Baseball Preview: Blue Devils, Pioneers move Saturday's games to Sunday

THIS WEEK'S GAMES: The Blue Devils (11-17, 3-9 WIAC) will make their first WIAC road trip of the season when they travel to UW-Platteville (15-16, 1-11 WIAC), Friday, April 29, and Saturday, April 30.. First pitch Friday is 1 p.m. First pitch on Saturday is scheduled for 12 p.m. The Blue Devils have been home the last three weekends.The doubleheader was moved up one day. NOTE:  Impending inclement weather is forcing the postponement of Saturday's games to Sunday.

SCHEDULE CHANGES: The doubleheader at UW-Platteville has been moved up one day and will now be Friday, April 29 and Saturday, April 30. The UW-Superior at UW-Stout doubleheader originally scheduled for Wednesday, May 4 has been moved up to Tuesday, May 3. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m. in the 7-inning doubleheader. The Macalester/UW-Stout doubleheader for Monday, May 9 has been pushed back 30 minutes to a 2:30 p.m. start.


THE 2016 BLUE DEVILS: The Blue Devils return 11 pitchers from last year's squad and return all five pitchers who started five or more games. The pitching staff returning accounts for 307 of 324 total innings pitched last year. In the field, the Blue Devils return infielder Noah Brown, who plays at both first base and third base, as well as Austin Littmann, who has played predominately at second base. Tyler Nalbach has seen time at middle infield and Taryn Tierney has held down third base. Clay Gale and Tyler Kinderman are expected to share time at catcher. In the outfield, Brady Burzynski returns to center field, but an injury during the spring break trip may keep him out for an extended time. Josh Halling returns after seeing his 2015 season shortened due to illness. Hunter Dicus and Ryan Connor saw considerable time in the outfield. | 2015 Statistics

PITCHING STAFF: Brett Steinwagner has made six appearances in relief, allowing only two hits and one earned run for an ERA of 1.23. Zach Carlson has thrown a team-high 31.0 innings and leads the team in strikeouts with 20. Derek Graves has thrown 24.1 innings and has 15 strikeouts.  Hayden Bowe, who recently came off the injured list. Bowe, a first team all-WIAC selection last season, is 2-0 with an ERA of 5.33 and 14 strikeouts. Kellen Pearson, who threw 11 innings two weeks ago, has a 2-3 record in five starts and currently has an ERA of. 6.00. Pearson was the WIAC pitcher of the week for his performance last week against UW-Stevens Point, but was injured this week when he struck with a batted ball against UW-La Crosse.  Max Sires, who recently has seen some time at shortstop, has an ERA of 2.79 over 19.1 innings pitched. Drew Worth recorded the win last week against Northland College, throwing five innings of scoreless ball, allowing only two hits. Wyatt Ernstmeyer has come on in relief in six games, striking out 12 over 8.2 innings pitched with an ERA of 2.08.

HITTING THE BALL: Brady Burzynski, back after nearly a month off due to injury, has seen his batting average rebound to an even .400 (24-69) with nine RBI. Noah Brown continues a solid season at the plate, and has an average of .398 (45-113) with a team-high 24 RBI. Brown leads the team or is tied for the team lead in doubles (9), triples (2) and home runs (2).  Hunter Dicus has an average of .318 (27-85) with 16 RBI. Josh Halling has 16 RBI and has five stolen bases, trailing only Burzynski, who has seven. | 2016 Statistics

THIEVERY: An injury to Brady Burzynski in March slowed Burzynski's pace to become the UW-Stout all-time stolen base leader. Burzynski came into the 2016 season with 37 stolen bases, sixth on the all-time Blue Devil career list. Burzynski officially has seven stolen bases on the season and is tied for the lead on the all-time list. The Blue Devil stolen base leaders are: Tate Cummins 44 (1997-99); Brad O'Connell 43 (1998-2001); Mike Niemczyk 43 (1990-94); Tim Buswell 41 (1986-88); JR Dachel 40 (1997-2000).

