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Panthers Return Home to Host Minnesota, Creighton
April 15, 2008
Complete Release in PDF Format
THIS WEEK IN PANTHER BASEBALL Panthers Return Home to Host Minnesota, Creighton The University of Northern Iowa baseball team returns to Riverfront Stadium for a nine-game home stand, starting when the Panthers host Minnesota and Creighton this week. UNI and Minnesota will play for the third time this season when they meet on Wednesday. Both prior meetings were held in the Metrodome, and each team has claimed a win. The teams last met on April 9, and UNI picked up a 13-11 win over the Gophers. The Panthers scored four runs with two out in the top of the ninth to pick up that victory. UNI will look to remain in first place in the Missouri Valley Conference standings when it hosts Creighton in a three-game series starting Friday. UNI is 8-1 in league play this year, the best MVC start in school history. The Panthers are coming off a three-game sweep at Illinois State. UNI outscored the Redbirds 37-15 in the series, including a 24-7 win on Sunday. That was the most runs scored for the Panthers since matching that mark against Rockhurst in 2001. Brandon Douglas hit for the cycle in that game, finishing 4-of-6 from the plate. Douglas hit .474 with three home runs and 10 RBIs on the week, helping him to earn MVC Player of the Week honors. LEADING OFF... • Brandon Douglas became the first player since Aaron McEachran in 2001 to hit for the cycle when he accomplished the feat against Illinois State on April 13. The junior shortstop doubled in the first inning, hit a home run and a single in the third, then reached on a triple in the sixth. • Guido Fonseca is one of just six pitchers in Division I baseball to hold a record of 7-0 or better. The 7-0 mark is the best start by a UNI pitcher since Nic Ungs reached that mark in the 2001 season. Fonseca is just four wins shy of the UNI record for wins in a season. • The Panthers' offense has been potent as of late. In UNI's last 12 games, UNI has averaged 12.4 hits and 9.4 runs per game, while hitting .340 as a team. In the last week, the Panthers tallied 54 hits in four games, an average of 13.5 per contest, while scoring 50 runs, 12.5 per game. As a team, UNI hit .367 in those four games. UNI scored 24 runs in the series finale at Illinois State, the most runs scored by a Panther team since matching that mark against Rockhurst on April 29, 2001. • The Panthers open a nine-game home stand when they host Minnesota on Wednesday. UNI will not venture away from Riverfront Stadium until April 30, when they play against Iowa in the Corridor Classic in Cedar Rapids. • The Panthers have won their last six contests. This matches a six-game win streak from earlier in the season. They are the longest win streaks since the Panthers opened the 2006 season with seven straight wins. SCOUTING MINNESOTA The Golden Gophers have been hovering around the .500 mark most of the season but have dipped a few games below as of late. The Metrodome has treated the Gophers much better than the road so far as they are 11-7 at home compared to a road record of 4-10. Minnesota has faced the Panthers at the Metrodome on two separate occasions this season, each ending with a different outcome. The Panthers won the last meeting, claiming a 13-11 victory. UNI scored four runs with two out in the top of the ninth to earn that win. Junior outfielder Matt Nohelty leads the Minnesota batting attack with some impressive numbers that rank in the top tier of Division I baseball. Nohelty ranks around the top 50 in the categories of batting average, hits, and triples. From the mound, juniors Tom Buske and Kyle Carr have pitched the most innings for the Gophers. In each of their eight appearances, Buske and Carr have tallied ERAs of 3.83 and 4.71 respectively. John Anderson is in his 27th year coaching the Gophers. Earlier this year, Anderson was inducted into the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. SCOUTING CREIGHTON With a conference record of 7-5, Creighton is in the middle of the MVC pack, tied for 4th place with Bradley. During their latest conference series, the Blue Jays were a couple of runs away from taking the series from fifth-ranked Wichita State but fell 1-2 instead. Creighton's success has centered around a solid pitching staff as the Blue Jays' team ERA has totaled almost half of that of their opponents. They have controlled the individual realm of pitching statistics as well with at least one of their pitchers appearing in the top five of most of the conference pitching category rankings. Most notably, senior Pat Venditte ranks among the top five in the MVC in opposing batting average, strikeouts, and saves among others. Venditte was named MVC Pitcher of the Week after earning a win and two saves last week. Head coach Ed Servais is in his fifth season with the Blue Jays. He led his team to their first MVC championship last season and has won MVC Coach of the Year three times. Quick Hits • Nick Kirk's .194 opponent's batting average ranks second in the MVC. • Brandon Douglas has a hit in each of the Panthers' Missouri Valley Conference games. • Brett Featherston's 34 walks rank ninth nationally, and he is fourth in the nation in walks per game. • UNI is hitting .388 in league play, the top in the MVC. • UNI has a 3.39 ERA in conferece play, ranking second. PANTHERS ON THE RADIO UNI baseball games can be heard on Brite 95.3 KQMG. The broadcasts will also be streamed on the home of UNI sports, www.unipanthers.com. Gary Rima will handle play-by-play duties. PRESS LUNCHEON Each Monday, UNI's in-season coaches speak at noon in the back room of Pepper's Sports Bar and Grill, located on 18th Street in Cedar Falls. The public and media are invited to attend and hear what Rick Heller and the other coaches have to say about their teams. SCOREBOARD PHONE By calling the MVC scoreboard phone at (314) 699-6821, fans and media can obtain scores from team sports seasons. Audio scores also may be obtained by visiting www.mvc-sports.com. EASY AS ONE, TWO, THREE Chris Lopez hit three home runs in the Panthers' 17-3 