Leading off
•     The Washburn Ichabods will open MIAA play on Thursday and Friday against Southwest Baptist in Wichita, Kan., in four-game series to be played at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium. 
•    The games were moved from Topeka because of snow covering Falley Field.
•    Washburn opened the season with three wins with two coming over Bemidji State and the third over Minnesota-Crookston. 
•    The Ichabods outscored their opponents 45-7 in the three games.
•    Washburn is batting .431 as a team and has a 2.16 earned run average after the first weekend of play.
•    The Ichabods were scheduled to play Minnesota-Crookston on Monday, Feb. 23, but that game has been moved as well. The Ichabods are scheduled to play the Golden Eagles on Saturday, Feb. 21 in a single nine inning game starting at 1 p.m. in Wichita.
•    The Ichabods defeated Minnesota-Crookston 20-2 on Feb. 14 in Topeka as the teams played a single nine inning game.
•    The 3-0 start for the Ichabods was the first 3-0 start since the 1992 season when the Ichabods opened with two wins over Bethany and a single win over Benedictine.

In the dugout
•     Washburn is led by first-year head coach Harley Douglas. He served as an assistant to former coach Steve Anson for three years and he's a 2002 Washburn graduate. He played at WU from 1997-00.
•    He is 3-0 in his first season in the Washburn dugout.
•    Douglas played for the Ichabods from 1997-2000. 
•    He was an all-MIAA second team selection as an outfielder his senior year at Washburn. 
•    He finished with a .363 career batting average, the 13th highest in school history. 
•    He's second in school history with 11 triples and eighth with 136 runs scored … third with 75 career stolen bases. 
•    Douglas graduated in 2002 from Washburn with an exercise physiology degree and in 2004 with an education degree. He earned a master's degree in adaptive special education from Emporia State in 2010.

Noting the Bearcats
•    Southwest Baptist is 3-1 and has won its last three games after sweeping Winona State in a doubleheader on Feb. 14.
•    Christian Binger leads the team with a .455 batting average collecting five hits and scoring five runs adding a .818 slugging percentage.
•    The Bearcats are batting .350 this season in four games and have a 2.81 earned run average as opponents are hitting .235 against SBU.
Series with the Bearcats
•    The Ichabods lead the all-time series with Southwest Baptist 43-22 and have won the last two meetings and taken 12 of the last 16 meetings dating back to the 2010 season.

Last time out
TOPEKA, Kan. – The Ichabods produced their second 10-run inning and their second 20-run game in a 20-2 win Saturday afternoon against Minnesota, Crookston at Falley Field.
Washburn finished its opening weekend at 3-0 and will begin MIAA play hosting four-game series next weekend against Southwest Baptist. The two teams will play a single game Friday at 2 p.m. to open the series.
Eleven different hitters produced Washburn's 18 hits and nine players had RBIs. Washburn's first four hits in the sixth inning gave the team the cycle for the inning and led to 10 runs. Parker Gibson led off with a double then Riley Krane walked. Kyle Carnahan singled  to drive in Gibson and then Gauntt hit his second three-run home run of the year. Tanner Triggs later tripled down the right field line to complete the cycle. Gauntt later had his fourth RBI of the inning with a double to left.
Tanner Johnson went 3 for 4 in the game with three RBI and a run scored. Carnahan went 2 for 4, drove in two and scored four times. Gibson also had two hits and four runs scored.
The Ichabods started to pull away with five runs in the fifth off just one hit. They reached on two walks, two hit batters and a wild pitch on a strikeout. Their only hit was a pop up to the infield that no Golden Eagle player made a play on. It turned into a double from Tanner Johnson that drove in two runs.
Eric Schmid pitched into the fourth inning and gave up a run off a hit and a walk while striking out four. Hank Wellborn completed the fourth and fifth innings and gave up two hits and no runs to earn the win. Tanner Kilmer and Connor Brady each pitched 2/3 of an inning of scoreless relief.

League coaches pick Ichabods ninth in preseason poll
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Head coach Harley Douglas' first Ichabod squad will start the season ranked ninth in the MIAA preseason poll released Friday.
The MIAA coaches gave the Bods 75 points, 12 shy of No. 8-ranked Northeastern State. Emporia State earned the top spot in the poll with 164 points and 10 first-place votes. Central Missouri was second and Central Oklahoma was third. Those two schools each earned two first-place votes.
The Ichabods finished 26-24 last year and seventh in the MIAA at 22-18. They played Emporia State in the MIAA tournament first round and lost that series in three games. The Hornets finished second in the league and went on to win the postseason tournament. Central Missouri won the MIAA regular season championship.
Plenty of talent returns to the lineup for first-year head coach Harley Douglas
While Washburn returns starters from last year to all nine positions on the field, only a few starting lineup spots for this year were locked up when preseason practice started this spring.
Three juniors who won all-MIAA honors throughout their careers return to their starting spots in the lineup. Catcher David Gauntt was named first team all-MIAA catcher last year after finishing 10th in the league with eight home runs. He led the Bods with a .569 slugging percentage. 
Up the line a bit from him will be Kyle Carnahan, returning for his third year as starting third baseman. He hit .395 last year and was honorable mention all-MIAA. He reached safely in all but two games last year. Parker Gibson is the third junior who will keep his starting spot. He hit .269 last year and led the team with 22 stolen bases. He was honorable mention all-MIAA his freshman year.
Senior Connor Crimmins will start in left field once again while Wes Jones and Payton Soicher battle for the other spot. Jones was all-MIAA honorable mention after hitting .343 last year.
Dylan Turpin and Tanner Johnson return looking for time at first base. Returners Corey Gragg and Riley Krane will look for time at second base and the shortstop spot will either be filled by Cole Gardner or transfer  Zane Mapes. A number of other transfers and returning redshirts will all battle for time in the infield.
Senior Eric Schmid and sophomore Maustin Otterstatter earned spots in the starting rotation. Otterstatter led the staff last year with a 3.00 ERA. Others will battle to fill the remaining two rotation spots in four-game MIAA series and the mid-week games Washburn will play. Among them are returners Connor Brady and Hank Wellborn.
Among the bullpen pitchers, Greg Mason led the staff last year with 18 appearances and Sam Jones picked up two wins.

On Deck
After the series with Southwest Baptist, the Ichabods will face Minnesota-Crookston in a single nine inning game on Feb. 23 at Falley Field starting at noon. The Ichabods will conclude the opening homestand on February 24 against Rockhurst. Washburn will then have a four-game series at Fort Hays State on Feb. 29-March 1 in Hays.