LEADING OFF — Washburn baseball wraps up the 2017 campaign with a three-game set in Warrensburg, Missouri where it faces defending regular-season and tournament champion, Central Missouri ... the series opens Friday at 6 p.m. before continuing on Saturday at 5 p.m. ... the finale will be played Sunday at 1 p.m.
SCOUTING REPORT: UCM — Despite carrying a three-game losing, the Mules open the series at 30-15 overall record and sit in fourth in the MIAA standing at 21-12 ... Central Missouri is among the top five in the conference in offensive categories includng, slugging percentage (1st/.515), stolen bases (1st/98), runs (4th/351), home runs (4th/43) and hits (5th/486) ... the Mules are third in average (.320) with eight players batting .312 or better with at least 90 at-bats ... Justin Graff-Rowe leads the league with a .432 average while being among team leaders in all major offensive categories ... UCM is fielding at .968 clip and has been charged with 55 errors this season ... the Mule pitchers own the conference's lowest team ERA (4.07) while putting up a 1.99:1 strikeout to walk ratio ... UCM's mound crew also boasts the MIAA's second-best opponent batting average at .251 ... the staff is led by Steven D'Amico who's 6-1 in 12 appearance (10 starts) and has a 2.20 ERA with team-highs in strikeouts (57) and innings pitched (65.1).
SERIES HISTORY — The Mules own a commanding 81-23 lead in the all-time series which dates back to the 1983 season ... Washburn was 1-4 against UCM last season with its lone victory coming during the MIAA Tournament.
'BODS & ENDS — Darian Abram's team-best 18-game reached base streak came to end during the series opener at Lindenwood ... Bowe Behymer has reached base in the last seven 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 ... Behymer and Krane are the only Ichabods to start every game this season.
MVP — Riley Krane was named the team's MVP for this season ... Krane leads the Ichabods this season in every major offensive category including average (.322), runs (44), hits (62), home runs (13), runs batted-in (50), slugging percentage (.626) ... the senior shortstop is also ranked among the Top 75 nationally in triples (10th), home runs (13th) and RBI (51st).
just for the record (book) — Marcus McKinney became Washburn's single-season save leader after recording his eighth on Apr. 2 in a 5-3 victory over Pittsburg State ... McKinney is now two shy the all-time record (10) ... on Apr. 7, Riley Krane became just the eighth player in program-history to record 200 career hits as he went 3-for-4 against Southwest Baptist ... Krane currently sits sixth overall with 218 hits while being two RBI short of a top five position in WU history ... head coach Harley Douglas is 13 wins shy of No. 100.
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 ... currently WU has bussed approximately 5,325 miles round trip or nearly same flight distance from Topeka to Moscow, Russia (5,332).
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.
PRO 'BODS UPDATE — Former Washburn hurler Brett Ash (2010-12, 14) continues his baseball career as a member of the Seattle Mariners organization ... Ash began the 2017 season with the Mariners' Double-A affiliate, Arkansas Travelers ... on Apr. 21 he was assigned to Triple-A affiliate Tacoma Rainiers where he picked up a win in his debut ... on Apr. 9, Ash was credited with his first win of the season during his season debut with the Travelers ... 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 (@wusports) and Facebook.