win over Grand View on Wednesday. The senior hit the first two in back-to-back at-bats in the first and second innings. It was the first time a Panther has had three home runs in one game since Ryan Brunner accomplished the feat at Air Force in 2001. Lopez was one of three Panthers to hit a home run in the contest. BEAN COUNTER When Taylor Sinclair hit David Brumagin with a pitch in the fifth inning Sunday afternoon it was his 33rd batter hit by a pitch, giving him the career record at UNI. He passed the mark of 32 HBP set by Mike Irvine from 1992-95. Sinclair ranks sixth in the UNI career record books with 223.1 innings pitched. MAKING HISTORY Nick Kirk pitched the fifth no-hitter in school history when he blanked Evansville March 28 in the Panthers' MVC opener. Kirk struck out 15 in the win. It was the first no-hitter for the Panthers since 1995, and the first nine-inning no-hitter in the Missouri Valley Conference since 1990. PANTHER PROMOTIONS Tickets to UNI's Missouri Valley Conference games can be purchased for $3. Tickets are available for this price at the UNI ticket office or at the gate. TAKE FIVE Brandon Douglas tallied five hits in the Panthers' win over Evansville on March 29. It was the first five-hit game for a Panther since 2005. Douglas finished the day with three doubles, a triple and a single, and he drove in four and scored four runs. Douglas was 5-of-5 on the day with 10 total bases for a 2.000 slugging percentage. HONORS FOR KIRK After throwing a 15-strikeout no-hitter against Evansville, Nick Kirk was named the Missouri Valley Conference Pitcher of th Week on March 31. He was also selected as a `Louisville Slugger's' National Player of the Week by Collegiate Baseball. InsidePitching.com selected Kirk's win as the Performance of the Week. FUN IN THE SUN UNI had a successful trip on its annual spring break trip to Florida. While playing seven games in eight days, UNI finished 6-1 on the trip. UNI dropped its first game, 8-6 to Eastern Illinois, but came back to win six straight, the Panthers' longest win streak since winning seven straight to open the 2006 season. UNI hit .342 as a team during the trip and averaged 8.7 runs per game. PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE UNI slugger Brett Featherston is leading the Missouri Valley Conference in walks, drawing 31 so far this season. Fellow senior Dane Embury has drawn 20 walks this season, ranking ninth in The Valley. NOT ONE, BUT TWO GEMS Nick Kirk and Guido Fonseca combined to allow just six hits and one run in 14 innings two sweep Northwestern in a doubleheader on Good Friday. Kirk pitched seven-innings of shutout baseball in the first game, allowing just two hits while striking out seven in seven innings. Fonseca allowed four hits and one unearned run while pitching all seven innings of the second contest. STREAKING After dropping four straight contests, the Panthers won six-game in a row. UNI is hit .348 over that stretch, and the Panthers are averaged9.2 runs per game over those six contests. The streak included three consecutive games where UNI scored 12 or more runs. The six-game streak was the longest for the Panthers since opening the 2006 campaign with seven straight wins. GETTING IT DONE Pitcher Guido Fonseca is having a good start to his senior season. The right-handed hurler is 6-0 in seven starts for UNI. His is the first Valley pitcher to earn four wins, and he is second in the MVC with 47 strike outs on the season. Fonseca led the Panthers with five wins last season A NICE RETURN After sitting out 12 games with an injury, junior center fielder Deric Manrique returned to the starting lineup against Central Connecticut State on Thursday. Playing as the designated hitter that game, he hit 3-of-4 with three runs scored, five RBIs, two doubles and a home run. He hit .500 on the week, going 5-of-10 from the plate with six RBIs. BREAKING OUT Chris Lopez had a break-out weekend at UALR, tallying seven hits, six of them for extra bases. Lopez hit six doubles in the series and two home runs, finishing the weekend with a 1.000 slugging percentage. WHAT A RELIEF The Panther bullpen has been solid for the Panthers this season, especially seniors Nick Lauver, Mike O'Leary, Joe Gonzalez and Tim Flattery. The foursome has combined to pitch 38.2 innings of relief, allowing just 10 earned runs for a combined 2.35 ERA. That group has held opponents to a .201 batting average. FAST START Brandon Douglas got his junior season off to a blistering start. The preseason All-Valley shortstop went 11-of-16 in the series against Centenary, including four doubles. Douglas collected three three-hit games in that series. OFF ON THE WRONG FOOT The first play of the season proved to be a costly one for the Panthers. Preseason All-MVC selection Deric Manrique was able to run out an infield single, but he turned his ankle in the process. Manrique sat out the remainder of the Centenary series and will likely be out of action this weekend. FILLING IN After the injury to Manrique, redshirt freshman Levi Ferguson moved into center field and the leadoff spot for UNI. In his first game as the leadoff man, Ferguson went 3-of-4 from the plate and scored three runs. He hit .375 in the opening series for UNI, and he collected a hit in each of the Panthers' four games. ROAD WARRIORS Once again, the Panthers' early schedule has them traveling. UNI will play its first 20 games away from Riverfront Stadium. UNI will play in four-game series at Centenary and Arkansas-Little Rock, along with a three-game tournament in the Metrodome and the annual nine-game spring trip to Bradenton, Fla. The Panthers will play its first home game on March 26 when they host UW-Platteville. PRESEASON HONORS UNI's Deric Manrique and Brandon Douglas were each tabbed to the preseason All-Missouri Valley Conference team. Manrique and Douglas were each named to the All-MVC first team last season. In 2007, Manrique led the Panthers with a .351 average, and he stole a league-high 30 bases. Douglas is a two-time All-Valley first-team selection. He led the Panthers with 19 doubles a year ago.
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