First Pitch
• The Central Missouri Mules return home to host Northwest Missouri in a three-game set beginning on Thursday.
• Game one gets underway at 4 p.m. with Friday's game also set for a 4 p.m. first pitch. The series finale on Saturday is slated for 1 p.m.
• 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.

The Series
• The Mules lead the all-time series with Northwest Missouri 138-67. The series is tied 2-2 under Kyle Crookes.
• The teams split a four-game series in Warrensburg last year. The Bearcats took the opener and game three in one-run games, 2-1 and 5-4. UCM won games two and four by scores of 7-4 and 14-4.

Northwest Missouri
• Northwest Missouri enters the weekend series at 13-10 overall and 8-5 in MIAA play after falling at Nebraska-Kearney 16-5 on Tuesday afternoon.
• The Bearcats are 5-9 on the road this season.
• Northwest Missouri is led by 16th-year head coach Darin Loe. He has a 405-400 mark while leading the Bearcats and a 561-534 record in his 22nd season as a head coach.
• Northwest Missouri is hitting .261 as a team with 37 doubles, three triples, four home runs and 109 RBI.
• Kolby Greenslade leads the team with a .358 average. He has five extra-base hits and eight RBI.
• Nick Gotta leads the team with two home runs and 23 RBI in addition to batting .256
• Derek Meyer is hitting .319 with four doubles and seven driven in.
• Kevin Handzlik is hitting .288 and has seven runs driven in as well.
• Jay Hrdlicka is hitting .247 with six doubles and 15 RBI.
• Four Bearcats have driven in at least 11 runs.
• The Northwest Missouri pitching staff has a 4.55 ERA in 23 games and 196.0 innings pitched. The staff has walked 79 and struck out 165 during that span. Opponents are hitting .257 against NWMSU.
• Carson Smith is 3-1 with a 1.32 ERA in 11 relief appearances, He also has two saves.
• Joseph Hietpas is 3-0 with a 2.70 earned run average in seven starts.
• Anthony Caenepeel is 2-4 with a 3.27 earned run average in seven starts. He leads the team with 39 strikeouts in 41.1 innings pitched.
• The Bearcats have a .970 team fielding percentage. They've committed 26 errors and have turned 15 double plays on the year.

The Mules
• Central Missouri enters the weekend series at 12-8 overall and 10-3 in MIAA play after beating Lindenwood 4-3 in 11 innings on Tuesday night.
• The Mules are hitting .243 as a team with 28 doubles, six triples, 21 home runs and 106 RBI.
• Jake Alexander is hitting .361 with seven doubles, a triple, home run and 16 RBI. He has a .440 on-base percentage.
• Derek Cornell is hitting .314 with seven extra-base hits and a team-leading 18 RBI.
• Bennett Oliver leads the team in home runs with six and has knocked in 14 runs, while hitting .278.
• Dylan Farrell is hitting .258 with three doubles, two home runs and nine driven in.
• The pitching staff has a 3.52 team ERA through 20 games and 176.1 innings pitched. The staff has 188 strikeouts and 71 walks during that span.
• Ethan Westphal is 3-1 with a staff-leading 2.45 ERA in six appearances and five starts. He leads the team with 43 strikeouts in 36.2 innings pitched and is holding opponents to a .183 batting average.
• Carlos D'Armas is 2-1 with a 3.16 ERA in six starts. He's fanned 36 batters in 31.1 innings pitched.
• Tyler House is 3-0 with a 3.18 ERA in six starts. He's struck out 29 batters in 34 innings pitched and is holding opponents to a .200 batting average.
• Grant Gavin leads the team with three saves to go along with a 1-2 record and a 3.18 ERA in nine relief appearances. He has struck out 15 batters in 11.1 innings pitched.
• Lucas Williams is 1-1 with a 2.65 earned run average in seven appearances. He has 17 K's in 17 innings pitched.
• The UCM defense has a .971 fielding percentage and has committed 22 errors on the season. The Mules have turned 15 double plays on the year.

