With just one weekend remaining in the regular season schedule, five teams remain in the chase for the league regular-season title. Seeding for the MVC Tournament which will be held at Duffy Bass Field on May 21-25 in Normal, Illinois will be finalized on Saturday.

DBU (12-6 MVC) and Illinois State (12-6 MVC) are tied for the league lead entering the final weekend and have each secured a top four seed and will avoid Tuesday’s single elimination play in round.

Indiana State (11-7 MVC) sits one game back of first place and can finish as the No. 1 through No. 5 seed.  Bradley (10-8 MVC) and Evansville (10-8 MVC) are two games back of first entering the weekend.  The Braves can finish as high as the No. 2 seed and as low as the No. 5, while Evansville still can earn the top seed or fall to the No. 5.

Missouri State (7-11 MVC) can only finish No. 6 or No. 7 heading into the final weekend of play, while Valpo (6-12 MVC) can be No. 6 through 8 and Southern Illinois (4-14 MVC) No. 7 or 8 heading into the final weekend.

Please note that the above seeding prognostications are only based on mathematical possibilities, without considering all multiple tiebreaking scenarios.

Tight Races
Since the start of the 21-game conference schedule in 2010 (three-game series), the top two places in the regular-season standings have been separated by one game or less only four times. 

2010 - Wichita St. & Illinois St. 15-6 
2011 - Creighton 15-6 & Wichita St. 14-7
2012 - Indiana St. 14-7 & Missouri St. 13-7
2014 - Evansville 15-6 & DBU/Indiana St. 14-7

15 is the Magic Number
All but one team that has won the MVC regular season has won at least 15 games since 2010, the first year of a 21-game conference schedule.

In the last nine seasons, Indiana State is the only league team to win the MVC regular season title with fewer than 15 league victories, as the Sycamores won the Valley with a 14-7 record in 2012.  

Going into the final weekend, both DBU and Illinois State sit atop the standings at 12-6 and would need a sweep to reach 15 wins. 

Championship Seasons
The five teams still alive for a regular season MVC crown have combined to win nine regular season titles.  Bradley, Evansville, Illinois State and Indiana State have each won two regular season crowns, while DBU has one.  The Patriots have finished first or second in each year they have been a member of the MVC (joined in 2014). 

Bradley - 1957 and 1956 (shared with Oklahoma A&M)
DBU - 2016
Evansville - 2014 & 2006
Illinois State - 2013 & 2010 (shared with Wichita State)
Indiana State - 2012 & 1985 (shared with Wichita State)

Polling
DBU jumped into the national rankings and appear at No. 23 in this week’s Baseball America Top 25 poll.  The Patriots also appear at No. 27 in this week’s Collegiate Baseball Top 30 poll.

Valley RPI Ranks No. 6
According to the latest RPI update from WarrenNolan.com (May 12), the Missouri Valley Conference ranks No. 6 amongst 31 leagues. Four of the Power-Five conferences (SEC, Big 12, ACC, Pac-12) hold four of the top five positions, while the American sits fifth just ahead of The Valley.

The last time the MVC finished a season rated 6th in conference RPI was in 2015 when the league sent Bradley, DBU and Missouri State to the NCAA Tournament. 

Elite Company
The Valley has three teams ranking in the Top 30 of the RPI, joining four other leagues in the club.  The SEC leads the nation with 10 teams in the RPI top 30, while the ACC (5), Big 12 (4), Pac-12 (3) and MVC (3) round out the elite club. 

Academic All-District
Three Missouri Valley Conference baseball players have been named to the 2019 Google Cloud CoSIDA Academic All-District First Team, including Bradley’s Luke Shadid, Indiana State’s Max Wright and Valpo’s Blake Billinger.  With three selections to the first team, all three Valley student-athletes are now eligible for the inclusion on the Google Cloud Academic All-America® team selected by CoSIDA.

Road Success
Entering this week’s action, Illinois State is tied for second in the NCAA in road wins.  The Redbirds have 19 road wins on the season which ranks tied for second with Central Michigan.  Bryant and Creighton lead the NCAA with 21 road wins this season.  The Redbirds’ 36 road games are second nationally, trailing only Oakland (39).  

Indiana State has played 34 games away from Terre Haute going 21-13 in road/neutral games. The Sycamores are 13-1 in home games this season.  The 14 home games are the second fewest in the MVC (Valpo 13).

Projected NCAA Field
Baseball America has three MVC teams in the projected NCAA field of 64 as of May 8. The publication has Indiana State as a No. 2 seed in the Fayetteville (Arkansas) Regional, Illinois State is the No. 3 seed in the Atlanta (Georgia Tech) Regional and DBU as the No. 3 seed in the Stillwater (Oklahoma State) Regional. 

Multi-Bid League
Since the 1981 season (38 seasons), the MVC has placed multiple teams into the NCAA Tournament 25 times (66%).  On seven occasions (1985, 1990, 1995, 1999, 2000, 2012, 2015) the MVC has put three teams into the NCAA field.

This week's Missouri Valley Conference Baseball Player/Pitcher of the Week are DBU's Bryce Ball and Valparaiso's Easton Rhodehouse, respectively.

MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE PLAYER OF THE WEEK:
Bryce Ball, Jr., DH, DBU
DBU junior Bryce Ball went on a tear to power the Patriots to a 4-0 week against Stephen F. Austin and Indiana State. The junior from Mason City, Iowa, blasted five home runs in four games, finishing the week 7-for-15 (.467) at the plate with a 1.600 slugging percentage. Ball drove in 13 runs and scored seven as the Patriots moved into a tie for first place in The Valley standings.   
 
Other Notable Performances: Joe Butler (ILS); Will LaRue (SIU); Chase Dawson (VALPO)

MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE PITCHER OF THE WEEK:
Easton Rhodehouse, Jr., RHP, Valparaiso
Rhodehouse logged seven scoreless innings over two games this week, racking up 10 strikeouts while issuing just two walks with opponents batting .050 against him. He was the hero of his team’s 4-3 victory over Southern Illinois in 14 innings on Friday night as he entered the game in the ninth inning and pitched six scoreless frames of no-hit baseball. Rhodehouse received a well-earned win after racking up a career-high eight strikeouts on a night where he also established career watermarks in innings pitched and pitch count. That showing came after he also worked a scoreless frame on Wednesday in a road game against Big Ten foe Michigan State. Rhodehouse has his ERA at 3.00 over 33 innings this season after finishing his sophomore year at 9.68. He had the seventh-best outing in the nation on Friday night according to D1Baseball.com’s “game score” with a 78, a particularly impressive feat for a reliever. That performance set the tone for an eventual Valpo sweep of Southern Illinois in Missouri Valley Conference play.    

Other Notable Performances: Sam Lund (BRAD); MD Johnson (DBU); Austin Allinger (UE); Brent Headrick (ILS); Justin Yeager (SIU)