Ichabods Week 11 Game Notes

MIAA Centennial Baseball Championship
CommunityAmerica Ballpark
Kansas City, Kan.
May 10-13

Game Notes
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Leading Off
The Ichabods will begin their second straight trip to the conference tournament and 10th in school history as they play in the first round of the MIAA Centennial Baseball Championship Thursday at 11 a.m. against Emporia State. The six-team tournament will take place in CommunityAmerica Ballpark in Kansas City, Kan.

Washburn (26-22) is the No. 4 seed and will play No. 5 Emporia State (26-21) for a chance to advance to the four-team, double elimination portion of the bracket. The other game Thursday is No. 3 Missouri Southern against No. 6 Fort Hays State at 2:30 p.m.The losers will end their seasons and the winners will move on. The lowest remaining seed will play No. 1 Central Missouri Friday at 11 a.m. and the highest remaining seed will play No. 2 Missouri Western at 2:30 p.m. An elimination game will be played Friday night and then two more games will be played Saturday before Sunday's championship game starting at 11 a.m.

The Series Record Against ESU
Emporia State leads the all-time series against Washburn 140-63 in a series that goes back to 1949.

Emporia State had gone 16-0 since 2003 in Emporia in the series before Washburn won twice there on Friday. Washburn's last win previously there was in 2002 and the last sweep was in 2000.

The Ichabods are 1-2 against ESU in the MIAA tournament. They last met in the first round in 2006 in an 8-7 Hornet win. Washburn's win came in an elimination game in 2001.

Head Coach Steve Anson gets his 800th win at Washburn
Washburn head coach Steve Anson reached a career milestone with his 800th win as the Ichabods coach on April 14 against Lincoln in a 2-1, extra inning victory. He coached his 1500th game at Washburn in the season finale last year and now in 2012, his 33rd season at Washburn, he reached the milestone. Anson, the winningest coach in the MIAA, is 806-739-3 (.517) in 33 seasons at Washburn and 829-761-3 (.521) in 34 seasons overall as a head coach.

Anson entered 2012 with the 10th highest win total among active NCAA Division II coaches with 803. That's the highest among MIAA coaches. Among coaches all-time, he's 27th in career wins.

Washburn gets highest MIAA finish since 2006
The Ichabods entered the final weekend of the regular season tied for fifth with Missouri Southern. The Lions won all four of their games to jump Emporia State and Fort Hays State and finish third. Washburn won three of four over the Hornets to jump them and FHSU and finish fourth.

The Ichabods last finished as high as fourth in 2006. They finished third in 2001. Since joining the MIAA in 1990, Washburn has finished as high as first in the North Division when the conference was divided into two divisions. A second-place finish in 2000 was the highest since dropping the divisional formation in 1997.

Ichabods making 10th MIAA postseason trip
Washburn's second straight trip to the MIAA Centennial Baseball Championship will mark the Ichabods' 10th trip to the MIAA postseason tournament.

Washburn won the MIAA North Division in 1991 to make its first trip and won two games in the tournament. The Ichabods are 12-17 all-time in the tournament and 5-4 in opening games.

Washburn won the first two games in the 2000 tournament including a second round game against Central Missouri. They beat the Mules but UCM came back around and beat Washburn twice in the finals. Washburn has never won an MIAA tournament championship.

Last Time Out For Washburn
TOPEKA, Kan. -- The Ichabods kept their offense going Saturday in the opener as they won their third straight against Emporia State and then the Hornets salvaged a win in the series finale as the two split at Falley Field on Senior Day. Washburn took the first game 7-2 and then Emporia State won the last game 10-3.

Senior Tyler Bean made his final home start and retired the Hornets in order in the first inning of game one. He then got a huge advantage as the Ichabods plated five runs on five hits in the bottom of the first. Connor Crimmins led off with a single and moved into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt from Boone Plager. Consecutive singles from Marcus Peavler and Brad Alberts scored him. Eric Graff then drove Peavler in on a groundout and Blake Hageman drove in Alberts with a single. Richard Swan's single later drove in Hageman and Matthews to make it 5-0 Washburn.

Bean allowed a Hornet run in the third and then an unearned run in the seventh but was in control most of the day. He gave up just four hits and struck out six with no walks as he improved to 4-3 on the year.

Washburn added a run in the second on an RBI hit from Alberts, his seventh consecutive hit after going 5 for 5 in game two Friday. The Ichabods got one more in the fourth on an RBI single from Peavler that scored Ben Reynoldson.
Washburn collected 10 hits with Alberts going 2 for 3 with two RBI. Swan also had two RBI.

The Ichabods bat did not come around so quickly in the second game. They were down 6-0 in the fifth before they finally scored and Emporia State added four in the final four innings to put the game out of reach.

Trevor LaFarge went 3 for 4 at the plate and scored a run while Crimmins failed to reach base safely but had two RBI groundouts.

The Hornets scored their first six runs off Washburn starter Trent Speaker. He took the loss and fell to 2-4.

The three games the Ichabods won were the most they collected against ESU since a four-game sweep in 2000.

Seven straight hits for Alberts
Brad Alberts set a season high with five hits Friday in game two at Emporia State and then he had hits in his first two at-bats Saturday in Topeka to give him hits in seven straight at-bats. He was batting .368 before the series began and went 8 for 15 in the series to push his season average to .382 as he enters the conference tournament.

Ash throwing strong in junior year as Ichabods top starter
Junior pitcher Brett Ash has been Washburn's starter in game one of every four-game series this year but one. He's 6-4 overall with two shutouts and nine complete games in 10 starts. His complete game total is tied for second in the nation. He has a 3.17 ERA and has allowed 25 earned runs off 73 hits in 71 innings. He's struck out 60 while walking just 15.

