Baseball Preview: Stout has chilly weekend ahead at Whitewater

THIS WEEK'S GAMES:  The Blue Devils (3-8,0-0 WIAC) are scheduled to open both the northern outdoor schedule and the WIAC schedule when they head south to UW-Whitewater (10-2, 2-0 WIAC) for a weekend series, Saturday, April 7 and Sunday, April 8. The Blue Devils had a doubleheader with UW-La Crosse moved from April 4 to May 1. The Blue Devils were also scheduled to makeup a non-conference doubleheader with St. Thomas, April 6,  but that has been postponed indefinitely. If the Blue Devils get any of the games in, it will have been nearly three weeks since the team last played on March 17.

HITTING THE BALL THIS SEASON:  Jack Hemsath has been on a bit of a tear this season, and is currently posting a nine-game hitting streak. Hemsath is leading the team in average with a .406 (13-32) with seven RBI and has three doubles and triple, matching newcomer Hunter Merrill in slugging percentage at .563. Jon Krueger is hitting .375 (6-16). Infielder Kyle Hamilton has matched Hemsath in RBI with seven. Jordan Wilson leads the team in RBI with eight. .| 2018 Statistics

PITCHING THIS SEASON: Jack Donahue has a 2-0 record, working 16.0 innings with an ERA of 2.81. Donahue, a transfer from Iowa Central CC, has a recorded a team-best 14 strikeouts. Zach Carlson has returned to the lineup after sitting out last season due to injury. Carlson has 11 strikeouts and has thrown a team-high 19.0 innings.  Max Sires has 12 strikeouts for the Blue Devils over 12.2 inningS. Wyatt Enstmeyer has recorded Stout's lone save of the season and is posting a 2.89 ERA.


THE BLUE DEVILS IN PREVIEW: The Blue Devils return a young, but experienced team. Stout opened their season with games against MIAC teams at the US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minn., losing two games to Augsburg College in the opener, Feb. 28, and splitting the two games with Hamline University, March 7. The Blue Devils picked up two wins during their annual spring break trip to Florida, going 2-5 in Fort Myers, Fla.  Last season UW-Stout had 15 freshmen, plus a first-year head  coach, on the roster.  Almost all of those players are back and the year of experience has definitely shown said second year coach Ben Kincaid.  The Blue Devils have players returning at six of the eight positions who started 15 games or more last season. Stout will have both experience and talented young players in the outfield. |  Complete Season Preview

PITCHING STAFF IN PREVIEW:  But the Blue Devils still return a good deal of experience to toe the pitching rubber. Luke Eide threw 64 innings, the most by any Blue Devil last season, and was the hard-luck kid on the mound, not picking up his first win of the season until late. Eide led the team in strikeouts with 37 and posted an ERA of 4.36. Sires started nine games last year and notched 23 strikeouts. The Blue Devils return Zach Carlson to the rotation. Carlson sat out last season due to injury and looks to be back on track. Carlson was a first team all-conference pick as a freshman and the year off has been good for his recovery. In his first three seasons, Carlson picked up at least 28 strikeouts every year and has 89 for his career. Jack Donahue, a transfer from Des Moines Community College, could move into the Blue Devils' starting rotation. Kincaid said Donahue is not overpowering, but tends to force a lot of ground balls. Seniors Wyatt Ernstmeyer and Paul Danczyk have tended to come out of the bullpen, but could start some games. Kincaid is looking at Brad Rindfleisch and Casey Ryan to be the players to finish off games and expects Robert Pilz and Logan Hile to be long relief pitchers.  Lefty Phil Schmit will also be looked on to eat up some innings. Four freshmen pitchers – Jace Baumann, Logan Langbehn, James Palmer and Hunter Black – will get their chances to earn their roles early in the season.
 
UW-STOUT LAST TIME OUT:  The Blue Devils last played March 17 in Fort Myers, Fla., dropping a 10-7 decision to Plattsburgh State. Stout did record wins over Wisconsin schools Edgewood College (15-9) and Lakeland College (10-5) while on the spring break trip.  | Game Story and Stats

WIAC PRESEASON: UW-Stout is picked to finish fifth in the WIAC, according to a preseason poll conducted by the conference. UW-Whitewater is picked first, followed by UW-La Crosse, UW-Oshkosh, and UW-Stevens Point. UW-Platteville is picked sixth and league-newcomer, the Illinois Institute of Technology, was picked to finish seventh. ITT will be in the league for one year only.


