First Pitch
• The 21st-ranked Central Missouri Mules return home to host Missouri Western in the final regular season home series of the year.
• The series has been moved up a day due to expected rain. It gets underway on Thursday at 6 p.m. with the teams playing a doubleheader on Friday beginning at 2 p.m.
• Friday is Senior Day with the 14 Mules' seniors being honored at a time still to be determined.
• 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
• All of this season's home games and select road games can be heard live on 1450 KOKO and warrensburgradio.com.
•
Bob Jackson and
Ricky Rivera will be on the call with the Lotspeich Automotive Dugout Show beginning 25 minutes prior to first pitch.
The Series
• The Mules lead the all-time series with Missouri Western 106-33. The Mules are 0-1 against the Griffons under
Kyle Crookes.
• MWSU won the only meeting last year, 10-5, in a non-conference matchup in St. Joseph.
• The last time these two teams met in the regular season was 2014, when the Mules won three of four meetings in Warrensburg.
Missouri Western
• Missouri Western enters the weekend series at 31-13 overall and 23-10 in MIAA play after being no-hit and losing 6-0 against Northwest Missouri on Tuesday night.
• The Griffons are 21-3 on the road this season.
• Missouri Western is led by 17th-year head coach Buzz Verduzco. He has a 494-361 record leading the Griffon program.
• MWSU is hitting .336 as a team with 95 doubles, 16 triples, 59 homers and 362 RBI.
• Landon Mason leads the team with a .424 batting average.
• David Glaude is batting .400 with 16 doubles, seven home runs and 52 RBI.
• Cosimo Cannella hits .360 with nine homers and a team-leading 61 RBI.
• Jeremy Alvarado leads the team with 13 home runs to go along with 50 runs driven in and a .353 batting average.
• Nine Griffons are hitting .304 or better and 11 have double figure RBI, including three with 50 or more.
• The Missouri Western pitching staff has an 5.51 ERA in 44 games and 375.2 innings pitched. The staff has walked 195 and struck out 259 during that span. Opponents are hitting .290 against MWSU.
• Preston Bailey is 3-0 with a 3.40 ERA in 21 appearances. He leads the team with 54 strikeouts in 47.2 innings and is limiting opponents to a .207 average. He has four of the team's six saves.
• Evan Jones is 5-1 with a 4.50 earned run average in 10 starts and 12 total appearances.
• Richard Peoples is 8-3 with a 5.94 ERA in 15 appearances and 10 starts.
• Weston Caindec has made 18 appearances, including six starts. He sports a 4-2 mark and a 4.31 earned run average.
• The Griffons have a .967 team fielding percentage. They've committed 55 errors and have turned 47 double plays on the year.
The Mules
• Central Missouri enters the final regular season home series at 28-12 overall and 26-7 in MIAA play after beating SBU 9-0 on Tuesday afternoon.
• The Mules are hitting .293 as a team with 62 doubles, 20 triples, 52 home runs and 255 RBI.
•
Jake Alexander leads the team with a .360 batting average with 10 doubles, a triple, three home runs and 26 RBI. He has a .444 on-base percentage.
•
Derek Cornell is hitting .345 with 14 extra-base hits, including five home runs and has 29 RBI.
•
Bennett Oliver leads the team in home runs with 18 and RBI with 39, while hitting .340.
•
Dylan Farrell is hitting .313 with seven doubles, a triple and nine home runs and is second on the team with 35 RBI.
• Ten Mules have double figure RBI on the season.
• The pitching staff has a 4.00 team ERA through 40 games and 351.1 innings pitched. The staff has 345 strikeouts and 137 walks during that span.
•
Ethan Westphal is 6-2 with a staff-leading 3.13 ERA in 10 appearances and nine starts. He leads the team with 69 strikeouts in 63.1 innings pitched and is holding opponents to a .205 batting average.
•
Carlos D'Armas is 2-2 with a 4.60 ERA in 11 starts. He is second on the team with 67 strikeouts in 58.2 innings pitched. Opponents are batting .256 against him.
•
Tyler House is 5-2 with a 4.76 ERA in 11 starts. He's struck out 50 batters in 56.2 innings pitched and is holding opponents to a .253 batting average.
•
Andy Muehlberger is 1-0 with a 1.86 ERA and two saves in 12 relief appearances. He has nine strikeouts in 9.2 innings pitched.
•
Grant Gavin leads the team with eight saves to go along with a 3-2 record and a 3.05 ERA in 18 relief appearances. He has struck out 25 batters in 20.2 innings pitched.
•
Lucas Williams is 2-1 with a 3.12 earned run average in 14 appearances. He has 25 K's in 26 innings pitched.
• The UCM defense has a .970 fielding percentage and has committed 46 errors on the season. The Mules have turned 27 double plays on the year.
Worth Noting
• The Mules hit just .222 (4-for-18) with runners in scoring position during the Northeastern State series.
• During MIAA play, the Mules are hitting .313 with runners in scoring position and .628 with runners on third and less than two outs.
• The Mules currently rank 10th in the MIAA in batting with a .293 team average, but they are first in pitching (4.00 ERA) and third in fielding (.970 fld%).
