First Pitch
• The Central Missouri Mules return home to host Drury on Wednesday afternoon, March 16 in a single non-conference game.
• The Mules and Panthers will play at 4 p.m. at Crane Stadium/Tompkins Field.
• This season, each MIAA series will consist of three nine-inning games.
• Central Missouri was picked to finish third in the MIAA's Preseason Coaches' poll.
• The Mules were 30-22 a season ago and finished in third place in the MIAA with a 23-13 conference mark. It was the 22nd consecutive season with at least 30 wins for UCM.

On the air
• Wednesday's game can be heard live on 1450 KOKO and warrensburgradio.com.
• Bob Jackson will be on the call with the UCM Office of Extended Studies Dugout Show beginning 25 minutes prior to first pitch.

The Series
• The Mules lead the all-time series with Drury 4-3, including a 1-1 mark under Kyle Crookes.
• The teams split a doubleheader last year in Springfield. DU won the opener 9-3 before the Mules earned a split with a 13-1 win in the nightcap.

Drury
• Drury enters the week at 4-11 overall. They will play a non-conference game at Southwest Baptist on Tuesday night before coming to Warrensburg on Wednesday.
• The Panthers are 0-4 on the road so far this season.
• Drury is led by fourth-year head coach Scott Nasby. He has a 120-65-1 mark while leading the Panthers.
• Drury is hitting .226 as a team with 12 doubles, seven triples, three homers and 35 RBI.
• John Goodrich leads the team with a .327 average.
• Ryan Colombo bats .321 with a apir of doubles and triples and four RBI.
• Conner Wilson leads the team with seven runs driven in, while batting .304.
• The Drury pitching staff has an 6.31 ERA in 15 games and 124 innings pitched. The staff has walked 43 and struck out 107 during that span. Opponents are hitting .318 against DU.
• Ryan Colombo is 2-2 with a 1.88 ERA in four starts. He has 23 K's in 28.2 innings and has one complete game.
• Closer Ryan Wedermyer has three saves and a 0.00 earned run average. He's allowed just two hits in five innings pitched, while striking out seven.
• Luke Burnidge is 1-3 with a 5.82 ERA in four starts.
• The Panthers have a .958 team fielding percentage. They've committed 23 errors and have turned nine double plays on the year.

The Mules
• Central Missouri enters the mid-week matchup at 8-7 overall and 7-2 in MIAA play after taking two out of three games at Central Oklahoma.
• The Mules are hitting .245 as a team with 20 doubles, four triples, 16 home runs and 84 RBI.
• Jake Alexander is hitting .377 with six doubles, a triple, home run and 14 RBI. He has a 12-game hitting streak and has reached base in all 15 games this season. He has a .460 on-base percentage.
• Derek Cornell is hitting .304 with four extra-base hits and 12 RBI.
• Bennett Oliver leads the team in home runs with six and is second in RBI with 13.
• Dylan Farrell is hitting .293 with two doubles, two home runs and seven driven in.
• Four Mules have driven in at least 11 runs.
• The pitching staff has a 3.76 team ERA through 15 games and 129.1 innings pitched. The staff has 145 strikeouts and 59 walks during that span.
• Tyler House is 2-0 with a staff-leading 2.48 ERA in five starts. He's struck out 28 batters in 29 innings pitched and is holding opponents to a .183 batting average.
• Ethan Westphal is 2-1 with a 3.03 ERA in five appearances and four starts. He leads the team with 34 strikeouts in 29.2 innings pitched and is holding opponents to a .211 batting average.
• Carlos D'Armas is 2-1 with a 3.08 ERA in five starts. He's fanned 31 batters in 26.1 innings pitched.
• The UCM defense has a .970 fielding percentage and has committed 16 errors on the season. The Mules have turned 10 double plays on the year.

Worth Noting
• During his 12-game hitting streak, Jake Alexander is batting .381 with seven extra-base hits, 13 RBI and nine runs scored. He has a .471 on-base percentage in that span.
• The Mules hit .429 with runners on third and less than two outs in the UCO series last weekend.
• During MIAA play, the Mules are hitting .323 with runners in scoring position and .586 with runners on third and less than two outs.

Season and single-game tickets available online
• All-season passes and single-game tickets for Mules Baseball are available at the UCM Athletic Ticket Office in room 101 of the Multipurpose Building or online at UCMathletics.com/tickets.
• Season passes for all 19 remaining regular season home games are $20 for adults and $10 for youth.
• Single-game tickets are $5 for adults, $4 for seniors and $3 for youth. UCM students get in free with their student ID's.

Last time out
March 13, 2016 - (EDMOND, Okla.) -- Carlos D'Armas tossed seven shutout innings and the Mules got some timely hitting to beat Central Oklahoma 6-2 on Sunday afternoon at Wendell Simmons Field. With the win, the Mules take the series 2-1 and improve to 8-7 overall and 7-2 in MIAA play.
    The Mules struck first in the third inning with a couple of two out hits. Dylan Farrell singled, went to second on a wild pitch and scored on Jake Alexander's single to make it 1-0 UCM. Miles Orscheln's RBI groundout scored Derek Cornell in the fourth inning and the lead was 2-0.
    The lead doubled in the sixth when the Mules scored a pair of unearned runs, thanks in part to two Broncho errors. UCO (11-7, 5-4 MIAA) cut the lead in half in the eighth on Jake Dyer's two-run single, but Cornell and Matt Safranek gave the Mules some insurance runs in the top of the ninth with RBI singles to make it 6-2.
    D'Armas (2-1) was masterful on the mound for the Mules. He scattered six hits over his seven shutout innings while striking out 10. He walked only one batter in the game and allowed just one base runner to reach third base. Grant Gavin pitched the final two innings of relief, allowing two runs on three hits while striking out four.
    Farrell and Cornell finished with two hits and two runs scored each.

