THIS WEEK'S GAMES: Following a postponement earlier in the week with Northland College, the Blue Devils (7-20, 4-8 WIAC) turn their attention to conference play by hosting UW-Oshkosh (18-13, 8-4 WIAC) for the fourth consecutive year. Inclement weather leading to poor field conditions in Oshkosh has brought the Titans to Menomonie twice the last three years. The Blue Devils and Titans are scheduled to tangle Friday, April 28 at 1 p.m. and again Saturday, April 28 at noon. The games were pushed forward a day due to impending weather. The Blue Devils were scheduled to host Northland College, Wednesday, but that game was postponed due to inclement weather.
THE BLUE DEVILS: The Blue Devils return 11 players from last year's team as
Ben Kincaid is well into his first year as the head coach of the Blue Devils. Kincaid and his coaching staff will work with a relatively young group of players consisting of a roster that lists 15 freshmen and two seniors who have not played college-level baseball.
Noah Brown and
Derek Graves were WIAC honorable mention selections last season. Brown, who hit .382 with 33 runs batted in, both team highs, played predominately at third base last season, but also played at shortstop and first base. Brown was the primary first baseman during his sophomore season
PITCHING STAFF: Luke Eide has spent the most time of any Blue Devil on the hill this season and has yet a win to show for his work. The sophomore leads the team in strikeouts with 30, sixth in the WIAC. Eide has pitched 43.0 innings, starting seven games with a 5.23 ERA.
Derek Graves, a 2016 All-WIAC honorable mention choice, faced the best the WIAC had to offer last season, finishing the season with an overall 5.58 ERA and 24 strikeouts. In conference games only, Graves dropped his ERA by more than a point to 4.33 and had 22 conference strikeouts. Graves this season has made four starts with six appearances, recording 18 strikeouts. In addition to Graves and Eide on the mound, the Blue Devils return
Max Sires,
Wyatt Ernstmeyer and
Paul Danczyk. Ernstmeyer and Sires posted the top ERA marks on the team last season. This season, Ernstmeyer has an ERA of 6.48 in six appearances, striking out 10. Sires earned a season-opening 1-0 shutout win and is currently 2-4 overall with 13 strikeouts, throwing 35.0 innings.
Tyler Christensen, a senior playing his first year of collegiate ball, has a 3-0 overall record with an ERA of 3.71 and 15 strikeouts over 26.2 innings pitched. The Blue Devils have done pretty well out of the pen. Freshman
Casey Ryan picked up two saves against UW-Platteville and
Brad Rindfleisch snared another. Ryan has worked 11.0 innings, but was tagged with his first loss last weekend in a 10-inning loss to conference favorite UW-Whitewater. Rindfleisch needed to face only one batter to record a save against Platteville and has currently worked 10.1 innings with seven strikeouts.
HITTING THE BALL: Freshman
Matt Emmer is leading the WIAC in batting average (57th in NCAA DIII), hitting .405 (30-74) with four doubles, 13 runs scored and 10 RBI.
Jordan Wilson is leading the team in RBI with 17. The sophomore outfielder is hitting .238 (20-83) with five doubles. Freshman
Joel Hollow is hitting .324 (22-68) with three doubles and seven RBI. Senior co-captain
Noah Brown is hitting .289 (28-97) with 11 RBI and has three home runs on the season. Freshman catcher
Tim Bott is just behind Brown with two homers. Pitcher
Derek Graves has played a couple of games as the designated hitter and is posting a .391 average (9-23) in limited at-bats. The senior co-captain hit a triple in his first at-bat this season. |
2017 Statistics
UW-STOUT LAST TIME OUT: Stout took one game from La Crosse on a weekend road trip. In the single-game win, Stout racked up 21 hits, and drove in 18 runs to La Crosse's two.
Jack Hemsath and
Noah Brown led the charge, getting four hits each. Brown drove in five runs to Hemsath's one run. |
Game Story One |
Game Story Two
WIAC PRESEASON: UW-Stout is picked to finish sixth in the WIAC, according to a preseason poll conducted by the conference. UW-Whitewater is picked first, followed by UW-La Crosse, UW-Oshkosh, UW-Stevens Point and UW-Platteville.
