GAME DAY LINKS --
McKENDREE at SAINT JOSEPH'S
Saturday, April 23, 2016, Noon (DH) -- WATCH | LIVE STATS
Sunday, April 24, 2016, Noon (DH) -- WATCH | LIVE STATS
McKENDREE SEASON STATISTICS
SAINT JOSEPH'S SEASON STATISTICS
GLVC BASEBALL HOME PAGE
(LEBANON, Ill., April 21)--The McKendree University baseball team will head to the Hoosier State this weekend for a four-game weekend series at Saint Joseph's College. The Bearcats and Pumas will play doubleheaders Saturday and Sunday, with first pitch set for noon each day at Gil Hodges Field in Rensselaer, Ind.
McKendree will look to rebound this weekend after dropping three of four games at Hypes Field last weekend in Great Lakes Valley Conference play against the University of Southern Indiana. The Bearcats are 13-23 overall and 5-11 in the GLVC heading to Rensselaer. McKendree was scheduled to play a midweek non-conference contest on Wednesday at home against Maryville University, but was rained out. The trip to Saint Joseph's will mark the Bearcats' second-to-last GLVC road weekend of the 2016 campaign. McKendree will host Lewis University next weekend before closing out the regular season May 7-8 at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside.
Offensively, McKendree is hitting .279 as a team. Junior outfielder
Grant Anderson (Mackinaw, IL/Deer Creek-Mackinaw) continued to add to his team-leading home run total last week, moving to nine on the season, which is also good for third among all GLVC players. That represents the most round-trippers in a season for a Bearcat player since Kory Peppenhorst slammed 10 during the 2010 campaign. Anderson also paces McKendree with 25 runs batted in and 26 runs scored, splitting his time between the outfield and designated hitter. Junior infielder
Isaac Fisher (Washington, IL/Washington) -- who made a successful transition back to the diamond after spending the last four years as the starting quarterback for the Bearcats' football program -- is hitting .317 on the year and is tied with Anderson for the hits lead within the program with 38.
Three McKendree pitchers are tied for the team lead in victories with three -- junior right-hander
Ryan Cates (Anderson, IN/Yorktown), sophomore righty
Nick Yung (Smithton, IL/Freeburg) and junior right-hander
Matt Henning (Wichita, KS/Bishop Carroll). In addition to his three wins, Henning has racked up four saves, the most for a Bearcats' closer since Kraig Interial racked up five in 2011. Henning and senior left-hander
Josh Tonozzi (Mark, IL/Putnam County) are also tied for the team lead with 14 appearances.
ABOUT SAINT JOSEPH'S
The Pumas enter the weekend with a 20-18 overall record and an 8-8 mark against GLVC foes. Saint Joseph's split a four-game series last weekend in Romeoville, Ill., at Lewis University, taking the last game in a slugfest, 16-8. The Pumas are hitting a collective .271, which is just behind McKendree in the GLVC statistical report. Brendan Rivera leads the squad at .336 while adding 14 doubles, six homers and 30 RBI. Garrett O'Neill leads SJC with 10 round-trippers and 41 runs batted in. O'Neill is second in the conference in homers, one ahead of McKendree's Anderson.
On the mound, Zachary Aring has racked up a 1.28 earned-run average in nine starts. Aring is 4-3 on the season, second only to Bruce Anderson, Jr. on the staff, who has five victories. The Pumas' 4.09 team ERA is fourth-best in the GLVC.
McKendree and Saint Joseph's split a four-game set last season at Hypes Field. The Pumas won the first two contests before the Bearcats bounced back to take the final two games. McKendree's
Nick Yung (Smithton, IL/Freeburg) spun a one-hit shutout in the third game of the series, striking out three in a contest that took just over 80 minutes to play. In McKendree's last visit to Rensselaer during the 2014 campaign, the teams also split the weekend series. All four games were decided by no more than two runs.
WHAT'S NEXT
McKendree and Maryville will make a third attempt to play their second non-conference game at Hypes Field on Wednesday, April 27. The game was originally scheduled for April 6 before rain pushed it back to this past Wednesday. Mother Nature forced yet another postponement earlier this week. After that, the Bearcats will host Lewis University in GLVC play April 30 and May 1.
