LEADING OFF — Washburn will play its last full three-game set at Falley Field this weekend against Southwest Baptist ... the series opener is slated for Friday at 5 p.m. before a 2 p.m. start on Saturday ... Sunday will be Senior Day for the Ichabods with a brief ceremony prior to game with first pitch slated for 1 p.m.
SBU SCOUTING REPORT — Southwest Baptist entered the week carrying an overall record of 21-9 while standing fourth in the MIAA standings at 11-7 ... the Bearcats have won seven of their last seven contests ... collectively SBU is batting .340 with nine batters hitting .300 or better ... Hunter Hisky leads or shares the team lead in average (.415), hits (49), doubles (15), triples (4), RBI (42) and slugging percentage (.737) while starting every game (31) ... defensively SBU has been charged with 44 errors for a .960 fielding percentage ... Brian Womack's six wins in eight starts is a team-best ... Chance Wolfe follows with five victories in spite of working just 14 innings this season (13 appearances, zero starts) ... Drew Wagner is the staff leader in strikeouts (34) ... Bearcat hurlers have a collective 6.33 ERA with an opponent batting average of .318.
SERIES HISTORY — The weekend set will feature game numbers 73, 74, and 75 of the series' history which dates back to 1984 ... WU is 39-15 against Southwest Baptist since 2000 ... the Ichabods lead the all-time series 49-23 including a 26-8 record when hosting the Bearcats at Falley Field.
RECAP REWIND — The Ichabods fell in their last outing dropping a 9-8 decision to Fort Hays on Wednesday in the series finale.
'BODS & ENDS — Bowe Behymer has reached base in 14 consecutive games ... Behymer also has a seven-game hitting streak ... Darian Abram has reached base in 13 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.
Raking bods — During the University's Spring Break period (Mar. 17-28) six different Ichabods have gone deep nine times raising Washburn's home run total to 17 ... prior to the stretch, WU had only homered eight times in 20 games ... Krane leads the MIAA in home runs (11) thanks to a two-run blast against UNK (Apr. 2) ... Bowe Behymer also had a two-run shot on Apr. 2 to register his first home run of the season ... Darian Abram hit a three-run blast on Mar. 21 against Fort Hays for his first homer as an Ichabod ... freshman Dylan Lonteen recorded his first collegiate home run (a three-run blast) on Mar. 21 ... on March 24, Josh Crosby got his first homer as a 'Bod.
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 ... this season WU is 10-6 when listed as the visiting team on the scoreboard ... currently WU has bussed approximately 3,854 miles round trip or the nearly same distance from Topeka to Panama City, Panama (3,682 mi).
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 six 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 professional baseball career as member of the Seattle Mariners organization ... Ash, who's second in program-history in strikeouts (199), will begin the 2017 season with the Mariners' Double-A affiliate, Arkansas Travelers ... Ash was 12-8 last season 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 (@wusports) and Facebook.