Worth Noting
• During his recent 15-game hitting streak, Jake Alexander hit .396 with eight extra-base hits, 14 RBI and 13 runs scored. He had a .484 on-base percentage and a .604 slugging percentage in that span as well.
• The Mules hit just .286 with runners in scoring position against Nebraska-Kearney, but they hit .700 with runners on third and less than two outs in the series.
• During MIAA play, the Mules are hitting .309 with runners in scoring position and .591 with runners on third and less than two outs.

Westphal named MIAA Pitcher of the Week for third time
• Junior righthanded pitcher Ethan Westphal was named MIAA Co-Pitcher of the Week for his performance in UCM's 3-0 win over Nebraska-Kearney last Saturday.
• It is the third time in the last four weeks Westphal has earned MIAA Pitcher of the Week honors.
• The Winterset, Iowa native tossed seven shutout innings, allowing just one infield single in the second inning and striking out nine.

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 15 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 22, 2016 - (ST. CHARLES, Mo.) -- The Central Missouri bullpen allowed one run over the final nine innings and the Mules rallied for a 4-3 win in 11 innings at Lindenwood on Tuesday night. The Mules are now 12-8 overall and 10-3 in MIAA play and tied for first in the league standings.
    Lindenwood (9-12, 3-10 MIAA) jumped on top on a Mike Ehrhard RBI single in the bottom of the first to grab a 1-0 lead. The Mules tied the game in the third on Colton Hilbrenner's RBI single, only to see the Lions go right back in front in the home half of the inning on Ehrhard's sacrifice fly.
    Central Missouri tied the game again in the fifth when Hilbrenner scored an unearned run on an error by Nathan Prindle at shortstop. The Mules took their first lead of the game in the sixth, 3-2, when Miles Orscheln drove in Bennett Oliver with an infield single. Oliver had tripled to lead off the inning.
    The Lions quickly tied the game in the bottom of the sixth on a Ryan Sosnowski RBI single. LWU threatened for more, but Andy Muehlberger was able to shut the Lions down and keep the game tied.
    The Lions threatened in the seventh with two on and one out, but Lucas Williams got Drew Quinones to ground in to a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning. Lindenwood put together a possible game-winning threat in the 10th with back-to-back singles to lead things off. A foul out, ground out and strike out ended that threat, however, and the game moved in to the 11th.
    Derek Cornell led off the inning with a double and went to third on a groundout. He later scored on a wild pitch with two outs in the inning for the go-ahead run.
    Grant Gavin came on in the bottom of the 11th and pitched around a one-out error to earn his third save of the season. Lucas Williams (1-1) tossed four innings of two-hit relief with four strikeouts to earn the win. Austin Southmayd allowed one run in 3.1 innings of relief, whie Muehlberger tossed two-thirds of an inning and Gavin tossed a scoreless frame.
    Jevon Boyd (1-2) took the loss for Lindenwood allowing one run on one hit in 2.2 innings of relief. Starter Connor Law went 8.1 innings allowing three runs, one earned, on six hits.

Mules in MIAA play
• The Mules are 10-3 in MIAA play this season after beating Lindenwood on Tuesday night.
• 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 2-5 in non-conference action this season after beating Drury 4-3 on March 16.
• The Mules were 7-9 in non-conference games last season.

The Mules at home
• The Mules are 6-1 at home after taking two out of three from Nebraska-Kearney.
• Central Missouri was 15-5 at home during the 2015 season.
• The Mules are 761-150-1 (.835) in 912 games played in this, their 41st season playing home games at Crane Stadium/Tompkins Field.

Mules on the road
• The Mules are 5-3 on the road this season after rallying to beat Lindenwood 4-3 in 11 innings on March 22.
• 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 42-30 (.583) 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 1,801-716-9 (.715) record in 2,526 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 770-205 (.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 Lindenwood on Wednesday, March 30 in the second of their three-game mid-week series.
• The Mules travel to Lincoln April 1-3 for a three-game series.