Monday, March 21, 2016

Opposition Research - Nebraska-Kearney


Opposition Research - Nebraska-Kearney


Maryville, Mo. - Your Northwest Missouri State University Bearcats baseball team will travel into the great State of Nebraska to play the Nebraska-Kearney Lopers on Tuesday, March 22, 2016. First pitch is set for 3pm. The game will be played at Memorial Field, 3311 8th Avenue in Kearney. Memorial Field has a seating capacity of 2,000 and opened in 1946. The Bearcats and Lopers will play a single nine inning game.

UNK background -

Nebraska-Kearney is a rather recent addition to the MIAA and have terrific varsity athletic programs. The Lopers joined the MIAA in the 2012-2013 academic year according to the MIAA's website. Nebraska-Kearney's baseball team has done very well since joining the MIAA. After a solid season in their first baseball season in the MIAA in 2013 (finishing 10th), UNK finished in 6th place in the 2014 and 2015 seasons. With the 6th place finishes in each of the past two seasons, UNK qualified for the MIAA baseball post-season tournament. In each of the past two post-season tournaments, the Lopers lost in the first round having been swept by UCO (2014) and UCM (2015).

UNK just finished a weekend series at UCM where the Mules won 2 of 3 games. UNK and Northwest have only played one common MIAA conference opponent in Lincoln University and both squads swept the Blue Tigers.

Having no confirmation whatsoever, it appears UNK's mid-week starter is Tanner Spencer. UNK has 4 pitchers that have started a game in 2016. 3 of those 4 all started this past weekend at UCM leaving Spencer the likely option for Tuesday's game.

NWMSU background -

Northwest just finished a weekend sweep of the Lincoln University Blue Tigers. The Bearcats have won 3 of the 4 MIAA conference series so far in 2016. In the one MIAA conference series the Bearcats lost, Washburn, the series came down to the third game to decide it in favor of the Ichabods after Northwest won Game 1 and Washburn won Game 2.

The B2R is excited to see who gets the starting nod for Northwest in Tuesday's game. Austin Battaglia got the start last mid-week game at Quincy University but had a tough day. Another starting option is Hondo Pearcy but he pitched at Quincy and also had a tough day. Could Tuesday be the day Nikko Pablo gets his first start for Northwest in 2016? Nikko is tied for the most appearances for Northwest in 2016 and has an outstanding ERA of 3.80 and nearly a 2/1 walk/strike-out ratio. Regardless who is tabbed the starter on Tuesday, I'm sure Austin and Hondo will be ready if called upon.

NWMSU/UNK match-up analysis -

Regarding Tuesday's game, this is a huge match-up between two teams battling for the post-season. Nebraska-Kearney and Northwest are currently tied for 3rd place in the MIAA. The MIAA baseball coaches ranked UNK 7th in the 2016 pre-season baseball poll. Northwest was ranked to finish 12th. Both squads have exceeded expectations to this point in the season. A preliminary review of the two teams' strengths puts a potent UNK offense versus the stingy NWMSU defense. The wild card in Tuesday's match-up in this mid-week game preceding an upcoming weekend Conference series is the quality of each school's #4 starting pitchers. The big question heading into Tuesday's game is - will Northwest #4 starter be better than UNK's offense or will UNK's #4 starter be better than Northwest's offense?

The other compelling issue for each teams' head coaches - How long do you let your starters go in this game? 1x through the line-up, 2x through the line-up, 3 innings, 4 innings, 5 innings, XX number of runs allowed?

Northwest's pitching staff is statistically performing better than UNK's staff. However, UNK's offense has scored 57 more runs than Northwest in one less game. Defensively, Northwest's defense is performing better than UNK's. Can Northwest's pitchers induce grounders or will UNK's offense spray liners into the outfield?

Having not seen UNK in live action in 2016, it appears the Lopers have an unusually high number of batters being hit by a pitch (average 2+ per game). The B2R is deducting the Lopers crowd the plate to take away the inside pitch then look to smoke a liner when the opposing pitcher makes a mistake out and over the plate. The other consequence of crowding the plate is a pitcher making a mistake inside results in the UNK batter getting hit by the pitch.

In this game, the Northwest pitching staff cannot surrender the inside pitch. Being effectively wild may be a necessary and effective strategy against the Lopers. Saw off the bats and make the Lopers feel uncomfortable. College baseball players can take a fast ball in the back...but they don't like it at the knees.

