GAME DAY LINKS --
McKENDREE at ROCKHURST -- Friday/Saturday, March 17-18, 2017
Loyola Park -- Kansas City, Mo.
LIVE STATS
McKENDREE SEASON STATISTICS
ROCKHURST SEASON STATISTICS
(LEBANON, Ill., March 16)--The McKendree University baseball team will head west this weekend for a trio of non-conference games against Great Lakes Valley Conference foe Rockhurst University. The Bearcats and Hawks will tangle in a doubleheader Friday before wrapping up the series with a nine-inning affair on Saturday. First pitch for both days is scheduled for 1 p.m.
McKendree has not played since last Friday, when the Bearcats swept both ends of a doubleheader at Hypes Field from William Jewell College. The Bearcats have won three of their last four contests and bring a 5-8 season record into their games at Rockhurst. This will be McKendree's first road trip since a tough four-game set at Drury University back on Feb. 24-26.
Pitching was the name of the game in last Friday's sweep of William Jewell. In the opener, a 10-6 McKendree victory, senior right-hander
Matt Wasche (Kansas City, MO/Rockhurst) came out of the bullpen and shut down the Cardinals over the final five innings. Wasche scattered seven hits but only allowed one earned run while striking out three to collect the win in relief. In game two, junior right-hander
Nick Yung (Smithton, IL/Freeburg) and senior righty
Matt Henning (Wichita, KS/Bishop Carroll) combined for a three-hit shutout of William Jewell. Yung was masterful against the Cardinals, fanning eight batters while giving up three hits over seven innings. Henning pitched the final two innings to notch his first save of the year. It marked the Bearcats' first shutout of the season, and the first time that McKendree held an opponent off the scoreboard since Yung tossed a four-hit complete game in a 1-0 triumph over Lewis back on April 29, 2016.
Offensively, junior catcher
Matt DeLaVega (Lincolnwood, IL/Niles West) collected five hits in six at-bats against William Jewell. DeLaVega was 4-for-4 in the game one win with two runs scored and a pair of runs batted in. Senior infielder
Cody Hall (Harrisburg, IL/Harrisburg) chipped in with three hits and three RBI, while senior outfielder
Ryan Cates (Anderson, IN/Yorktown) had three hits and two RBI in the twinbill.
Junior outfielder
Brad Groleau (Peru, IL/St. Bede Academy) and junior outfielder
Hayden Bodine (Washington, IL/Washington) are the two starters for McKendree hitting above the .300 mark heading into the Rockhurst series. Groleau leads the Bearcats with a .311 batting average. He also had a team-high three home runs and nine RBI. Bodine is right behind Groleau in batting average at .310. Bodine is tied for second with Hall and sophomore infielder
Luke Johnson (Barrington, IL/Barrington) with eight runs batted in.
The three games at Rockhurst is on the front end of a five-game road swing for McKendree. The Bearcats will be at Maryville University for a non-conference doubleheader on Wednesday before returning to Hypes Field to open GLVC play against the University of Illinois Springfield. The Bearcats and Prairie Stars will play a four-game series March 25-26 with doubleheaders each day beginning at noon.
ABOUT ROCKHURST
The Hawks come into this weekend's play with a season record of 11-4. Rockhurst recently won three of four games during a spring trip to Clearwater, Fla., taking the last two contests from Oakland City University (11-4) and the University of Minnesota Crookston (5-2).
Six Rockhurst starters enter the McKendree series hitting above .300. Henry Weiler leads the way at .382. In addition to his .341 batting average, Jeremy Lufft leads the Hawks with three home runs and 14 RBI. Alex Van Pelt checks in at .348 to go along with two homers, 13 RBI and a team-leading .652 slugging percentage.
Pitchers Michael Lydon-Lorson and Andrew Ellwanger each have a 3-0 record heading in to the series with the Bearcats. Lydon-Lorson leads the Hawks' rotation with a 2.28 earned-run average and 24 strikeouts, while Ellwanger brings a 4.50 ERA into the weekend.
