GAME DAY LINKS --
McKENDREE at MARYVILLE -- Wednesday, March 22, 2017, Noon (DH)
Weber Field -- St. Louis, Mo.

WATCH LIVE (Maryville Broadcast)
LIVE STATS
McKENDREE SEASON STATISTICS
MARYVILLE SEASON STATISTICS

(LEBANON, Ill., March 21)--The McKendree University baseball team will prep for this weekend's Great Lakes Valley Conference opener by visiting Maryville University for a non-conference doubleheader on Wednesday. First pitch at Weber Field in St. Louis has been moved up an hour to noon with the anticipation of colder weather arriving in the area late in the afternoon.

The twinbill will close out a brief five-game road trip for McKendree, which started with the Bearcats winning two of three games over the weekend at Rockhurst University. The Bearcats swept a doubleheader on Friday, 5-2 and 5-1, before falling in the final contest on Saturday, 10-5. McKendree, which had a season-high four-game winning streak snapped with Saturday's defeat, brings a 7-9 overall record into its meeting with Maryville. 

Strong efforts on the mound have helped the Bearcats shave more than two runs per game off the squad's earned-run average during their recent surge. Junior Nick Yung (Smithton, IL/Freeburg) improved to 3-0 with his game two win on Friday at Rockhurst, allowing one earned run on six hits with five strikeouts over 6 2/3 innings of work. Senior righty Terry Deaville (Rantoul, IL/Rantoul) grabbed his first win of 2017 in the opener as he gave up just two earned runs on four hits while fanning three batters over the first seven innings.

At the plate, junior outfielder Hayden Bodine (Washington, IL/Washington) boosted his average to a team-best .385 with a 6-for-10 performance in the three games at Rockhurst. He drove in five runs, three of which game on two-out base hits. Bodine now leads the Bearcats with 13 runs batted in. Senior infielder Isaac Fisher (Washington, IL/Washington) (.333) and junior infielder Jeff Wetzler (Newburgh, IN/Castle) (.306) have joined Bodine as the Bearcats' regulars hitting above the .300 mark entering the doubleheader at Maryville. 

Following the games on Wednesday, McKendree will kick off its 28-game GLVC slate at Hypes Field by hosting the University of Illinois Springfield in a four-game series currently scheduled to be played Saturday and Sunday. First pitch both days will be at noon.

ABOUT MARYVILLE
The Saints are 12-7 on the year, which includes a perfect 6-0 mark on its new turf playing surface at Weber Field. Head coach Seth Von Behren's squad last played on Saturday in a non-conference doubleheader in St. Louis against Kentucky Wesleyan, dropping the first game 9-5 in 13 innings on the campus of CBC High School before winning game two back at Weber Field, 2-1. 

The Saints enter Wednesday's game leading the GLVC in batting average at .358 while leading the league in runs scored with 168. Maryville boasts three starters hitting above .400 coming into the McKendree twinbill -- Daniel Covert at a team-leading .453, Mitch Carriger at .426 and Connor Markel at .410. Carriger paces the squad with six homers and 26 RBI through the Saints' first 19 games. Joey Lodes leads the Maryville pitching staff with three victories, while A.J. Dean is close behind with two wins while adding a team-best 18 strikeouts and a 2.74 ERA.

McKendree and Maryville were scheduled to play twice during the 2016 regular season. The Bearcats won the first game 8-6 on March 15 at Hypes Field, while the second contest was postponed three different times due to rain before scheduling conflicts forced the game to be cancelled on April 27. The two teams are slated to meet one more time in 2017, which will come on April 4 at Hypes Field.