Baseball Preview: Blue Devils to open WIAC season Saturday at home

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THIS WEEK'S GAMES: The Blue Devils (3-12, 0-0 WIAC) are scheduled to open conference play and the home portion of their season when they host UW-Platteville (15-4, 0-0 WIAC), Saturday, April 8 and Sunday, April 9. First pitch both days is scheduled for noon. All conference doubleheaders are nine innings

THE BLUE DEVILS: The Blue Devils return 11 players from last year's team as Ben Kincaid begins his first year at the helm 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:   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. While yet to see conference action, Graves has made two startes and four appearances, recording nine strikeouts.  In addition to Graves on the mound, the Blue Devils return Max Sires, Luke Eide, Wyatt Ernstmeyer and Paul Danczyk.  Ernstmeyer and Sires posted the top ERA marks on the team, Ernstmeyer a 1.68 in eight appearances out of the bullpen and Sires, a 2.51, with two starts in seven appearances. Eidi has thrown well in five starts, but has yet to pick-up a win, going 0-4 to start the season. The sophomore is second in the WIAC in strikeouts with 26 Ks, and has an ERA of 3.16, seventh in the league.

HITTING THE BALL: Freshman Matt Emmer has been hot for the Blue Devils so far this season. The newcomer has earned nine starts and has played in 11 games. Emmer is hitting .457 (16-35) with seven RBI, second on the team behind Jordan Wilson, who has plated 11. Emmer's batting average would be at the top of the WIAC, except he has not reached the threshold of 2.5 at-bats/game. Emmer currently has 2.3 at-bats per game. Senior Noah Brown is hitting .314 (16-51) with seven doubles, a triple and a home run with six RBI and is 19th in batting average in the league. Wilson is hitting .269 (14-52) with a team-best 11 RBI.  | 2017 Statistics

UW-STOUT LAST TIME OUT:  The Blue Devils dropped a doubleheader at St. Thomas, March 30, falling 4-1 in the opener and 2-0 in the second game. Graves and Eide struck out 13 batters combined. | Game Story | Game One Statistics |  Game Two Statistics

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-PLATTEVILLE BASEBALL: The Pointers are off to a hot start going into conference play, boasting an 15-4 record on the season, and holding one of the top records in the WIAC and a 10-game winning streak. Platteville's nine-man rotation includes four players hitting over .300, including freshman Josh Moses averaging .455 in 66 at bats. Two seniors lead the pitching staff, Lucas Keller, a 2016 first team all-WIAC selection, and Nathan Fay, having 25.1 and 23.0 innings pitched this season, while averaging around the same K/9 ratio around 5.7 per game. Pioneers played Illinois Tech last weekend, the team that will join the WIAC as an affiliate member in 2018. The Pioneers swept the four game series, 6-5, 3-2, 14-10, 10-5. | 2017 Statistics

LAST TIME STOUT AND PLATTEVILLE MET: The Blue Devils took one game of four from Platteville on the road last season 7-3. Stout saw hits from almost everyone in the lineup, while using the basepaths to get an advantage. Jared Jarvensivu had two stolen bases in the game, while Brady Burzynski set the Stout all-time stolen bases record on a run from first to second.  | Games Summary and Statistics


2017 TEAM CAPTAINS: Team captains for the 2017 season are seniors Noah Brown and Derek Graves.

AWARDS AND HONORS: 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 (3-12) 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.  Platteville: Eric Frese (176-243-2 at Platteville / 311-440-2 overall) is entering his 11th season as the head coach at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, and his 19th overall. Frese spent nine seasons at Clarke College previous to coming to Plattevill.  The 2016 Pioneers ended the year winning seven of their last 11 games, and split a four-game series with UW-Oshkosh.


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 stay home by hosting conference favorite UW-Whitewater, Thursday, April 13 at 1 p.m. and Friday, April 14 at noon.