Pitching and defense have been Northwest's calling card all season. Northwest's pitching staff's job is to induce grounders. The defense is to not allow extra outs and thereby keep the pitch counts down. The Bearcats offense needs to get on base then get in the Lopers' heads through stealing, fake stealing, hit and run, bunts, and spraying the baseball into the outfield. Get the Lopers defense thinking and make them work.

Snapshot of statistics between NWMSU/UNK -

                                                     NWMSU                   UNK
Batting/BB & HBP per game      .262/4.77/1.18          .307/4.6/2.05
Defense                                        .974                          .944
ERA                                             4.14                           5.73

2016 UNK statistics -

• Record: 11-10 • Home: 5-2 • Away: 6-8 • MIAA: 8-4 •
Player  avg gp-gs ab 2b 3b hr rbi bb hbp so sb-att 
Salamon,Matt   .366 20-20 71 10 26 14 10 0-2 
Sharkey,Shane   .358 21-21 81 24 29 21 16 14 4-4 
Honeycutt,Kyle   .351 19-14 57 17 20 21 10 0-0 
Edmond,Easton   .349 20-18 63 21 22 16 15 1-2 
x-Messinger,Connor   .348 17-17 69 20 24 14 11 1-1 
Katechis,Pate   .329 20-20 79 16 26 32 24 0-2 
Schramm,Dallas   .316 16-16 57 19 18 11 10 0-0 
Kirsch,Brent   .295 21-20 78 19 23 21 11 1-2 
----------
Estrada,Josh   .355 15-5 31 11 1-1 
Huscroft,Jake   .267 11-1 15 0-0 
McLeod,Kirk   .205 13-11 39 0-0 
Stock,Shane   .188 10-3 16 0-0 
Pacheco,Anthony   .171 11-11 35 1-1 
Richardson,Jacob   .159 20-12 44 0-0 
Kirkpatrick,Tanner   .000 5-0 0-0 
Stevenson,Phoenix   .000 1-0 0-0 
Totals   .307 21-21 739 182 227 47 31 166 98 43 143 9-15 
Opponents   .323 21-21 745 166 241 46 22 149 68 15 148 23-31 
LOB - Team (187), Opp (163). DPs turned - Team (18), Opp (20). CI - Team (0), Opp (5). Picked off - Schramm,D. 1, Huscroft,J. 1, Salamon,Matt 1, Stock,Shane 1.

Pitching statistics

Player  era w-l app-gs cg sho sv ip er bb so 
Gulzow,Chayse   2.35 3-1 8-0 0/0 15.1 16 18 
Sievers,Chris   5.52 3-0 8-0 0/0 14.2 14 12 20 
Riddell,Andrew   5.76 1-1 7-5 0/0 25.0 39 26 16 13 19 
Robinson,Mitchell   6.28 0-3 6-6 0/0 28.2 44 26 20 17 
Ertmer,Trey   6.42 3-2 6-6 0/0 33.2 35 31 24 16 28 
Spencer,Tanner  10.66 0-1 4-4 0/0 12.2 23 17 15 
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Wieczorek,Gabriel   0.00 0-0 1-0 0/0 1.0 
Smidt,Joe   1.17 0-0 7-0 0/0 7.2 13 
Watson,John   2.25 0-0 5-0 0/0 8.0 
Clausen,Derek   3.18 0-0 3-0 0/0 5.2 
Dittman,Jacob   4.22 0-1 8-0 0/0 10.2 16 
Glienke,Weston   9.45 1-1 7-0 0/0 6.2 10 
Laughlin,Sean   9.95 0-0 6-0 0/0 6.1 15 14 
Totals   5.73 11-10 21-21 0/0 176.0 241 166 112 68 148 
Opponents   7.63 10-11 21-21 2/2 179.1 227 182 152 98 143 
PB - Team (6), Schramm,D. 3, McLeod,Kirk 2, Kirkpatrick 1, Opp (7). Pickoffs - Team (2), McLeod,Kirk 1, Riddell,A. 1, Opp (4). SBA/ATT - McLeod,Kirk (12-19), Schramm,D. (9-9), Robinson,M. (4-8), Sievers,C. (4-4), Gulzow,C. (3-4), Spencer,T. (1-3), Clausen,D. (3-3), Riddell,A. (3-3), Dittman,J. (1-2), Kirkpatrick (2-2), Ertmer,Trey (2-2), Smidt,Joe (1-1), Laughlin,S. (1-1).

