MACOMB, Ill. – Western Illinois will honor baseball alumni this weekend as the Leathernecks conclude a homestand playing host to Fort Wayne. The three-game set begins Friday afternoon... The Leathernecks wrap up a stretch playing 14-of-18 at home... After this weekend, Western will have just five home games remaining of the 19 left in the regular season.
ALUMNI REUNION: This weekend, a Summit League series against Fort Wayne, will feature an Alumni reunion. Events will take place starting Friday morning with a golf outing. There will be a reception at the game Friday (3 p.m.) and Saturday (1 p.m.) afternoon. Baseball alumni with questions can contact Connie Kowal ('74) at 847-337-1191.
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"It's always a fun time when we have our alumni return to campus. I know they enjoy the weekend and it gives our players a great opportunity to meet those who helped pave the way," said Brownlee. "We have a great week of games this week. It will be nice to be home all week. We only have five home games after this week so it is an opportunity for our fans to see us at home."
LAST YEAR: Western won the opening game of the series last year 4-2, but from there Fort Wayne took the next five meetings (6-3, 8-4 in Macomb; 5-2, 3-2 and 7-1 in Fort Wayne)... The Leathernecks went 7-2 versus the Mastodons in 2014 and 4-2 in the 2013 campaign.
VISINTINE ENDS AT 14, STARTS AGAIN: Sophomore Roman Visintine saw his team-leading and career-high hitting streak end at 14 games during game two of the Oral Roberts series, but he started again versus St. Ambrose... Visintine matched a career-high of three hits in the 9-1 win over the Bees, scoring twice and driving in a run... Visintine improved his batting average to .410, but he misses on the minimum amount of plate appearances per game and 75 percent of team games played. Otherwise he would lead the Summit League and rank 28th nationally... Visintine owns eight multi-hit games over the past 17 contests.
TRIPLE THREAT: Western knocked another triple on the year, with Roman Visintine leading off the first inning with a triple off the fence... Visintine moved into a share of the team lead with Chris Tschida, Conner Currier, Drue Galassi and Steve McShane with two each... Western has more triples (14) than home runs (12) this year... The Leathernecks rank 15th nationally in triples per game.
SUMMIT LEAGUE START: Western won three straight Summit League series to start the season, and still have captured 3-of-4 heading into the midway point... Just like the Omaha series, Western lost its opener to North Dakota State before winning the final two games... The last time Western won three series to open Summit League play (then Mid-Continent Conference) was 2005 when the Leathernecks won four straight to start: taking 3-of-4 at Valparaiso, 3-of-4 versus Centenary, 3-of-4 at Oakland and 3-of-4 versus Chicago State.
WESTFAHL IN THE TOP 10: Junior Nate Westfahl put his name in the WIU season 'Top 10' record book when he recorded his fourth save of the year at Omaha... Westfahl moved into a tie for seventh with his four saves... Season leader Brian Loconsole has nine and the last two years the career leader Tyler Owings recorded five and six, respectively... One more save for Westfahl will move him into a potential five-way tie for third place.
NATIONAL RANKINGS: Western's highest national ranking heading into this week is 15th in triples per game (Summit League leading 0.45/14)... WIU is 89th in sacrifice flies (14) and 99th in stolen bases per game (1.17)... Nick Schrader ranks 19th in sacrifice bunts (Summit League leading 8)... Colton Pogue is 38th with a Summit League leading four sacrifice flies... Nate Westfahl is 99th with four saves... Joe Mortillaro is tied for the Summit League lead with eighth starts on the mound, good for 25th in the country.
RPI AND OPPONENTS: Western moved up to 216 in the weekly RPI ratings on D1Baseball.com... The overall strength of schedule is 99 while the non-conference strength of schedule is 65th... Of the non-conference opponents played so far, only Northern Kentucky has a losing record with Missouri State ranked 16th this week.
TEAM NOTES:
• Western's five players with two triples are all tied for fourth place in the Summit League, one shy of the lead.
• Steve McShane is tied for fourth in the Summit League going 8-for-11 in stolen bases.
• Chris Tschida ranks seventh in RBI (21).
• Joe Mortillaro is fifth in innings pitched (42.2) and tied for fifth in strikeouts (37).
• Deion Thompson returned to the line-up against St. Ambrose, having missed the last 25 games... He knocked in a RBI single, going 1-for-2. In five games he has four hits, of which three are extra bases.
• Sophomore Dave Dobrinich made his collegiate pitching debut against St. Ambrose. He threw two-thirds of an inning with a walk and no hits allowed.
• Jordan Pannell has fanned 22 batters in 19.1 innings, giving up just 11 hits for a .167 opponent batting average.
• Sam Cottingham-Beard has thrown nine innings in his last two starts, giving up a combined two runs on 10 hits with seven strikeouts and one walk... Over his last three appearances (13.2 IP), Cottingham-Beard has given up three runs with nine strikeouts and three walks (1-0 record).
• In Summit League play, Western owns a .259 batting average, .356 on-base percentage, .959 fielding percentage and 3.82 ERA... Roman Visintine (.372), Chris Tschida (.333) and Adam McGinnis (.313) are all batting over .300 in conference... Joe Mortillaro (2.96 ERA in 24.1 IP) and Aaron Michel (3.48 in 20.2 IP) have lowered their ERA in conference compared to their overall.
• Conner Currier owns the only two 4-hit games this year, and the only 4-RBI game for Western this season.
SCOUTING THE MASTODONS: Fort Wayne took the series opener at league-leading Oral Roberts 6-3 to improve to 1-3 at the time in Summit League play, but the Mastodons bring an eight-game conference losing streak to Macomb... Evan VanSumeren (.306) and Kendall Whitman (.305) lead the hitting attack... Shane Trevino (.277 batting) has hit a team-leading eight home runs and 25 RBI... Jake Weber (3-3, 4.19) leads with four saves while Jordan Martin (1-0, 2.19) has two saves... The Mastodons are coming off a 1-0 win over in-state rival Butler on Wednesday... Brandon Soat accounted for the lone RBI on a walk-off single with one out in the ninth as the Mastodon pitching staff scattered four hits.
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