Ash had gone 4-1 in four straight starts with a 1.50 ERA before facing Central Missouri on April 21. He had struck out 33 and walked just three in those five starts. He was named the MIAA pitcher of the week after he threw a shutout March 16 at Truman. He gave up six hits with eight strikeouts in the nine-inning game.

Ash bounced back after the UCM loss by winning game one at Northwest Missouri State on April 28. He threw all seven innings in Washburn's 6-5 win and gave up two earned runs off nine hits.

Calhoun stays near .400, in contention for MIAA batting title
Senior John Calhoun will enter the MIAA tournament batting .401, third best in the MIAA. Central Missouri's Ben Cox leads the conference with a .411 average. Calhoun is in the top eight in every hitting category in the league accept triples. He's second with a .674 slugging percentage, fourth with a .478 on-base percentage and seventh with 44 runs scored. He's third with 69 hits and eighth with 41 runs batted in. He's tied for the league lead in doubles with 18 and he's sixth with 9 home runs.

Calhoun leads Washburn with 23 multi-hit games and he's third on the team with nine multi-RBI games. He also had a team-high 12-game hitting streak that started the second game of the year and saw his average climb as high as .533 and end at .490.

Journeyman Calhoun makes Washburn last stop on 4-team college career
Kansas City, Mo., native John Calhoun graduated from Rockhurst High School in 2008 and went on the play a year at Central Missouri in 2009. He then went to Johnson County CC and then on to Cleveland State last year as a junior. Cleveland State dropped its baseball program and he transferred to Washburn this year to play his senior year.

Calhoun batted .219 with 16 hits in 73 at-bats as a freshman at UCM. He had 12 RBI and a home run. He hit .368 with seven homers at JCCC and then hit .254 at Cleveland State and finished third in the Horizon League with 20 stolen bases.

Ichabods showing power at the plate
Washburn has 34 home runs through 48 games this year. Last year the Ichabods hit 24 homers in 50 games. Washburn has a .453 slugging percentage this year after slugging .375 last year.

John Calhoun leads Washburn with nine home runs. He's slugging .674 on the year. Tyler Bean and Brad Alberts are second with seven home runs and Alberts is second with a .612 slugging percentage.

Calhoun and Ichabods running wild on the base path
When John Calhoun isn't driving himself in with home runs, he's getting on base and then putting himself into scoring position with stolen bases. He has 21 steals this year and has been caught stealing five times. He has three games this year with two steals. He's second in the MIAA in steals and steal attempts. He already has the most steals as an Ichabod since Kyle Peter stole 27 in 2007.

As a team, Washburn is 64 of 80 stealing bases. The Ichabods stole safely in 24 of their last 27 attempts during the month of April. Blaine Matthews is second on the team stealing 9 of 10 bases.

Washburn catcher Richard Swan has thrown out 17 would-be base stealers in 46 stolen base attempts and the Washburn catchers are allowing opponents just 68 percent success on the base paths while Washburn is 80 percent on the bags.

Season Flashbacks: Don't Forget...
Done in a jiffy: The Ichabods set a school record since single-game statistics were first archived in 1999 by playing a 57-minute game April 6 against Missouri Southern. WU starter Brett Ash threw 58 pitches and gave up three hits and no walks in the 3-0 win. MSSU starter Cody Griebling threw 58 pitches in the loss. Both threw complete games. There were three double plays and only three runners left on base between the two teams.
Ichabods get first four-game sweep since 2009: The Ichabods took all four games March 24-25 against Southwest Baptist for their first four-game sweep since 2009. The Ichabods also went on a six-game winning streak and it was their biggest streak since winning seven straight in 2006. Washburn's last four-game sweep was March 20 and 21 at home against Northwest Missouri.
Schachenmeyer earns MIAA pitcher of the week honor: Washburn senior pitcher Kerry Schachenmeyer was named the MIAA pitcher of the week after throwing a shutout March 24 against SBU. Schachenmeyer shared the pitching award with Fort Hays State's Shawn Lewick. Schachenmeyer pitched a com­plete-game shutout as Washburn won 11-0 against Southwest Baptist as part of a four-game sweep. He allowed just three hits and struck out four. In the fourth inning, he allowed a single and then walked two to load the bases. He got the next batter to fly out to end the inning and leave all three on base. He allowed just one batter the final three innings with a hit-by-pitch.
Shutout leads Ash to MIAA pitcher of the week honor: Junior pitcher Brett Ash threw a complete game shutout March 16 in Washburn's series opener at Truman to earn him MIAA pitcher of the week honor. Ash went nine innings against the Bulldogs and allowed six hits and a walk while striking out eight. He pitched out of a two-hit inning in the second and then in the fourth he allowed the bases to get loaded and got out of the inning with a strikeout. He pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to earn the complete game and shutout.
Ichabods update record books with offensive explosion: The Ichabods scored 17 runs and had 21 hits March 12 in the third game of their series at Pittsburg State. Since single-game records were kept in 1999, that's the sixth-highest hit total and the second-highest in an MIAA game. The Ichabods had 24 hits at Southwest Baptist on April 14, 2000. The six home runs Washburn hit was tied for the highest in school history. Washburn also hit six homers at SBU on April 14, 2006. John Calhoun had six hits, tied for the second most in school history. He and Richard Swan became the first pair of Ichabods to each hit two homers in the same game since single-game records were kept in 1999.

Up Next For The Ichabods
The Ichabods will need to win the MIAA tournament to secure the league's automatic bid to the NCAA South Central Region tournament, which will take place May 17-21 at the site of the highest seed. Washburn has never advanced to the NCAA tournament.