Life in the Valley

Regular season complete; MVC Tournament begins Tuesday

With another Missouri Valley Conference baseball regular season in the books, it’s time to see where the MVC’s players and teams ranked nationally in a myriad of NCAA categories. Unsurprisingly, there’s more offensive representation than pitching, given some of the run totals and wild games we saw in the Valley this season.

First, let’s take a look at players who finished in the top 50 in NCAA categories.

• MVC batting champion Luke Nowak (UIC) is 49th nationally at .379. Nowak had 77 hits in 203 at-bats over 49 games. Central Connecticut State’s Aidan Redahan led the country at .462.
• Matt Schark (SIU)’s fine season and his 23 homers saw him finish alone in 2nd nationally, only behind Oregon’s Mason Neville (26). But he wasn’t alone in terms of Valley representation. Illinois State duo Daniel Pacella (20, tied for 11th) and Judah Morris (19, tied for 19th) are both in the top 50, as well.
• Schark also finished 2nd in the country in RBIs, just edged out by Rhode Island’s Jack Hopko (80). Schark won the MVC RBI crown by 19 over Murray State’s Dan Tauken.
• Speaking of Pacella, he finished tied for 35th in the country in hits with 79. Schark was a factor here, too, tying for 47th (78).
• After capturing the #1 seed in the upcoming MVC Tournament, it’s no surprise to see a Murray State hitter here, as MVC doubles leader Jonathan Hogart tied for 4th in the country with 24. Kaleb Freeman (Georgia State) and Hayden Jatczak (Kent State) tied for the lead with 28. Missouri State’s Nick Rodriguez (22) tied for 14th; while teammate Taeg Gollert (21) tied for 22nd. Bobby Atkinson (Bradley), Pacella, and Jordan Bach (SIU) all were in the national tie for 50th with 19 each.
• SIU’s Kaleb Hall tied for 16th nationally with 5 triples. TCU’s Sawyer Strosnider and Connor Westenburg of McNeese State led the country with 9.
• Carson Garner (Murray State) finished tied for 20th in the nation with 50 walks. Bach landed in a tie for 27th with 48, while Morris and Caden Bogenpohl (Missouri State) were 2 of 3 players tied for 35th with 47. Blake Cavill of Troy drew 64 free passes to lead the country.
• Evansville’s Ty Rumsey led the Valley with 31 stolen bases, good for a tie for 30th in the country. Rumsey was only thrown out 4 times this season. Jordan McCladdie of Jackson State led the nation with 47 steals.
• No one in the Valley got on base more often than Dom Decker of Murray State at .510, which landed him 23rd nationally. Decker was the only Valley player and one of only 39 in the country to have an on-base percentage of .500 or more.
• More honors for Pacella in the slugging percentage category, as the Valley leader finished 25th in the country at .741, just 6 points ahead of Schark, who is 30th. Rodriguez made this list, as well, finishing 35th at .728. Southern’s Cardell Thibodeaux demolished this category nationally, finishing at .875, nearly 100 points better than runner-up John Bay (Austin Peay).
• So, for reasons I can’t quite comprehend, the NCAA doesn’t list leaders for OPS (on-base + slugging). There was quite the battle in the Valley for this title, with Pacella coming out on top at 1.184, edging out Rodriguez (1.178), Morris (1.157), and Schark (1.157). It took 1.017 (Bach) just to make the top 10 (.900 in college is really good, for perspective). D1Baseball’s stats have Pacella finishing 42nd in the country, while Rodriguez was 46th.
• On the mound, Valparaiso workhorse Connor Lockwood led the country in inning with 95 2/3, according to D1Baseball.
• A trio of Valley pitchers – Lockwood, Tanner Perry (Illinois State) and Michael Yusypchuk (Missouri State) all tied for 12th in the country with 2 complete games.
• Perry, UIC’s Dillon Schueler and Brandon Bak; Belmont’s Joe Ruzicka and Zane Brown; and Evansville’s Kevin Reed were among many pitchers tied for 12th nationally with 1 complete-game shutout, per D1Baseball.
• Sam Frizzi (SIU) tied for 29th nationally in saves with 8. Illinois State’s Joe Husak was right behind in the conference with 7, and tied for 49th nationally. Alabama’s Carson Ozmer led the nation with 16.

That’s quite the list. The Valley was an offensive league this season and it shows with how many players were in the mix in the national statistics. Now, let’s look at where teams stacked up in various categories.

• SIU tied for 43rd in the country with a .303 team batting average. Murray State (.300) tied for 48th. New Mexico led the country at .339.
• The Salukis were also 20th nationally in walks with 304. Murray State wasn’t far behind, tied with Georgia for 37th (290). Duke’s 373 walks led the country.
• More SIU: They tied for 15th in the NCAA in doubles with 121. Right behind them is Missouri State, whose 120 doubles tied it for 20th. Checking in tied for 36th with 115 is Murray State. New Mexico also led Division 1 in this category with 148.
• In a hitter’s league, not enough can be said about the job Murray State did on the mound this season. The Racers won the MVC ERA title by almost a full run over SIU at 4.60. That mark has Murray State 38th in the country. Northeastern, one of the more dominant teams in the country over the last 4-6 weeks, led the nation at 2.94.
• Missouri State and Murray State were the top fielding teams in the Valley at .976, and both landed in the top 50 nationally. The Bears are officially ranked 44th with 41 errors, while the Racers are listed 47th with 42 errors. Ball State (.984) finished 1st.
• Southern Illinois finished 20th in hits with 576. High Point led the nation with 640.
• The Salukis were also a top-10 team in homers this season, tying for 8th in D-1 with 102. Georgia did the most card work this season at 132. Missouri State (97) tied for 11th with Davidson and Mississippi State.
• SIU’s offense produced 478 runs this season, good for 13th. High Point also bossed this category, as its 587 runs were 44 more than 2nd-place Austin Peay. SIU was also 20th in the country in runs per game with 8.69. Murray State (8.56) wasn’t far behind in 24th. At 8.24 runs per game, Missouri State captured 38th.
• Belmont just missed the top 50 with 99 stolen bases. The Citadel finished 50th with 100. VMI led the country with 209.

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.