Northwest baseball trying to pull upset over UCM
DAILY FORUM FILE PHOTO
Northwest Missouri State University’s Jay Hrdlicka connects with a pitch against Nebraska-Kearney on Tuesday. He finished with one RBI and two runs scored against the Lopers, and the Bearcats won 11-1 in seven innings.
Northwest Missouri State University’s baseball team has played Central Missouri in Warrensburg seven of the past eight times the two teams have matched up.
Last year’s neutral site game in St. Charles — a 10-3 win for the Mules — is the lone exception.
The Bearcats, who have gone 2-6 in such meetings, are hoping the tide will turn when the Mules visit Maryville on Saturday for a 2 p.m. game. The first game of the three-game set was originally supposed to be played on Friday at 3 p.m., but was moved due to weather concerns.
It will be the first time UCM has made the trip north since April 12, 2014, when the two teams split a doubleheader.
Northwest head coach Darin Loe isn’t expecting the home crowd advantage to make things any easier.
“They’re a quality program, and they are well-coached,” he said. “They’re going to play great defense and pitch extremely well. They are great on the bases, and have guys that can hit for average and for power.”
The Bearcats (15-8, 4-6 MIAA) have won four straight games and six of their past seven while the Mules (18-5, 10-3 MIAA) have won two straight and four of their past five.
Central Missouri is sitting in second place in the Mid America Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) standings, just behind Emporia State. Northwest is currently 10th in the conference.
Justin Graffe-Rowe is leading the Mules offensively with a .458 batting average. He’s driven in 17 runs on 38 hits. Graffe-Rowe has seven doubles on the season.
Travis Stroup and Collin Nevil lead the team in RBI with 29 and 24, respectively. Nevil also has a team-high seven home runs for the Mules.
Central Missouri’s .306 team batting average is fourth best in the conference. The Mules are eighth in the conference in RBI with 146 and eighth in home runs with 21.
The Bearcats just might have the defense to keep the Mules at bay this season, however. Northwest has allowed the fewest runs in the conference at 87, and its team ERA of 3.08 is second only to the Mules’ 2.98. Central Missouri, which has allowed 95 runs this season, joins Northwest as the only other team to allow fewer than 100 total runs going into Friday’s matchup.
Loe said things are different this year due to players growing within the system over the years.
“I think we just have better players on the field [than we have had in past years],” he said. “We changed our recruiting practices a little bit four or five years ago. Now, a lot of those freshmen who we recruited are juniors and seniors now. They are productive guys in the lineup and on the mound. Better players make me a better coach, so that’s a lot of it.
The Bearcats are sticking to the same plan they have all season as far as their pitching rotation.
Junior right-hander Anthony Caenepeel will start on the mound Friday with Joseph Heitpas and Brad Roberts starting on the following days.
Caenepeel enters the contest with a 4-3 record and 2.87 ERA. He has a team-high 53 strikeouts to his name against just 14 walks.
Caenepeel is aware of the challenge in front of him. He said he also remembered the Bearcats coming close twice last season.
Of the four times the two teams matched up in 2016, Central Missouri won two of them by one run in extra innings.
“The key to throwing against them is limiting their baserunners,” he said. “They like to run, and we know that. If you work ahead of guys, you can pitch to get weak contact and some strikeouts.
“We’re excited to play them up here. We’ve had chances to beat them and just haven’t finished the job.”
