Aces baseball continues on the road to pair of midweek matchups

EVANSVILLE, Ind. — After a successful weekend in Arkansas the University of Evansville baseball team will play two midweek games back-to-back.
 

The Purple Aces picked up their first series win of the season over the weekend. UE evened the program series with the Central Arkansas Bears 3-3 after taking the Saturday and Sunday games. The two wins were also Evansville’s first back-to-back victories of 2025. The Aces will look to continue their win streak with two midweek stops, first at Southeast Missouri for the program’s third meeting in two years on Tuesday and at SIUE on Wednesday.

Last season UE played a home-and-home with the Redhawks and took both games by a single run. In the game hosted by Evansville the Aces won in extra innings finding the winning run when outfielder Harrison Taubert laced a one-out RBI single down the left-field line in the bottom of the 10th. The second game of the year at Capaha Field saw UE rally in the ninth inning to take the one run victory with two home runs. Evansville initially led the game on the road but had to battle back after a four run inning by SEMO in the eighth. The Redhawks currently lead the series with the Aces, but UE is catching up taking the last three of four games. 

Evansville’s second midweek will take place at Roy E. Lee Field with the SIUE Cougars. The Aces have a strong advantage in the series with the Cougars having 18 victories since the series began in 1976. But last season UE struggled with SIUE’s explosive offense dropping the team’s lone midweek match up 14-6 at German American Bank Field at Charles H. Braun Stadium. Evansville will look to get another series victory in Edwardsville as the Cougars come into Wednesday’s game with a 4-10 record. SIUE’s four wins on the season are against Eastern Kentucky, Kent State, and two at Omaha this past weekend. 

UE’s offense began to heat up over the past week, putting together three straight games with 10+ hits. Evansville was close to having four such games, but did come a hit shy at Missouri on Sunday March, 2. Over the weekend the Aces had a total of 42 hits compared to 26 hits in the three games prior. Evansville’s offense resurgence over the weekend was led by right fielder Harrison Taubert and first baseman Kevin McCormick. Taubert led the team in Conway with a .500 batting average as he went 7-for-14 with three extra base hits and five RBIs. McCormick was shortly behind Taubert despite a slightly better batting average of .600 as he went 6-for-10 with one extra base hit. 

The Aces currently lead the Missouri Valley Conference in two categories, including a more uncommon one in hit-by-pitches. As a team UE has taken 28 bases thanks to being plunked by pitchers. Currently center fielder Ty Rumsey leads the team with 7 HBP, but is still a ways off from Mark Shallenberger’s program high 28 HBP last season. The other category UE leads the Valley in comes on the mound as they are the only team with multiple shutouts on the year. Evansville picked up its second shutout of the year on Sunday afternoon, keeping UCA scoreless in a dominant 8-0 victory. Starting pitcher Kevin Reed earned his 3rd win of the year going 7 innings allowing only 3 hits, striking out six batters, and not allowing a single walk.