THIS WEEKEND IN PEACOCK BASEBALL... Upper Iowa opens the 2017 season this Saturday and Sunday in Wichita, Kansas taking on the Jets of Newman University. The Peacocks are under the leadership of Head Coach Brandon Hunt, who enters his first year as the skipper of the Peacocks.
 
SCOUTING THE JETS… Newman has opened the season with a 2-5 record with a win over East Central University and one over Wayne State College. The Jets have struggled at the plate and are hitting .241 as a team with a .309 slugging percentage. Paul Rupnik leads the team with a .400 average thanks to 8 hits in 20 at bats including a pair of doubles; the outfielder has driven in 8 and scored 6 times. Brian Canfield is also showing signs of life at the plate with a .310 average and 9 hits including three doubles. On the hill, the Jets are led by Wade Winter (1-0), who has posted an earned run average of 4.50 through 12 innings with a 1-0 record in his two starts.
 
NSIC PRESEASON COACHES POLL… The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference announced its 2017 Preseason Baseball Coaches Poll and Upper Iowa was predicted to finish eleventh out of fifteen teams after accumulating 59 points.­­ UIU finished the 2016 season with a 18-29 record finishing eleventh in the NSIC with a 14-22 conference mark.Minnesota State University, Mankato was the top pick in the 2017 NSIC Preseason Baseball Coaches' Poll.  This marks the seventh time in the last eight years that the Mavericks have been picked to win the league. Minnesota State amassed 192 points after receiving 10 first place votes (coaches can't vote for their own team). Defending NSIC Tournament Champions of St. Cloud State, which was picked to win the league last season, was second with 178 points and four first place votes. Augustana was picked third with 171 points, while Concordia-St. Paul was fourth with 156 points.  The defending NSIC Champions of Minnesota Duluth were fifth with 146 points and a first place vote.  

NSIC PLAYERS TO WATCH… A pair of Peacocks, outfielder Alex George and starting pitcher Tyus Adkins, were named NSIC Players to Watch for the upcoming season. George has played in 125 games while starting 123 over his first three years with the Peacocks. The Bloomington, Minn. native is a career .338 hitter with 155 hits in 458 at bats including 31 doubles, 4 triples and 7 homeruns.  George has driven in 91 baserunners and scored 77 times himself. As a sophomore, he hit .358 with 69 hits including 15 doubles while starting in right field for all 50 games. Adkins has pitched for the Peacocks over his first two seasons in Fayette. The starting right-hander has a career record of 5-7 with four of the victories coming last year including a 3-1 win over #1 St. Cloud State University where he threw 9 innings allowing one run while scattering seven hits and striking out four Huskies. Adkins has appeared in 16 games with 14 starts and thrown 70 innings while striking out 41 batters and recording three complete games.
 
A QUICK LOOK BACK… For the second straight season, the 2016 edition of the Peacock baseball program had daunting injuries on the pitching staff to overcome, but the team hung tough and still had an opportunity to qualify for the Northern Sun Tournament in the final week of the season.  Upper Iowa improved their conference win total from a year ago by three and also improved at home going 9-9 at Robertson Woods Field.  With three wins over regionally-ranked opponents and two wins over nationally-ranked opponents (#1 St. Cloud State and #22 Augustana), the Peacocks showed their potential at times, but consistency at the plate, on the mound and in the field cost the team in close games as UIU went 2-7 in one-run games.

LEADING RETURNERS… Anthony Calton and Luis Ravelo led the team in hitting with averages of .358 and .336, respectively, while George (.314 average/.468 slugging/33 rbi) and Colton Janssen (.307 average/.447 slugging/34 rbi) also hit above .300 for the season. Mitch Moser and Adkins tied for a team-high 4 wins on the mound.  Adkins and Brett Fanning (lost to injury early in the season), along with Zach Carstens (graduated), all were named NSIC Pitchers of the Week during the campaign.

PEACOCK COACHING STAFF… This year's squad is under the direction of Brandon Hunt, who takes over as the new head coach after serving as an assistant at Augustana University for the last four years. He is joined on the coaching staff by Assistant Coach Jeremy Ische and Graduate Assistant Tanner Neale. Hunt played for Augustana from 2003-07 and Ische closed out his college career at St. Cloud State from 2009-11 and was an assistant coach with Southwest Minnesota State for two seasons (2013-14).