This Week in Peacock Baseball... Upper Iowa (6-7, 3-5 NSIC) has a busy week ahead, but the team will get to play in the friendly confines of Robertson Woods Field on Mar. 27 and 31 and Apr. 1 against the No. 4 Huskies of St. Cloud State University and the Mustangs of Southwest Minnesota State University. Live stats and an online audio broadcast will be available for all five games. UIU and SCSU will get together for a double header beginning at 12 p.m. on Wednesday and then the Peacocks will be the away team in Fayette when SMSU comes to Fayette for a double header on Sunday and a single, nine-inning game on Monday; both days will begin at 12 p.m.
Peacock Bats Heard Across the Country... Upper Iowa's offense has been a key to their early season success. The team is hitting .328 as a group, which is the 13th best team average in the nation. The Peacocks have turned that success with the bat into 7.7 runs per game (45th NCAA DII). UIU's on-base percentage of .412 and slugging percentage of .464 are also in the nation's top 50 ranked 34th and 46th, respectively.
Figuring Out Freddie... Opposing pitchers have had a hard time figuring out A.J. Friedrich this season. Prior to the series with Northern State University, UIU's first baseman was hitting .529 at the plate and reaching base over 62% of the time; the batting average was the third hightest in the country and the on-base percentage was the second highest average in the nation. Coming into this week, the Waconia, Minn. product is hitting .422, slugging a team-high .578 and still reaching nearly 52% of the time he gets to the batters' box.
Raising Cain... UIU's senior from Plymouth, Wis. is enjoying his best start for the Peacocks. After earning an NSIC Gold Glove at first base last season, Cain has been playing center field and the occasional third base for the Peacocks due to injury. His glove work has been sensational with just 2 errors on the season and his hitting has been nearly unstoppable. Cain is hitting .444 with 24 hits including 4 doubles and a homerun. His average of 1.8 hits per game, which Friedrich also has, ranks 8th best in the nation.
Arms Race... Upper Iowa got great starts from
Alexander Morales against the University of Mary last Wednesday,
Duncan Snider and
Blake Thiesse in the team's double header on Saturday against Northern State and
Colin Lacey on Sunday before departing due to injury. Morales has an ERA of just 2.50 in his four appearances and three starts after giving up 5 earned runs on 17 hits, while striking out 13 batters. Snider leads the team with an impressive 31 strikeouts and 21 innings on the hill while holding opponents to a .214 batting average. Thiesse dropped his ERA to 5.14 with a no-decision on Saturday against Northern State. Lacey was cruising in game three of the NSU series, UIU led 5-2 in the seventh, when a shot back through the box hit Lacey in the head which forced him out of the game.
Scouting the No. 4 Huskies... St. Cloud State, ranked No. 4 in the nation by the National Collegiate Baseball Writer's Association for the second straight week, has won their first three series of the Northern Sun Conference season thanks a pair of wins over Minnesota State University, Mankato in three games and sweeps of Winona State University and the University of Sioux Falls. The Huskies are 19-3 overall and 7-1 in the conference. SCSU leads the all-time series against UIU with 17 wins in their 20 match ups; the series dates back to 1969. Last season, the Peacocks dropped game one in extra innings 8-5, the final inning was played on the second day of the match up due to darkness, and game three 5-4, but scored a 10-5 victory in game two.
Scouting the Mustangs... Southwest Minnesota State is 2-11 overall and 1-7 in the Northern Sun. The Mustangs lost all five of their games last week, but the margin of all five contests was just 14 runs, less than 3 runs per game, and included three one-run losses to Minnesota State and Winona State. In fact, SMSU is 0-2 in two-run games and 1-4 in the one-run games this season. The Mustang offense struggled last week hitting .216 during the five games against the Mavericks and Warriors. Connor Johnson led the team with an average of .357 in the five games with five hits, including a double. Jayden Fleck hit .294 with five base hits, including three doubles and three RBIs.
