouri State hosts Evansville this weekend, before a trifecta of conference series to end the regular season against Illinois State, Indiana State, and Murray State. Finally, Illinois State travels to Southern Illinois this weekend in another very important 3-game set.

Ed Morgans is the founder of MVCBaseball.com. An Evansville graduate, Ed has written about and broadcast college baseball, while following the sport for 40 years.