Complete Game Notes
Leading Off...
The UNK doubleheader moved from Tuesday to Wednesday and will be played at Kansas State.
WU has had 8 games canceled due to snow including 5 MIAA games that can't be made up.
Taylor Gentry was named the MIAA pitcher of the week this week after going 5.2 scoreless innings against No. 3 Central Missouri. He gave up 2 hits as Washburn overcame a 6-2 deficit to win.
Connor Crimmins is tied for the MIAA lead with nine stolen bases. He's been thrown out once.
Washburn leads the MIAA with 11 triples but is 14th with six home runs.
Taylor Herrington leads the league with 5 triples.
Head coach Steve Anson just coached his 1,600th career game on February 19 at Fort Hays State. He's gone 835-777-3 in 35 seasons with 34 at Washburn and one at Wayne State (Neb.).
WU and UNK have met just 10 times, the last in 2004. UNK leads the series 7-3. Washburn has not won since 1965.
WU and Northeastern State have met just six times with the series tied at 3-3. They last played in 2003 in a WU win. NSU last won in 1990.
Riley Price leads the Ichabods batting .436 (24 of 55) with 15 RBI this year.
Taylor Herrington is batting .350 with nine RBI.
Washburn's five wins have been spread between five pitchers.
Drew Ridley leads the starters with a 4.43 ERA and he's struck out 13 in 22 1/3 innings.
Mark Biesma leads with 19 K in 22 1/3 innings.
Ichabods host UNK in Manhattan to avoid snow then welcome NSU to Falley Field this weekend
The Ichabods moved their doubleheader with Nebraska-Kearney west to Manhattan and will now host the Lopers Wednesday at 2 p.m. at Tointon Family Stadium on the Kansas State campus.
Washburn (5-14, 5-13 MIAA) will then host Northeastern State Friday with a 2 p.m. doubleheader and Saturday with a 1 p.m. single game at Falley Field.
The Ichabods dropped two of three in a series against third-ranked Central Missouri last weekend. The games were played in the St. Louis area to avoid the same weather system that brought the snow that moved this week's games. Washburn won the opener, 8-6 in extra innings then dropped the next two games, 5-4 and 11-1.
Nebraska-Kearney is 12-11 overall and 12-9 in the MIAA while Northeastern State is 12-11 overall and 12-11 in the MIAA. The Lopers won one of three at Lindenwood over the weekend. The RiverHawks had non-conference games with Southeastern Oklahoma State canceled over the weekend. They will play a doubleheader Wednesday at Missouri Southern before heading to Topeka on Friday.
Keeping up with the changes
The Ichabods have had eight games canceled this year due to snow and at one point went 15 days without being able to play. One game from the Rockhurst series was rescheduled and the other two games in that original series may be made up if an open date can be found. The MIAA games against Lincoln and Nebraska-Kearney cannot be made up due to MIAA rules.
Of the 15 dates on the schedule so far this year, only one of them has had its games played on the originally-scheduled day and time.
Gentry's relief outing at No. 3 Central Missouri leads to MIAA pitcher of the week honor
Junior pitcher
Taylor Gentry was named the MIAA pitcher of the week Tuesday after pitching over five innings of scoreless relief Friday as Washburn came back from a 6-2 deficit to beat the third-ranked Mules.
Gentry gave up just two hits and a walk and struck out four as he entered with one out in the third and runners on first and third. He gave up an infield single to allow one of his inherited runners to score but retired the side with the bases loaded. After that, he pitched three straight hitless innings.
He gave up a hit in the seventh but got out of the inning to send the game to extra innings. Washburn scored twice in the eighth and Gentry pitched a hitless bottom of the eighth to get the win.
This is Washburn's first MIAA athlete of the week award for baseball this year.
Head Coach Steve Anson beginning his 34th season at Washburn
Washburn head coach Steve Anson reached a career milestone with his 800th win as the Ichabods coach last year and he's in his 34th season at Washburn with an 812-755-3 (.518) record.
Anson, the winningest coach in the MIAA, is 835-777-3 (.518) in 35 seasons overall as a head coach after coaching the 1979 season at Wayne State (Neb.) and then starting at Washburn in 1980.
He was born in Mishawaka, Indiana, and is a 1976 graduate of Kansas State where he still holds the Wildcats' career record with 19 triples.
Alberts named to NCBWA preseason all-region team
Senior first baseman
Brad Alberts was named to the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association preseason all-Central Region second team announced in the preseason.
Alberts earned second team all-MIAA last year as he finished second on the team hitting .377 and was third with eight home runs. He finished with 41 RBI, 16 doubles and 37 hits, all second best on the team. He will be Washburn's leading returner in all of those categories.
Alberts is currently batting .284 with 12 RBI and 12 runs scored.
Last time out
ST. LOUIS, Mo. -- The Ichabods fell 11-1 in a run-rule shortened game Saturday at St. Mary's High School to close their three-game series with No. 3 Central Missouri. The Mules took the series 2-1.
The Ichabods were down 3-0 when they scored their first run in the fifth.
Dakota Kell led of the inning with a single and then later scored on a wild pitch. The Mules then added five runs in the bottom of the fifth to jump way ahead and then invoked the run rule with two runs in the seventh.
The Ichabods had just four hits, all singles, with
Taylor Herrington getting two of them. Kell and
Riley Price had the others. The Mules got 14 hits with the first seven coming off starting pitcher
Mark Biesma. He gave up seven runs to earn the loss and fall to 1-2 on the year.
Ichabods return three all-MIAA selections from last year
Senior pitcher
Brett Ash and senior first baseman
Brad Alberts earned all-MIAA second team honors last year and sophomore catcher
Richard Swan earned honorable mention.
Ash went 7-4 last year with a 2.81 ERA. He tied for the NCAA Division II lead with 10 complete games. Alberts was second on the team batting .377. Swan batted .243 and he threw out 18 would-be base stealers.
Washburn lost all-MIAA first-teamer and All-American
John Calhoun, who batted .398 with 43 RBI. The Ichabods also lose second-teamer
Tyler Bean and honorable mention players
Kerry Schachenmeyer and
Marcus Peavler.
MIAA coaches pick Ichabods seventh in preseason poll
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Ichabods were picked seventh in the MIAA preseason baseball coaches poll released January 23.
Washburn went 27-24 overall last year and finished fourth in the MIAA at 22-18. The Ichabods advanced to their second straight MIAA tournament as the No. 4 seed and won a first round game before falling twice on the second day.
The Ichabods totaled 118 points in the voting, 10 points above No. 8 Lindenwood, one of four MIAA newcomers. Missouri Southern was sixth with 135 points. Three-time defending champion Central Missouri was the unanimous choice at No. 1, followed by Missouri Western at No. 2, Emporia State at No. 3, Central Oklahoma at No. 4 and Fort Hays State at No. 5.
With the addition of four new schools (LWU, UCO, No. 9 Northeastern State and No. 10 Nebraska-Kearney) pushing MIAA baseball to a 15-team sport, the conference tournament will expand to an eight-team event. The top four teams will host Nos. 5 through 8 in an on-campus, best of three round and then the tournament will shift to a neutral site for the final four teams.
Coming Up Next
The Ichabods will open the month of April with a doubleheader next Wednesday at Northwest Missouri State. They will then play a three-game series at Missouri Southern next Saturday and Sunday.
