Live StatsTHIS WEEK'S GAMES: The Blue Devils (17-12, 7-7 WIAC) will travel to UW-Whitewater (23-4, 11-2 WIAC), Saturday, April 26 and Sunday, April 27. With over half the WIAC schedule behind the, the Blue Devils will enter this weekends games with Whitewater in fifth place in the WIAC. The Blue Devils are coming off a four-game series where they took three of four from UW-Oshkosh, April 17-18. Whitewater is coming off of two wins against Platteville, while the Blue Devils are coming off of two losses to UW-La Crosse.
THE 2014 BLUE DEVILS: UW-Stout opened the season 1-3 before winning seven games in a row on their spring trip. Stout finished up their trip with a 4-4 tie against the Minnesota Twins rookie team. The Blue Devils have opened conference play with a 7-7 record, and have gone 2-2 in non-conference play. The Blue Devils have won eight of their last 14 games. Stout has surpassed their win total from last season with 10 games remaining on the schedule. |
2014 StatisticsPITCHING STAFF: Senior
Brent Mueller (5-2 W-L, 4.58 ERA, 39.1 IP, 37 K) and freshman
Zach Carlson (3-2 W-L, 3.70 ERA, 41.1 IP, 21 K) lead Stout in starts with seven each.
Patrick Gullickson (2-1 W-L, 4.15 ERA, 26.0 IP 16 K), and
Hayden Bowe (2-1 W-L, 4.74 ERA, 24.2 IP, 13 K) each made their second start of the season against La Crosse. Bowe is tied for the team lead in appearances with nine.
Andy Peterson also has nine appearances and has collected four saves to lead Stout.
HITTING THE BALL: Ryan Freitag tops the Blue Devils in most power numbers. He is batting .358, slugging .726 and has collected five doubles, 10 home runs and 35 runs batted in.
Jack Schneider leads the team in batting average .372, from mostly the ninth spot, hitting a team-high 12 doubles and has 12 RBI.
Brady Burzynski, the lead-off hitter, is hitting .354 with two home runs, eight doubles, two triples, 23 RBI and a team-high 11 stolen bases.
Charlie Pelzer is hitting .341 and
Charlie Meyer is hitting .347 , with Pelzer going 30-88 with seven doubles, a home run and 20 RBI. Meyer is 35-101 with nine doubles, two triples, four home runs and 28 RBI. Meyer is among the national leaders in sacrifice flies with eight. As a team, Stout is among the top five nationally in sacrifice flies with 30. Pelzer and Burzynski each have four sac flies. All eight starting position players have recorded at least 10 RBI.
Brett Vavra is hitting .303 (27-89) with 18 RBI.
Jared Francois is hitting .316 with seven doubles, two home runs and 18 RBI.
Jake Lunow is hitting .299 with four doubles, a triple, 12 RBI, two stolen bases and a team-high five sacrifice hits. Nich Nalbach (.253, 25-99) has four sacrifice hits. as a team, Stout is hitting .316.
UW-WHITEWATER BASEBALL: UW-Whitewater, the defending regular-season champion, is slotted for second in the seven-team league race and entered the 2014 campaign ranked No. 15 by D3baseball.com. The Warhawks are currently in first place in the WIAC and ranked number four in the national poll. The Warhawks have collected 14 conference regular-season crowns, three tournament championships and made six straight NCAA appearances. The 2013 team ranked fourth in the NCAA Division III with 36 home runs and fifth with a .341 batting average. Senior Jared Fon claimed WIAC Position Player of the Year accolades in 2012, and was second on the team a season ago with 62 hits and 44 runs scored. Senior Scott Plaza led the 2013 pitching staff with a 2.60 earned run average in 52.0 innings pitched. Gone from last year's squad is Marty Herum, the reigning two-time WIAC Position Player of the Year. Head coach John Vodenlich needs 13 wins to reach 400 in his career. Whitewater is led offensively by Mikole Pierce who is hitting .438. Pierce also leads the team in RBI with 31. He is second on the team in home runs with five. Dylan Friend leads the Warhawks in home runs with six. Whitewater is batting .355 as a team, which leads the WIAC. Curtis Morgan and Scott Plaza have both started six times for Whitewater. Morgan is 5-0 with a 3.09 ERA. Plaza is 5-1 with a 4.09 ERA. Whitewater has a team ERA of 3.24 which is good for second in the WIAC. |
2014 Warhawk StatisticsLAST TIME THEY MET: The games were supposed to be in Menomonie, but were moved to Whitewater when the winter that would never leave was still in full swing in Menomonie, April 20-21, 2013. The Warhawks took all four contests, 10-8, 11-2, 7-4, 12-8. |
Day One Games and Statistics |
Day Two Games and Statistics2014 TEAM CAPTAINS: Team captains for the 2014 season are
Kasey Kruse,
Charlie Meyer and
Ian SchiltzAWARDS AND HONORS: Jacob Lunow was named the WIAC hitter of the week for the week of April 14-20.
COACHES: Toby Gardenhire, (46-59, as of April 21, 2014) son of Minnesota Twins manager Ron Gardenhire, is in his third season with UW-Stout. Gardenhire coached the Blue Devils to a 12-27 record in 2013, a mark the Blue Devils exceeded halfway through this season. In the fall, 2013, Gardenhire played for Germany in the World Baseball Classic.
Gardenhire received his bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois in community health in 2005.DOWN THE ROAD: The Blue Devils will close the regular season when they host UW-Superior, Wednesday, April 30 at 1 p.m., then will host UW-Stevens Point, May 3-4, in the final regular season finale.