Defense statistics

Player  po fld% dp sba csb sba% pb ci 
Schramm,Dallas  73 72 1.000 1.000 
Honeycutt,Kyle  41 39 1.000  --- 
Richardson,Jacob  34 33 1.000  --- 
Edmond,Easton  34 33 1.000  --- 
Pacheco,Anthony  13 13 1.000  --- 
Kirkpatrick,Tanner  12 12 1.000 1.000 
Sievers,Chris  1.000 1.000 
Riddell,Andrew  1.000 1.000 
Huscroft,Jake  1.000  --- 
Spencer,Tanner  1.000  .333 
Watson,John  1.000  --- 
Stock,Shane  1.000  --- 
Dittman,Jacob  1.000  .500 
Clausen,Derek  1.000 1.000 
Smidt,Joe  1.000 1.000 
McLeod,Kirk  80 65 14  .988 12  .632 
x-Messinger,Connor  150 141  .973 15  --- 
Salamon,Matt  104 42 59  .971 14  --- 
Sharkey,Shane  100 24 62 14  .860 11  --- 
Kirsch,Brent  60 13 38  .850  --- 
Katechis,Pate  26 19  .808  --- 
Estrada,Josh  20  .800  --- 
Laughlin,Sean   .800 1.000 
Robinson,Mitchell   .778  .500 
Gulzow,Chayse   .750  .750 
Ertmer,Trey   .667 1.000 
Stevenson,Phoenix   .000  --- 
Wieczorek,Gabriel   .000  --- 
Glienke,Weston   .000  --- 
Totals  800 528 227 45  .944 18 23  .742 
Opponents  819 538 239 42  .949 20  .600 

Runs scored by inning

Inning-by-inning EX Total 
Nebraska-Kearney  15 14 34 39 34 11 15 10 182 
Opponents 17 28 16 24 23 17 20 13 166 

2016 NWMSU statistics -

• Record: 13-9 • Home: 5-1 • Away: 6-8 • Neutral: 2-0 • MIAA: 8-4 •
Player  avg gp-gs ab 2b 3b hr rbi tb slg% bb hbp so gdp ob% sf sh sb-att po fld% 
Greenslade,Kolby   .346 22-22 78 18 27 33  .423 11  .378 8-12 27  .933 
Handzlik,Kevin   .306 17-15 49 15 18  .367 10  .404 3-3 10 19  .906 
Meyer,Derek   .295 17-13 44 13 16  .364 10  .392 0-0 88 12  .990 
Adams,Ozzie   .274 22-22 84 20 23 11 25  .298 11  .380 3-4 47 69  .975 
Fort, Garrett   .273 22-22 77 18 21 26  .338 16 15  .429 10-11 37  .974 
Lewis,Jake   .273 21-21 66 13 18 11 26  .394  .364 3-6 113 1.000 
Gotta,Nick   .270 22-22 74 10 20 23 32  .432 25  .447 5-8 29 71  .962 
Hrdlicka,Jay   .256 22-22 82 11 21 15 27  .329 14 14  .357 2-2 34  .974 
Appel,Dane   .250 5-0  .250  .500 0-0 1.000 
Barratt,Aaron   .239 17-12 46 12 11 16  .348  .288 3-3 20  .952 
Howard,Nick   .194 16-7 36  .222 12  .286 0-0 13  .952 
Wulff,Austin   .182 18-9 44 10  .227 12  .288 0-0 27 1.000 
Holler,James   .167 18-7 36  .194  .189 0-0 85 1.000 
Douglas,Zachary   .091 10-3 11  .091  .412 0-0 35  .953 
Wilkinson,Luke   .000 1-1  .000  .000 0-0 1.000 
Pablo,Nikko   .000 2-0  .000  .500 0-0  .909 
Totals   .262 22-22 734 125 192 36 106 246  .335 105 26 129 19  .369 11 12 37-49 568 244 22  .974 
Opponents   .250 22-22 703 106 176 23 12 89 241  .343 72 19 157 11  .334 15 31-37 577 272 43  .952 
LOB - Team (186), Opp (141). DPs turned - Team (15), Opp (22). IBB - Team (5), Gotta,Nick 3, Hrdlicka,Jay 1, Douglas,Zach 1. Picked off - Fort,Garrett 2, Lewis,Jake 2, Gotta,Nick 1, Hrdlicka,Jay 1.

