Murray State University Athletics
Murray State
Evansville
Players Mentioned
MSU Hosts Evansville at Brooks to Begin Two-Game Slate
4/24/2017 3:21:00 PM | Baseball
GAMES 40-41
Murray State (18-21) vs. Evansville (13-25)
April 25-26, 2017
First Pitch: Tuesday and Wednesday at 6 p.m.
Series History: Evansville leads the all-time series 40-15
Last Meeting: MSU 1, UE 5 – May 3, 2016
Stadium: Brooks Stadium and Braun Stadium
Dimensions: 330 (LF) | 400 (CF) | 330 (RF)
Live Stats: Tuesday | Wednesday
Twitter In-Game: @RacersBaseball
First Pitch
Murray State will play a pair of midweek contests away from home this week against Evansville as the Racers host UE at legendary Brooks Stadium in Paducah on Tuesday before traveling to face the Purple Aces Wednesday. Both games will start at 6 p.m. Last year, the Racers hosted Kentucky at Brooks in early May
Inside the Series
The Racers are looking for their first victory in the series since 2014 as UE has won the last five contests between the two. This will be the sixth year in a row and 12th time in the past 13 seasons that the two squads will meet up in a "home-and-home" series.
Big Day for Lollar
In game one of Sunday's doubleheader against Southeast Missouri, John Lollar recorded a career-high nine strikeouts in five innings of relief work. The five innings was also Lollar's longest outing of the season and it was his 72nd career appearance at MSU, tying him with former teammate Cody Maerz for fourth on the all-time appearances list in program history.
Scouting Evansville
Craig Shepherd leads Evansville with a .305 batting average and is the only Purple Ace hitting above the .300 mark on the year but has fewer than 100 at-bats in 2017. Trey Hair leads UE on the season with 15 doubles, six home runs, 27 RBIs and 26 runs scored while hitting .295. Hair is also one of three players to have started in all 38 games this season for the Purple Aces. As a team, Evansville is hitting .247 overall, is 28-for-39 on stolen base attempts and is averaging 4.7 runs per game.
Connor Strain leads Evansville with a 2.74 ERA in 2017 and has 44 strikeouts in 46 innings of work. Patrick Schnieders leads UE with 62 strikeouts and 53.2 innings pitched on the year. Brandon Gomer leads the Purple Aces with four of their five saves on the year while Ryan Brady has appeared in a team-best 13 games this year, all out of the bullpen. Wes Carroll is in his ninth season as the head coach of the Purple Aces.
Probable Pitching Matchups
Tuesday: Jack Hranec (LHP) (2-2, 7.58 ERA) vs. Justin Hayden (RHP) (3-5, 6.20 ERA)
Wednesday: Trevor McMurray (RHP) (1-1, 7.56 ERA) vs. Alex Weigland (LHP) (2-3, 5.81 ERA)
