Baseball Preview: Conference season begins Saturday

 at UW-Platteville: Live Stats | Live Video

THIS WEEK'S GAMES: UW-Stout (5-2, 0-0 WIAC) is scheduled to open the 2019 WIAC Baseball season when they are scheduled to travel to UW-Platteville (4-8, 0-0 WIAC), Saturday, March 30 at noon and Sunday, March 31 again at noon.  When the teams played last year in a four-game weekend series to close out the season, the two teams combined for 90 runs, 125 hits, 23 doubles, one triple, six home runs, 74 RBI, 37 walks, 50 strikeouts, 14 stolen bases, four double plays and 87 stranded runners. 

BLUE DEVIL PREVIEW: UW-Stout's seven WIAC wins a year ago were the most since accumulating 10 victories during the 2014 campaign. The Blue Devils bring back eight starting position players from last season's group, including Jordan Wilson, who led the squad with a .327 batting average, 12 doubles, 34 RBI and 23 runs scored. Jack Donahue had a team-high 60.0 innings pitched, while Brad Rindfleisch was second with a 2.91 earned run average and 33 strikeouts. Stout will return starters at every position except right field. Six seniors - all-conference outfielder Jordan Wilson, catcher Tim Bott, infielder Jared Jarvensivu and pitchers Brad Rindfleisch, Casey Ryan and Jack Donahue - provide a solid group of leaders. | Complete Season Preview. | 2019 Statistics

UW-STOUT LAST TIME OUT: The Blue Devils went 3-2 in a trip through the Land of Lincoln. The Blue Devils split with MacMurray College, losing 4-3, in the opener, March 23, then finding their bats to come back for an 11-4 win. Stout swept Blackburn College in a pair of 7-inning contests, winning 5-4 and 10-4, March 24. The Blue Devils picked up a doubleheader against Millikin University, March 25. Rain reduced the doubleheader to one seven inning game on the 10-run rule when Millikin took a 12-2 win. | MacMurray Game Story and Stats | Blackburn Game Story and Stats | Millikin Game Story and Stats

BLUE DEVIL OFFENSE: Sophomore catcher Hunter Merrill is leading the Blue Devils in average, going 10-for-23 for a batting average of .435, currently second (as of Wednesday, March 27) in the WIAC. Merrill has five stolen bases in five attempts, matching his 5-5 in all of 2018.  Kasey Bass is hitting .407 (11-26) with five doubles, a home run and six RBI. Bass has a slugging percentage of .704. Bass is third in the league in average and third in doubles. In Bass' first two years with the Blue Devils, he tallied three doubles, with all three coming last season. Jordan Wilson leads the team in home runs with two and is putting up a batting average of .387 (12-31) with three doubles and a team-best seven RBI. Wilson is seventh in the WIAC in average. Joel Thimsen (.364, 4-11), Ben Vanhove (.313, 5-16) and Kyle Hamilton (.308, 8-26) are hitting above .300. On the national scene, Merrill is 10th in stolen bases per game (1.0 sb/game), Bass is ninth in doubles per game (0.67) and Wilson is ninth in home runs per game (0.33). 

BLUE DEVIL PITCHING: Jack Donahue is second in the WIAC with an ERA of 1.93. The senior is 1-1 with 14 strikeouts over 14.0 innings pitched. Brad Rindfleisch is seventh in the league in ERA (3.18) and his 17 strikeouts are ranked fifth in the league over 11.1 innings pitched. Rindfleisch is 2-0. Jace Baumann has tossed nine innings, all in relief, and has registered nine Ks, two more than his entire 2018 total of seven when he made seven appearances with 13.2 innings pitched. Aaron Plotzky made his Stout debut, going the complete seven innings to pick up a 5-4 win over Blackburn, striking out six. Blue Devil pitchers have already recorded 54 strikeouts, more than one-quarter of all of last year's 196. 

WIAC PRESEASON POLL: UW-Stout is picked to finish fifth in the WIAC, according to a preseason poll conducted by the conference. UW-Whitewater was picked to win the conference, followed by UW-Oshkosh, UW-La Crosse, UW-Stevens Point, UW-Stout, UW-Platteville and WIAC newcomer Finlandia University. | Complete WIAC Preview

JARVI LAUNCHES HOMER: UW-Stout senior captain Jared Jarvensivu launched his first collegiate home run when led off the third inning and sent the ball over the left field fence. 


