THIS WEEK IN PEACOCKS BASEBALL… The Peacocks return home for the first time in 17 days starting with a four-game series with the NSIC second-best Minnesota State University, Mankato. The series starts with a doubleheader on Saturday, Apr. 17 at 1:30 p.m., then concludes with a nine-inning game on Sunday, Apr. 18 at noon followed by a seven-inning non-conference bout at 2 p.m. Live stats will be available at UIUPeacocks.com/Live, while an audio broadcast of the MSU series can be accessed there as well. Gameday Programs for the home series can also be found at UIUPeacocks.com/Programs.
STAYING HOT… Upper Iowa has won eight of its last 11 games including three out of five in the last week. The run has put UIU in ninth place in the NSIC with a 9-8 conference mark (11-11 overall). Following a midweek split with the University of Mary (L, 4-0/W, 4-1), the Peacocks won a pair of games over Northern State University 16-9 and 4-3 (12) before dropping the final game of the series 9-4. UIU's 16 runs scored in the early game Saturday is the highest run total the Peacocks have tallied this season and the most scored by Upper Iowa since 2016
PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS... Hogan Penny swung a hot bat against NSU after going 0-6 in the doubleheader at UMary. Against the Wolves, the senior went a whopping 8-13 (.615) with a walk, drove in seven runs, and scored once. Six of the RBI came in the series opener where Penny went 3-4 with a grand slam. The game marked the third time the Paradise, Texas native has had five or more RBIs in a single game.
DE-PEN-DABLE... Chris Webber picked up his fourth save and first win of the year over the past week. The junior has been a staple out of the bullpen this season and provided 5.0 innings of scoreless baseball striking out five and allowing just two runners on via a base hit and a hit batter last week. Sam Marhefke and Brennan Sefrit set up Webber's save combining to fan nine in 4.1 scoreless relief innings in Wednesday's win over UMary.
LEADING THE LINEUP… Samuel Grushkin teamed up with Penny in game one of the Northern State series. The freshman went 4-4 with three doubles scoring four times and driving in four. Jake Hilmer had eight hits over the five-game span including his first career triple and a pair of doubles to boost his already team best batting average of .364.
MANAGING THE MAVERICKS… Minnesota State barely trails the University of Minnesota Crookston as the top NSIC team at 18-4 overall, 15-3 in the NSIC. The Mavericks were leading the conference prior to losing their last series 2-1 to Minot State University. MSU is led by Joey Werner who ranks in the top five in the NSIC in batting average (.422), hits (34), home runs (6), RBI (28) and total bases (59). Collin Denk, Nick Altermann, and Jon Ludwig bolster the Mavericks rotation. Each possess a sub 2.45 ERA and have fanned 24 batters or more. Ludwig leads the NSIC with 59 strikeouts. As a unit, Minnesota State is batting .307 while MSU's arms have held the opposition to a .227 rate at the plate.