Pitching statistics

Player  era w-l app-gs cg sho sv ip er bb so 2b 3b hr ab b/avg wp hbp bk sfa sha 
McElwain,Jimmy   0.00 0-0 1-0 0/0 1.0  .000 
Smith,Carson   1.32 3-1 11-0 0/1 13.2 11 10 50  .220 
Hietpas,Joseph   2.70 3-0 7-7 0/0 40.0 29 17 12 17 35 144  .201 
Caenepeel,Anthony   3.27 2-4 7-7 0/0 41.1 38 20 15 39 158  .241 
Pablo,Nikko   3.80 1-0 11-0 0/1 23.2 19 13 10 12 23 80  .238 
Shea,Bryce   4.76 2-0 11-0 0/0 17.0 11 10 10 18 60  .183 
Wagner,Jacob   4.91 0-0 5-0 0/0 3.2 12  .250 
Pearcy,Hondo   5.19 0-0 4-0 0/0 8.2 31  .194 
Roberts,Brad   5.87 1-2 7-7 0/1 30.2 44 21 20 12 17 11 124  .355 
Battaglia,Austin   9.72 1-2 6-1 0/0 8.1 11 11 34  .324 
Osborne,John  20.25 0-0 3-0 0/0 1.1  .571 
Totals   4.14 13-9 22-22 1/1 189.1 176 106 87 72 157 23 12 703  .250 12 19 15 
Opponents   4.07 9-13 22-22 2/2 192.1 192 125 87 105 129 36 734  .262 16 26 11 12 
PB - Team (4), Meyer,Derek 3, Hrdlicka,Jay 1, Opp (7). Pickoffs - Team (8), Pablo,Nikko 2, Roberts,Brad 2, Caenepeel,An 1, Hietpas,Jose 1, Battaglia,Au 1, Meyer,Derek 1, Opp (6). SBA/ATT - Meyer,Derek (17-19), Douglas,Zach (8-11), Hietpas,Jose (7-8), Roberts,Brad (4-6), Hrdlicka,Jay (5-6), Pablo,Nikko (6-6), Shea,Bryce (5-5), Smith,Carson (3-4), Caenepeel,An (2-3), Battaglia,Au (3-3), Lewis,Jake (1-1), Pearcy,Hondo (1-1), Wagner,Jacob (0-1).

Defense statistics

Player  po fld% dp sba csb sba% pb ci 
Lewis,Jake  119 113 1.000 10 1.000 
Holler,James  89 85 1.000  --- 
Wulff,Austin  28 27 1.000  --- 
Roberts,Brad  10 1.000  .667 
Smith,Carson  1.000  .750 
Battaglia,Austin  1.000 1.000 
Shea,Bryce  1.000 1.000 
Appel,Dane  1.000  --- 
Wilkinson,Luke  1.000  --- 
Pearcy,Hondo  1.000 1.000 
Meyer,Derek  101 88 12  .990 17  .895 
Adams,Ozzie  119 47 69  .975 11  --- 
Hrdlicka,Jay  39 34  .974  .833 
Fort, Garrett  39 37  .974  --- 
Gotta,Nick  104 29 71  .962 10  --- 
Douglas,Zachary  43 35  .953  .727 
Barratt,Aaron  21 20  .952  --- 
Howard,Nick  21 13  .952  --- 
Greenslade,Kolby  30 27  .933  --- 
Pablo,Nikko  11  .909 1.000 
Handzlik,Kevin  32 10 19  .906  --- 
Caenepeel,Anthony   .889  .667 
Hietpas,Joseph   .750  .875 
Wagner,Jacob   .000  .000 
McElwain,Jimmy   .000  --- 
Osborne,John   .000  --- 
Totals  834 568 244 22  .974 15 31  .838 
Opponents  892 577 272 43  .952 22 37 12  .755 

Video is available for a fee - The UNK Lopers athletics' website will have video available in this game for a $10.00 fee by accessing their website link by clicking here - http://www.lopers.com/index.aspx?path=baseball

Make sure to look for the calendar of events on the right-hand side of the webpage.

Audio is available for free - KGFW 1340AM broadcasts Loper baseball and apparently will carry the game. You can click on the Listen Live hyperlink in the link by clicking here - http://www.kgfw.com/

Live Stats - You can follow live stats by clicking on the Northwest Missouri State Bearcats Athletics website and looking for the event calendar hyperlink by clicking here - http://www.bearcatsports.com/index.aspx?path=baseball

Conclusion - Expect a great and compelling game between two outstanding baseball teams. Both squads are exceeding expectations, both play with pride and passion, and both are well coached. Whether you are making the trip to Kearney, Nebraska, or catching the game on the internet, let's root root root for our Bearcats to win the day.

B..E..A..R..

Go Cats!!
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