GAME DAY LINKS --
McKENDREE at SOUTHEAST MISSOURI STATE -- Tuesday, April 10, 2018, 6 p.m.
Capaha Field -- Cape Girardeau, Mo.
LISTEN LIVE (SEMO Broadcast)
LIVE STATS
McKENDREE SEASON STATISTICS
SEMO SEASON STATISTICS
McKENDREE at LINDENWOOD -- Wednesday, April 11, 2018, 4 p.m.
Lou Brock Sports Complex -- St. Charles, Mo.
LIVE STATS
McKENDREE SEASON STATISTICS
LINDENWOOD SEASON STATISTICS
(LEBANON, Ill., April 10)--The McKendree University baseball team will visit the Show-Me State for a pair of non-conference games. The Bearcats will first head to Cape Girardeau, Mo., on Tuesday for their lone NCAA Division I contest of the season when they face Southeast Missouri State University in a 6 p.m. match-up. Then on Wednesday, McKendree will be in St. Charles, Mo., to meet Lindenwood University. Game time has been moved up to 4 p.m. at the Lou Brock Sports Complex.
McKendree last played on Saturday, when it split a non-conference twinbill at Hypes Field against Oakland City University. After dropping the opener 7-2, the Bearcats bounced back with a 3-1 triumph in game two. Jack Strieker tossed six innings and allowed just one unearned run and three hits to grab his second victory of the season in Saturday's nightcap. The split gives the Bearcats an overall record of 6-20.
The games at SEMO and Lindenwood begin a busy week for McKendree. Following the mid-week tilts, the Bearcats will host the University of Illinois Springfield for a four-game Great Lakes Valley Conference series. The Prairie Stars are currently 27-4 overall and ranked No. 10 in the latest National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) Division II poll. UIS is riding a 19-game win streak and has been victorious in 27 of its last 28 outings.
ABOUT SEMO
The Redhawks are 14-18 overall and 10-5 in Ohio Valley Conference play. SEMO is coming off a OVC series victory over Eastern Illinois University, taking the final two contests in the three-game set. Offensively, the Redhawks are paced by Trevor Ezell and his .400 batting average. Ezell leads the team with 52 hits and seven stolen bases and is second with 28 RBI. Justin Dirden has belted a team-best seven homers and leads the squad with 40 RBI. Dirden is also hitting .360 on the year, while Chase Urhahn is second on the Redhawks' squad with a .372 average.
On the mound, SEMO is paced by Carlos Vega, who is 5-3 with a 2.01 earned-run average in 15 appearances with four starts. Vega has also struck out a team-best 47 batters in 40 1/3 innings of work. Christian Vick is 4-2 in his six starts. Ashton Holyfield, Tuesday's probable starter for Southeast Missouri State, is 0-1 with a 6.46 ERA in four starts.
In McKendree's last game against an NCAA Division I opponent, the Bearcats rode the strength of a four-run fifth inning to a 5-3 victory at Saint Louis University almost exactly one year ago -- April 11, 2017 -- in St. Louis. Ryan Cates had the big blow in the game, a two-run double in the fifth that put McKendree in front to stay.
The Bearcats and Redhawks have not played since the 1998 season, when SEMO registered a 13-1 triumph over the Bearcats.
ABOUT LINDENWOOD
The Lions are 16-18 this season with a 9-14 mark in Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) play. Lindenwood won its weekend series at home against Southwest Baptist University, taking two of the three games. Drew Quinones leads the team with a .376 batting average. In 34 games, Quinones has drawn 23 walks and has driven in 23 runs. D.J. Miller tops all Lindenwood players with five home runs and 29 RBI to go along with a .294 batting average.
Tyler Cassmeyer has won a team-leading five games for the Lions, going 5-2 with a 2.44 ERA in eight starts this season. Cassmeyer is second on the team with 72 strikeouts, trailing only Andrew Ellers, who has 70 in 56 2/3 innings of work. Ellers is 4-3 in 10 starts.
McKendree and Lindenwood have not met on the baseball diamond since the 2012 season. That year, the teams played six times.
