LEADING OFF — Washburn resumes its season series with Emporia State on Tuesday when it goes to the Hornets' nest ... first pitch from Glennen Field is slated for 5 p.m.
ESU SCOUTING REPORT — The Hornets enter the week riding a five-game win streak while standing at 31-8 overall and sitting atop the MIAA standings at 20-5 ... Emporia State is second in the conference in batting (.321) and paces the league in runs (347) and hits (448) ... ESU has six batters with 90-plus at-bats this season hitting .327 or better ... the team is led by the .375 average (54-144) of Mason Brown ... defensively, the Hornets are fielding at .974 clip while only being charged with 39 errors, the fewest in the MIAA ... the ESU pitching staff owns the third lowest ERA (4.23) with a conference-best seven shutouts ... the mound crew has also conceded the fewest base-on-balls in the MIAA (97).
SERIES HISTORY — Tuesday's showdown will be game number 229 in the series history ... the first game between the schools occurred during the 1949 season and is third-oldest series with Emporia in Washburn history behind Football (1899) and Men's Basketball (1906) ... ESU leads the all-times series at 155-73 ... Emporia won the series opener, 9-2, on Apr. 11 in Topeka ... the series finale is scheduled on Apr. 26 at Falley Field.
RECAP REWIND — Washburn dropped its weekend series with Lindenwood ... the Ichabods were shutout (8-0) in the opener before succumbing to the Lions in game two (5-2) and game three (8-2).
'BODS & ENDS —  Darian Abram has reached base in 18 straight games ... the longest individual hit streak of the season by an Ichabod was 10 games (Feb. 2-18 ) by Riley Krane ... during that stretch Krane had four multiple hit games and 20 RBI.
FALLEY FIELD — The official home of Ichabod baseball since opening in 1990 ... Falley Field features a FieldTurf surface for the infield and grass for the outfield with dimensions of 330 feet to the left and right field and a distance of 400 feet to center ... in the previous 26 seasons, Washburn has put together an overall record of 363-251 including a 21-10 mark during the 2000 season ... with a listed capacity of 800, Falley Field has welcomed 20,771 cheering fans over the course of the last three seasons.
'BODS ROADSHOW — The Ichabods opened their season with an 11-game road swing ... during that stretch WU went 8-3 overall with a 4-1 mark in neutral site venues ... the Ichabods close 2017 with 11 of 12 games on the road ... this season WU is 10-9 when listed as the visiting team on the scoreboard ... currently WU has bussed approximately 4,434 miles round trip or the nearly same flight distance from Topeka to Lisbon, Portugal (4,459).
MILESTONES AHEAD — Head coach Harley Douglas is 17 wins shy of No. 100 ... with eight saves on the season Marcus McKinney is now two shy of the WU all-time record (10) held by Don Huss ... Krane surpassed the 200-hit mark on Wednesday becoming just the eighth Ichabod in program-history to accomplish the feat ... Krane is five RBI short of moving into the top five RBI leaders in WU history.
BIG LEAGUE 'BODS — Washburn baseball has been home to many talented alumni with some being able to take their talents to the Majors ... to date, their have been six former Ichabods who have played a regular-season or playoff game for an MLB club including George Darrow, Rick DeHart, Jerad Head, Davey Lopes, Jerry Robertson and Steve Simpson and has had eight players chosen in the MLB Amateur Draft.
PRESEASON Rankings — Behind one first-place vote, the Ichabods opened the season ranked fifth in the MIAA Preseason Coaches' Poll ... WU placed eighth in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers' Association (NCBWA) Division II Central Region ranking ... Collegiate Baseball News was the only national poll to recognize the Ichabods, listing them in the receiving votes category.
PRO 'BODS UPDATE — Former Washburn hurler Brett Ash (2010-12, 14) continues his baseball career as a member of the Seattle Mariners organization ... Ash, who's second in program-history in strikeouts (199), began the 2017 season with the Mariners' Double-A affiliate, Arkansas Travelers ... on Sunday, Apr. 9, Ash earned his first win of the season tossing five scoreless innings while scattering four hits to help the Travelers capture an 8-2 victory ... last season Ash was 12-8 with the Jackson Generals who were the Mariners' Double-A affiliate and won 2016 Southern League championship.
70TH ANNIVERSARY -- The 2017 campaign marks the 70th anniversary of the first season of Ichabod baseball ... the program however took a six-year hiatus from 1951-56 due to world events ... the program returned in 1957 under the leadership of Washburn's first baseball coach, Marion McDonald.
UPDATES & MORE — Fans can fellow every pitch of the 2017 season via live stats available by visiting wusports.com/live ... for in-game updates, news and more be sure to also follow Washburn athletics on Twitter and Facebook.