UW-STOUT LAST TIME OUT:  The Blue Devils had a busy week, playing eight games. Stout lost to St. Thomas, 2-0, 6-1, April 19, split with Northland College, losing the first, 4-2, but winning the second, 6-0, then lost all four games to UW-La Crosse, 13-9, 14-6, 13-1 (7 inn), 7-0, April 23-24. | Northland Story and Statistics | La Crosse Day One Story and Statistics | La Crosse Day Two Story and Statistics



UW-PLATTEVILLE BASEBALL: The Pioneers have five everyday players batting .300 or above, led by Tanner Galeazzi (.335, 41-122), Max Mezler (.330, 35-106), Evan Greco (.325, 37-114), Zack Iverson (.321, 27-84) and Colin DeBoer (.309, 38-123). Galeazzi leads the team in RBI with32, while Greco, who is tied for the WIAC lead in home runs with six, has drvien in 29 runs. Meizler has 20 RBI. George Jester has 22 RBiI and Casey Schroeder has 26. Lucas Keller (4-3 W-L, 3.26 ERA, 27 K), Austin Daniels (2-3 W-L, 6.05 ERA, 37K), Nathan Fay (1-1 W-L, 7.62 ERA, 16K), Caleb Kaufman 0-3 W-L, 6.45 ERA, 16K) and Colton Bormann (3-1 W-L, 4.50 ERA, 12K) have gotten most of the starts.  | 2016 Statistics

LAST TIME OUT: The Pioneers were at Lawrence University Tuesday, April 26, and downed the Vikings, 5-1, 10-7, In the first game, the Pioneers turned a triple game to wrap up the game. The Pioneers are scheduled to be at Edgewood College for one game, Wednesday, April 27. The Pioneers were swept by UW-Stevens Point, 9-2, 3-2, 1-0, 9-1, last weekend, but two weeks ago, the Pioneers took the final game of a four game series with UW-Whitewater. | Stevens Point Game Two Story and Statistics

LAST TIME STOUT AND PLATTEVILLE MET: The Pioneers took all four games last season. On April 8 in Menomonie, the Pioneers left with 8-6, 4-2 wins, then returned to Menomonie a week later for wins of 2-1, 4-2. Over the last five seasons,the teams are deadlocked at 9-9. | April 8 Game Story and Statistics | April 15 Game Story and Statistics



2016 TEAM CAPTAINS: Team captains for the 2016 season are Brady Burzynski, Hayden Bowe, Patrick Gullickson and Austin Littmann.

AWARDS AND HONORS: Kellen Pearson was selected as the UW-Stout/Northwestern Mutual Athlete of the Week and the WIAC pitcher of the week after going 11 complete innings to get the win over UW-Stevens Point...Derek Graves was selected as UW-Stout/Northwestern Mutual Athlete of the Week...Brady Burzynski was selected as the most valuable player for the Eau Claire Express last summer. The Express play in the Northwoods League, a circuit made up of predominately Division I players...Hayden Bowe was a first team all-WIAC pick last season at pitcher...Brady Burzynski and Zach Carlson were first team all-WIAC selections in 2014.

COACHES: Toby Gardenhire, (80-109) is in his fifth season with UW-Stout. Gardenhire coached the Blue Devils to a 17-22 record in 2015. 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. . UW-Platteville: Eric Frese is in his ninth season as the head coach at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. Throughout his career at UW-Platteville, the Pioneers have constantly set new school records.


2015 BLUE DEVILS: Stout finished the 2015 season at 17-22 overall, 5-19 in the WIAC. | 2015 Statistics

DOWN THE ROAD: The Blue Devils will host former WIAC opponent, UW-Superior, Tuesday, May 3, then will be at UW-Whitewater, May 6-7, to close out the WIAC schedule. Stout will close out the home portion of their schedule Monday, May 9 when they host Macalester College in a make-up contest from early April.