Mules in MIAA play
• The Mules are 7-2 in MIAA play this season after taking two out of three games at Central Oklahoma last weekend.
• The Mules finished 23-13 in MIAA play last season and finished in third place in the conference's regular season standings.

Mules in non-conference action
• The Mules are 1-5 in non-conference action this season after going 1-2 at the Southern Arkansas Invitational.
• The Mules were 7-9 in non-conference games last season.

The Mules at home
• The Mules are 3-0 at home after sweeping Pittsburg State the first weekend in March.
• Central Missouri was 15-5 at home during the 2015 season.
• The Mules are 758-149-1 (.835) in 908 games played in this, their 41st season playing home games at Crane Stadium/Tompkins Field.

Mules on the road
• The Mules are 4-3 on the road this season after taking two out of three games at Central Oklahoma.
• The Mules were 12-13 on the road last season.

Mules in neutral site games
• The Mules are 1-4 in neutral site games after going 1-1 against Oklahoma Christian and Central Oklahoma at the Southern Arkansas Invitational in Magnolia, Arkansas.
• UCM was 3-4 in neutral site games last season.

MIAA schedule change for 2016
• This season every MIAA team will play the other 13 league schools in a three-game series. All three games of the series will be nine-inning games.
• UCM will play 11 weekend series and two mid-week conference series. The mid-week series will consist of a single game midweek in three different weeks. One of the series will be two home games and one road game, while the other will be two road and one home.

UCM during the Crookes era
• Kyle Crookes has a 38-29 (.567) record in his second season as head coach at Central Missouri.
• The Mules went 30-22 during Crookes' first season as head coach. Ten Mules earned All-MIAA honors, including First Team honors for outfielder Trevor Jones, who went on to earn Second Team All-Region honors as well.
• The Mules were 71-29 in Crookes' two seasons as an assistant coach and captured the 2014 MIAA Regular Season Championship. The Mules garnered five First Team All-MIAA selections and three All-America honors during his two years as an assistant.
• Crookes compiled a 292-164 overall record in eight seasons as the head coach at Hutchinson (Kan.) Community College before taking over as an assistant coach at UCM.

Mules Baseball History
• The 2016 season marks the 61st in the storied history of Mules Baseball. During that span the Mules have compiled a 1,797-715-9 (.715) record in 2,521 games played.
• The Mules have won 40 or more games 17 times, including 14 straight seasons from 1999-2012, and have won 50 or more games nine times.
• The Mules have won or shared 24 MIAA championships, captured 16 regional titles and two national championships.

Mules Baseball by the Numbers
• 27 NCAA Regional Appearances (20 of the last 22 years)
• 24 MIAA Titles (16 of the last 22)
• 20 MIAA Tournament Titles (16 of the last 22)
• 16 Regional Championships
• 15 Regionals as host site
• 13 Top five national finishes
• 4 Third place finishes
• 1 National Runner-Up
• 2 National Championships

Mules Baseball: Winningest Team of the 2000s
• The Central Missouri baseball program has had unprecedented success in the last 25 years and has been even more impressive since the year 2000. The Mules were the winningest team in all divisions of the NCAA by victories (508) and percentage (.814, 508-116) from 2000-09. That success has continued through the 2010s.
• The Mules are 766-204 (.790) since the year 2000. An average of 45 wins per season over the last 17 years.

A Tradition of Excellence in Athletics
• Entering the 2015-16 academic year, Central Missouri had won a combined 205 MIAA regular season conference championships in 14 league sports to lead all schools.
• Last season, UCM captured five MIAA regular season titles, and three MIAA Tournament crowns.
• Since 1983, the tenure of Athletic Director Jerry Hughes, UCM has won or shared 151 MIAA championships, more than any other league school.
• Central Missouri has won eight national championships since 1980 (men's and women's basketball in 1984, baseball in 1994 and 2003, women's bowling in 2003, men's basketball in 2014, and women's indoor and outdoor track & field in 2015) and 10 national championships overall.

A Tradition of Excellence in the Classroom
• Central Missouri had 218 student-athletes named to the 2014-15 MIAA Academic Honor Roll with grade point averages of 3.0 or higher.
• 29 UCM student-athletes were named MIAA Scholar Athletes with at least a 3.5 GPA and having earned all-MIAA honors in their respective sport.
• 17 UCM student-athletes were named MIAA Academic Excellence Award winners with a 4.0 GPA.
• UCM had six student-athletes earn Academic All-Region awards in their respective sports with three of those earning CoSIDA Academic All-America honors.
• Since the year 2000, UCM is tied for sixth in NCAA-II with 49 Academic All-Americans.

Upcoming
• The Mules host Nebraska-Kearney in a three-game set beginning on Friday, March 18 at 2 p.m.
• The Mules open their first MIAA mid-week series of the year on Tuesday, March 22 at Lindenwood. First pitch is set for 6 p.m.