UW-OSHKOSH: This is the fourth consecutive year the Blue Devils and Titans have squared off at Nelson Field. Poor field conditions in Oshkosh in 2016 and in 2014 forced the move. But in that stretch, the Titans hold a 7-5 advantage. The Titans Jonny Eagan is second to
Matt Emmer in the WIAC in batting average, (.400) with nine doubles, three triples, two home runs and 23 RBIs. Andy Brahier is hitting .354 with four home runs and a league-best 27 RBI. Tyler Kozlowski trails Brahier with 26 RBI. Colan Treml holds the third best ERA in the conference, at 1.78. With four wins in seven appearances, Treml is fourth in the WIAC in strikeouts with 41 and has allowed no home runs. As a team, the Titans post the best team ERA at 2.92. |
UW-Oshkosh Statstics.
LAST TIME STOUT AND OSHKOSH MET: The games were originally scheduled to be played in Oshkosh, but poor field conditions in Oshkosh forced the games to Menomonie. But Stout could not take advantage of the home field as the Titans took three of the four games. On the opening day, the Blue Devils bounced back after an 8-1 loss to blank the Titans, 4-0, but Oshkosh swept the final day, as 13 proved to be the unlucky number for Stout with Oshkosh carrying out wins of 13-7 and 13-3. |
Day One Games and Statistics |
Day Two Games and Statistics
MACALESTER COLLEGE: The Macalester game was cancelled and will not be made up.
2017 TEAM CAPTAINS: Team captains for the 2017 season are seniors
Noah Brown and
Derek Graves.
AWARDS AND HONORS: Tyler Christensen was selected as the UW-Stout/DigiCopy Athlete of the Week after an 18-2 win over UW-La Crosse, April 23...
Max Sires was selected as the WIAC Pitcher of the Week and was the UW-Stout/DigiCopy Athlete of the Week after pitching a season opening 1-0 shutout win over Bethel College, Feb. 27 at the US Bank Stadium...
Noah Brown and
Derek Graves earned WIAC honorable mention selection last spring.
COACHES: Ben Kincaid (7-20) is in his first year as the Blue Devils head coach, following two years as a Blue Devil assistant coach where he worked primarily with the pitchers. Kincaid played collegiately at at Minnesota State University-Mankato, where he was a four year letter winner, playing in 149 games. He finished with a .339 batting average, 38 doubles (5th on MSU's career list), six home runs and 140 runs batted in (6th on MSU's career list). As a righthanded pitcher he sported a 14-8 record with a 3.45 earned run average and had 148 strikeouts in 172 innings pitched. Kincaid was named to the All-Central Region team three times in his career. An Eau Claire native, Kincaide played for the local Eau Claire Express.
..UW-Oshkosh:
Kevin Tomasiewicz (tom-ah-shev-its) is in his fourth year at Oshkosh. Tomasiewicz owns a 62-57-1 overall record in his first three seasons at the helm. He has helped five Titans garner a total of six All-WIAC first team accolades as well as three players to four All-Midwest Region honors. Last season, Tomasiewicz led UW-Oshkosh to a 19-21-1 record, including a fourth-place 9-11 mark in the WIAC. The Titans went on to place third at the WIAC tournament. In 2015, Tomasiewicz guided UW-Oshkosh to a 26-17 overall record and a 14-10 WIAC mark. The Titans produced their most wins since 2008, finishing fourth in the regular season league standings and third in the WIAC tournament. UW-Oshkosh also set a program record with 96 stolen bases. In his debut season of 2014, Tomasiewicz led the Titans to a 17-19 overall record.
2016 BLUE DEVILS: Stout finished the 2016 season at 15-25 overall, 4-16 in the WIAC. |
2016 Statistics
DOWN THE ROAD: The Blue Devils will close out the season on the road, traveling to UW-Superior, Wednesday, May 3 for a non-conference contest, then putting the wraps on the regular season by traveling to UW-Stevens Point, Friday, May 5 and Saturday, May 6.
