Our long national nightmare known as the college baseball offseason is finally over, as our 9 fearless Missouri Valley Conference teams (bye bye, Missouri State) all started play this past weekend. Results weren’t great, as Valley teams combined to 10-18 overall, but remember not a single one of those games was at home, and 20 of them were true road games. So any win this early is a good win for the Valley, who in some corners isn’t even garnering consideration as a mid-major conference anymore.
(Grumble, grumble, Super Regional teams 3 straight seasons, College World Series team last season, grumble, grumble, don’t get me started.)
Anyway, back to the action at hand and a look at 10 players who had standout performances over the weekend, in no particular order.
Cal Schembra, Valparaiso
Schembra, a freshman, stepped right into the Valpo order and finds himself leading the team in hitting after 4 games. Schembra went 7-for-14 at Gardner-Webb, scoring 4 runs and driving in 5 as the Beacons picked up 1 win. Schembra had multiple hits in each of Valpo’s first 3 games before going 0-for-2 in the 7-inning finale, a 12-1 Bulldogs win. Schembra, who ranked #77 on D1Baseball’s list of Top 100 Hitters for the week, homered in Valpo’s 11-10 win on Saturday. And if that wasn’t enough, check out this defensive play from Friday’s opener:
Graham Mastros, Illinois State
Mastros announced his presence with authority on Friday in Illinois State’s 12-1 win at Southeast Missouri. Mastros, a junior from Northfield, Ill., hit 2 homers last season in 123 plate appearances. He went one better than that Friday, bashing 3 home runs to drive in 5, as Mastros hit a pair of solo shots along with a 3-run homer. The Redbirds, who took 2 of 3 to win the series, hit 5 homers in the opener with Luke Stulga and Ryan Bakes also going yard.
For the weekend, Mastros went 5-for-12 with a team-leading 7 RBIs.
Luke Stulga, Illinois State
Speaking of Stulga, he did nothing to show his current .337 career batting average is a fluke, going 6-for-13 on the weekend for a team-leading .462 average. Stulga, a junior center fielder and leadoff man, had 4 hits in Illinois State’s 2nd victory of the weekend – a 7-6 verdict that saw Stulga triple not once but twice.
Stulga authored a 22-game hitting streak last season and while he was held hitless in the series finale, he’s off to the kind of start that suggests such consistency and execution will be on display again in 2026.
Ty Brooks, Indiana State
The Sycamores drew a tough weekend assignment in Puerto Rico, facing North Carolina State and Wake Forest out of the ACC. Those games – the only matchups between the MVC and power-conference squads over the weekend – ended in Sycamore losses, but a win over Manhattan Friday got Indiana State off on the right foot. And just being in this event was a major win both for the Indiana State program and the conference.
Ty Brooks took the mound for that opener and performed well in a 10-3 win over Manhattan. Brooks allowed 2 runs on just 3 hits over 5 innings, walking only 1. He wasn’t dominating in a strikeout sense (he had 1), but his work was critical as Indiana State held just a 3-2 lead entering the bottom of the 5th, before a 5-run uprising broke the game open.
Luke Mistone, Murray State
As one of the key returning players from Murray State’s Omaha team from a season ago, Mistone was always going to be one of the key cogs in the Racers’ offense this season. But it would have been fair to wonder if that offense was going to take a step back in 2026.
Mistone and his teammates showed over the weekend that they haven’t missed a beat. In taking 2 of 3 from Ohio University, the Racers scored 37 runs, hit .339 and carried a 1.039 team OPS. Mistone was a big part of that, recording back-to-back 3-hit games in going 7-for-16 for the weekend with 4 runs and 6 RBIs. He now has 90 hits, 60 runs, and 59 RBIs in 64 career games at Murray after transferring in from Cal-State Fullerton.
Meade Johnson, Southern Illinois
Unlike many opening weekend series that are run-fests and end up in football-like scores (check the Virginia-Wagner doubleheader from Saturday when you get a chance) … Southern Illinois and Oral Roberts played a good old-fashioned baseball series over the weekend, with the hosts ORU winning 2 of 3. The 2023 College World Series participants won the middle game of the series, 1-0, overcoming a strong effort from Johnson. The grad student threw 5 shutout innings, conceding just 1 hit with 3 walks and 2 strikeouts on 86 pitches.
Johnson pitched to a 5.20 ERA in 50+ innings last season. A big improvement from him in 2026 will be a big key to whatever success SIU has this season.
Max Hansmann, Evansville
It wasn’t a great start for Evansville in terms of results, as the Purple Aces’ trip to Kennesaw, Ga, saw UE come home 0-3 (with one game canceled by weather). But boxscores can be deceiving. In an 11-3 loss to Kennesaw State, the Purple Aces were well in the game, tied 3-3 in the 8th largely due to 6 innings of fine starting pitching from Hansmann.
A senior who D1Baseball ranks as the #13 2026 MLB Draft prospect tin the MVC, Hansmann made 7 starts in 68 appearances over his first 3 seasons at UE. But moving into the rotation this season, Hansmann delivered 7 strikeouts with just 2 walks against the Owls, giving up 3 runs on 5 hits. Hansmann threw 94 pitches. If Hansmann proves to a be a solid starter and Kenton Deverman bounces back to his freshman form from 2024, UE has the makings of a solid rotation when you also add in Kevin Reed to that mix.
Brody Langlotz, Belmont
The Bruins picked up 1 win in 3 tries at Samford last weekend, the victory coming in the middle game by a 14-4 score. Langlotz led the Bruins’ offense, going 5-for-10 with a double, homer, 2 runs, and 3 RBIs. Langlotz had 2 of Belmont’s 17 hits in the victory.
Langlotz, a redshirt sophomore right fielder, transferred to Belmont from Gulf Coast State College, where he drove in 40 runs and scored 44, with a .405 OPS.
Zack Millsap, UIC
The Flames used 11 pitchers in a 3-game weekend series at Incarnate Word, where they won the finale to salvage 1 out of 3. In that game, Millsap delivered somewhat of a rarity in college baseball – a 3-inning save. Millsap pitched 3 scoreless innings, allowing only 1 hit and 1 walk while stirking out 3 to finish off the Flames’ first victory of the season.
Millsap had 7 saves a season ago with a 4.31 ERA in 39 2/3 innings (23 appearances). After a year where UIC had to deal with several departures in the transfer portal, Millsap’s return is a great sign for the Flames’ pitching staff and will likely swing some close games their way this season. The 3 innings vs. Incarnate Word were 1 off Millsap’s career high of 4, set last year.
Ashton Horchem, Bradley
The Braves went 1-2 opening weekend at Bethune-Cookman, winning the finale. Horchem went 1-for-4 in the win and was the model of consistency for the new-look Braves under first-year head coach Justin Dedman. Horchem had 1 hit in each of Bradley’s 3 games at Bethune, finishing 3-for-7 with 3 walks and a .600 on-base percentage. His 1.029 OPS leads Bradley regulars in that category so far.
Today on Valley Diamonds: Bradley is in action today at Indiana, as we get the first matchup this season between the MVC and the Big Ten. Also today, Illinois State is at SIU-Edwardsville; UIC’s San Antonio trip continues with a game at UTSA, while Belmont hosts Bellarmine on the first day of mid-week action for 2026.
Ed Morgans is the owner and founder of Life in the Valley – your home for Missouri Valley Conference baseball coverage since 2023. Ed is an Evansville grad and a fan of college baseball for the last 45 years.
Life in the Valley 
Leave a comment