UW-PLATTEVILLE: The Pioneers bring back all nine starting position players, including Josh Moses, who has led the team in batting each of the last two seasons. A year ago, he posted a .361 batting average, .578 slugging percentage and .462 on-base percentage to go along with 19 doubles and 42 RBI. For this years squad, the team is currently 4-8 and last week finished a 3-4 swing through the state of Texas. Jonathon Kelso leads the team in average (.388, 19-of-49) and has 11 RBI. Mitchell Susa is hitting .311 (14-45). Collin Mormann tops the team in RBI with 13, second in the WIAC and has a batting average of .290 (9-31). Caleb Kaufman has recorded 29 strikeouts, second in the league, with an ERA of 3.00 in four starts. Tyler Vogel has started three games and has 13 strikeouts.   | 2019 Statistics

LAST TIME OUT: Platteville finished their seven-game game trip by losing both against Texas-Tyler in a mid-week series before defeating Southwestern (Tex.) 15-6 on March 21 The Pioneers went 3-4 on their trip and move to 4-8 overall on the season.  In the series against Texas-Tyler, the Pioneers were defeated 10-1 and weren't able to get much going offensively. The Patriots held the Pioneers to just two hits and one run scored from a wild pitch. The second game was much closer but ended with a 5-3 defeat. Senior Caleb Kaufmann was on the mound for the whole game and have up five earned runs in his eight innings of work. Kaufmann struck out 10. The Pioneers scored three runs on their five hits. In the 15-6 win over Southwestern on Thursday the Pioneers jump started their offense and finished with 14 hits and eight walks. Sophomore Jonathan Kelso went 4-of-5, drove in three runs and scored two runs. Sophomore Ryan Vogel was a homerun shy of a cycle and drove in two runs. Freshman Nate Jenning got the win and pitched 5.0 innings and allowed four earned runs. Senior Scottie Gordon pitched 3.0 innings of relief to close out the game and allowed one earned run. | Game Story and Stats

LAST TIME STOUT AND THE PIONEERS MET: It was tough getting the games with Platteville rescheduled last year, with the games finally being played May 11 and May 12 in Platteville. But when they did, there was some major offensive play going on as the teams split the four games. The Pioneers took the first game, 13-11, and the second game was suspended before Stout won the slugfest, 14-13, the following day. The second day followed the same pattern with the Pioneers winning the first game, 12-11, with Stout bouncing back for a 9-7 win. Over the four games last year, the two teams combined for 90 runs, 125 hits, 23 doubles, one triple, six home runs, 74 RBI, 37 walks, 50 strikeouts, 14 stolen bases, four double plays and 87 stranded runners. Over the four games, UW-Stout's Jordan Wilson was 15-for-24 (.625), with nine runs scored an 11 runs batted in. Wilson had six doubles and one home run. Ben Vanhove hit .615 (8-13), Max Sires.600 (6-10), Jack Hemsath .429 (9-21) with seven RBI, Jared Javensivu .400 (6-15), Hunter Merrill .368 (7-19, 2 home runs, 6 RBI), Jon Krueger .350 (7-20), Kasey Bass .313 (5-16, triple, home run, 6 RBI). As a team, Stout recorded 71 hits in 172 at-bats, with 45 runs scored, 11 doubles, a triple and four home runs. Platteville's Brooks Chandler hit .545 (6-11), Ross Krist and Josh Moses combined for 17 RBI, with Krist hitting .476 (10-21, 8 RBI) and Moses .471 (8-15, three doubles, home run, 9 RBI), Brendon Refsteck .428 (6-14, 3 RBI), Collin Mormann .357 (5-14, 5 RBI), and Jonny Kelso ,350 (7-20, 3RBI). As a team, Platteville recorded 54 hits in 153 at-bats with 45 runs scored, 12 doubles and two home runs. |Game Story and Stats



2019 TEAM CAPTAINS: Team captains for the 2019 season are seniors Jared Jarvensivu, Jordan Wilson, Jack Donahue and junior Ben Vanhove. Jarvensivu and Wilson are team captains for the second consecutive year..

AWARDS AND HONORS: 2019: Jordan Wilson was selected as the WIAC athlete of the week after driving in six runs in a sweep over Principia College...2018: Jordan Wilson was a first team all-WIAC selection. Brad Rindfleisch, Kasey Bass, Jon Krueger, and Ben Vanhove were honorable mention selections...Jordan Wilson was the WIAC athlete of the week after his performance against UW-Platteville to close out the season...Brad Rindfleisch was selected the UW-Stout/Toppers Pizza Athlete of the Week, April 17, after throwing eight innings and allowing only one run in an eventual 14-inning loss to UW-Stevens Point, April 11.


COACHES: Ben Kincaid (25-56) is in his third 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-Platteville: Chad Harris  (9th overall); 131-181 (overall) / 4-8 (UWP) is in his first year as head baseball coach at UW-Platteville. Harris has 17 years of collegiate coaching experiencing, most recently served as assistant coach and pitching coach at the University of Dubuque (Dubuque, Iowa). Harris returns to UW-Platteville after serving as an Academic Retention Specialist and Academic Coach from 2017-18. Harris has spent 17 years coaching baseball at the collegiate level which includes stops as head coach at AIB College of Business in Des Moines, Iowa (2013-15), head coach at Clarke University in Dubuque, Iowa, (2006-2012), and assistant coach at University of the Ozarks in Clarksville, Arkansas (2001-2006). He most recently returned to his passion of coaching full-time in the spring of 2018 and joined the staff at the University of Dubuque after serving as a volunteer assistant coach with the Spartans during the 2017 season.


2018 BLUE DEVILS: Stout finished the 2017 season at 10-27 overall, 7-16 in the WIAC. | 2018 Statistics

DOWN THE ROAD: The Blue Devils are scheduled to open the home portion of their schedule when they play Finlandia University, Saturday, April 6 and Sunday, April 7.