Saving his way in to the record books
• With his save last Friday against Northeastern State,
Grant Gavin moved in to a tie for sixth place on the UCM single-season saves list with eight and in to a tie for ninth place on the career saves list with 11.
• He is two saves shy of fifth place on the single-season chart and one shy of eighth place on the career list.
Streaking Mules
• During his current 18-game hitting streak,
Bennett Oliver is batting .417 with 16 extra-base hits, including 11 home runs, and 23 RBI. He's slugging .958 and has a .469 on-base percentage.
• During that same span,
Derek Cornell is hitting .371 with three home runs and a .506 on-base percentage; and
Dylan Farrell has six home runs and 20 RBI.
• Cornell has reached base safely in 32 of his last 33 games.
Blasting up the charts
• Senior
Bennett Oliver has hit six home runs in his last five games, giving him 18 home runs on the season.
• That number puts him in a tie for second place on UCM's single-season home runs list, and just two home runs shy of the all-time record of 20, set by Ben Slemmer in 1998.
• His 18 home runs are the most by a Mule since Josh Paul hit 18 in 2007.
• The MIAA record for home runs in a season is 23, set by Emporia State's Eric Shortell in 2008.
Single-game tickets available online
• Single-game tickets for Mules Baseball are available online at UCMathletics.com/tickets or at the UCM Athletic Ticket Office in room 101 of the Multipurpose Building.
• 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
April 26, 2016 - (BOLIVAR, Mo.) --
Bennett Oliver hit his 18th home run of the season and
Ben Kelsch tossed six shutout innings to help lead the 21st-ranked Mules to a 9-0 win over Southwest Baptist on Tuesday at Dodson Field. With the win, UCM sweeps the season series with SBU and improves to 28-12 overall and 26-7 in MIAA play with six games remaining.
   The game was scoreless into the bottom of the second when the game was delayed for over an hour due to lightning and then rain. When the game resumed it remained scoreless until the bottom of the third when the Mules, who were the home team even though the game was played at SBU, struck first with a pair of unearned runs to grab the lead.
   The Mules extended the lead to 6-0, scoring four times in the bottom of the fourth.
Matt Safranek had an RBI fielder's choice to plate the first run, he also scored the third run on a wild pitch.
Blake Wilfong had an RBI single and
Matt Elliott added a run-scoring single.
   Oliver hit a solo home run leading off the fifth, his 18th of the season, to give UCM a 7-0 lead. His 18 home runs this year are tied for the second most in a single-season in UCM history and are two shy of the all-time record of 20 set by Ben Slemmer in 1998.
   The Mules put the icing on the cake with two more runs in the bottom of the eighth for the 9-0 advantage. Wilfong had an RBI groundout and Elliott added his second RBI single of the game.
   Kelsch (2-0) went six solid innings for Central Missouri to earn the win. He scattered five hits and struck out five.
Luke Mercer pitched a perfect sixth inning and
Reece Ponak finished off the game, tossing two innings of one-hit relief while striking out one.
   Brandon Chernoff (4-5) took the loss for SBU after allowing six runs, four earned, on seven hits over 3.2 innings of work.
Mules in MIAA play
• The Mules are 26-7 in MIAA play this season after completing the season sweep of Southwest Baptist on Tuesday in Bolivar.
• 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 16-3 at home after beating Southwest Baptist 12-10 on Tuesday afternoon.
• Central Missouri was 15-5 at home during the 2015 season.
• The Mules are 771-152-1 (.835) in 924 games played in this, their 41st season playing home games at Crane Stadium/Tompkins Field.
Mules on the road
• The Mules are 11-5 on the road this season after beating Southwest Baptist on Tuesday night.
• 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.
Mules in the NCAA Regional Rankings
• The Mules were ranked No. 9 in the first set of NCAA Regional rankings released on Wednesday. The top eight teams in the final poll earn bids to the Central Regional Tournament.
• UCM plays No. 2 Missouri Western this weekend and No. 5 Washburn next weekend.
Mules in the rankings
• The Mules dropped nine spots this week to No. 21 in the ABCA/Collegiate Baseball Top 30 poll.
• UCM dropped out of the NCBWA Poll this week, the Mules had been ranked No. 13 last week. The Mules were ranked No. 2 in the NCBWA Central Region Poll a week ago.
• The Mules dropped two spots in the D2Baseball.com poll to No. 30 and dropped two spots to No. 24 in the Perfect Game Baseball poll.
Mules vs. ranked opponents
• The Mules are 2-4 this season when facing a ranked opponent after beating No. 11 Emporia State in two out of three games last weekend.
• Two of the losses happened at the season-opening Houston Winter Invitational with a third happening the following week at Southern Arkansas and all three were by one run.
UCM during the Crookes era
•
Kyle Crookes has a 58-34 (.630) 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 1,817-720-9 (.715) record in 2,546 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 786-209 (.790) since the year 2000. An average of 46 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 close out the regular season May 6-8 at Washburn. The series gets underway on Friday, May 6 with a 6 p.m. first pitch. Saturday's game is set for a 4 p.m. start with Sunday's regular season finale beginning at 1 p.m.
• UCM heads to the MIAA Postseason Tournament, May 12-15, hosted by Lindenwood in St. Charles, Missouri.