UW-WHITEWATER: The Warhawks claimed the 17th regular-season title in program history a year ago, along with the fifth tournament first-place finish, and made its 20th NCAA appearance. Whitewater has been voted to successfully defend their conference title. Whitewater welcomes back Blake Fleischman and Heath Renz, the reigning WIAC Position Player of the Year and Pitcher of the Year, respectively. Fleischman is among the six returning position players and posted a .309 batting average, .483 slugging percentage, .389 on-base percentage, 31 RBI, six home runs and team-best 11 doubles during the 2017 campaign. Renz, who was named to the D3baseball.com Preseason All-America First Team, compiled a 9-0 record, 1.96 earned run average and 55 strikeouts in 69.0 innings pitched a year ago. Austin Jones received honorable mention on the preseason All-America squad after striking out 83 batters in 85.0 innings pitched.

The Warhawks were able to get a pair of doubleheaders in since returning from spring break March 27. Whitewater had little troublue with Ripon College, March 30, downing the Red Hawks, 15-3, 11-5. The Warhawks introduced newcomer Illinois Institute of Technology to the WIAC with a 14-4, 10-3 sweep Thursday. Whitewater baseball team hit eight home runs in a pair of stellar offensive performances Thursday in a two-game sweep at Illinois Tech in a Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader in Chicago, Ill.  In the opener, the Warhawks mashed six home runs, including two by junior designated hitter Cal Aldridge  and tallied runs in each of their last five at-bats to end the game by run rule after eight innings.  The Warhawks tallied six runs in the fourth inning of the second game to turn a one-run deficit into a five-run lead and held on for their fourth straight win..

The third-ranked Warhawks only two losses of the season came to St. Thomas (3-0) and to St. Olaf (6-3) while in Florida. The Warhawks have three players hitting .400 or better, led by Daytona Bryden with a conference-best .627 (32-51). Nick Schrader is second in the conference (.465) and Cal Aldridge is third (.442). Aldridge has five home runs and Bryden four. Schrader has two. Aldridge has 16 RBI and Bryden 13. Bryden has been crushing the ball early in the season and has a slugging percentage of 1.157 with seven doubles, four triples and four home runs. Bryden has also stolen six bases in six attempts. Bryden leads the country in batting average and slugging percentage and the team is third in Division III in batting average (.360).   | 2018 Statistics

LAST TIME STOUT AND WHITEWATER MET: The Warhawks took all four games last season. The weekend series was scheduled to be played in Menomonie, but wet field conditions moved the games to Whitewater. Second ranked UW-Whitewater must have been smarting after suffering their worst loss in more than a decade and the Warhawks returned to their winning ways by sweeping UW-Stout, 11-1, 10-2, Thursday at Miller Stadium. The Blue Devils came into today's game in second place behind the Warhawks, but were limited to four hits in the first game and five hits in the second game. The Warhawks were coming off a 21-3 loss to Concordia-Wisconsin earlier in the week. | April 13 Story and Statistics | Tim Bott had his biggest offensive day as a member of the UW-Stout baseball team, hitting a three run home run in a 5-3 10 inning opening game loss, then adding another to drive in Stout's only run in an 11-1 second game loss at UW-Whitewater. | April 14 Story and Statistics |



2018 TEAM CAPTAINS: Team captains for the 2018 season are seniors Jared Jarensivu, Max Sires and Zach Carlson, along with junior Jordan Wilson.

THREE HOME RUNS IN A SINGLE GAME:
Noah Brown vs. UW-Stevens Point, May 5, 2017 (W 6-0) 3-for-5, 4 RBI
Brad O'Connell vs. Albion College, March 15, 2001 (W 14-7) 5-for-5, 8 RBI

COACHES: Ben Kincaid (11-31) is in his second 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-Whitewater: John Vodenlich enters his 15th season at the helm of the UW-Whitewater baseball program in 2017-18. He has taken the Warhawks to heights unreached prior to his arrival on campus. While the Whitewater program has had longstanding success, Vodenlich has set a new standard, turning the Warhawks into a NCAA Division III college baseball power. During Vodenlich's 14 seasons as head coach, the Warhawks have won 10 WIAC championships, qualified for the NCAA Championships 12 times and appeared in the NCAA Division III College World Series six times, including winning the 2014 and 2005 NCAA Division III National Championships.; 


2017 BLUE DEVILS: Stout finished the 2017 season at 10-27 overall, 6-14 in the WIAC. | 2017 Statistics

DOWN THE ROAD:  The Blue Devils are scheduled to host UW-Stevens Point, Wednesday, April 11 in Mauston, then travel to UW-Platteville, Saturday, April 14 and Sunday, April 15.