Early Season Success
Valley baseball teams added to their early season resumes this week as Indiana State claimed a pair of games at No. 16 Tennessee, Bradley beat No. 30 Ball State, Southern stayed unbeaten with a four-game sweep at Mercer, and DBU earned a split with Gonzaga.  Evansville also won its series vs. Northern Illinois and Missouri State won two of three vs. Central Arkansas. 

As a league, The Valley went 18-14 (.563) overall during the week.

In the ever so early RPI, The Valley ranks second nationally behind the ACC, while the SEC, Big 12 and American round out the top five leagues (WarrenNolan.com).

BU: Double Digit Debut
While Brooks Gosswein gets the Pitcher-of-the-Week honor, junior RHP Dalton Mall turned in the most impressive Bradley pitching debut in at least 16 years to open the 2021 season Friday night against #30 Ball State. Mall did not factor in Friday’s extra-innings decision, but he limited the Cardinals to two runs, one earned, on four singles with one walk and 10 strikeouts in his 6.0 IP. Mall is the only Bradley pitcher in the last 16 seasons to strike out more than five hitters in his Braves debut.

DBU: River Town
DBU’s River Town has hit lead-off for the Patriots in all eight games this season.  After posting a .111 batting average through the first four games, Town raised his average .318 points in DBU’s four-game series versus Gonzaga after going 11-for-28.  In the Patriots’ last three games versus the Zags, Town posted three consecutive multi-hit games, going 10-for-his-last-15.  Through seven games, the Patriots’ table-setter at the top of their order owns a .543 on-base percentage.

UE: 5-4 Works for UE
Playing the second game at the newly renovated German American Bank Field at Charles H. Braun Stadium, Evansville was familiar with the final score, a 5-4 win over NIU. In the opener of GAB Field last March 10 against Indiana, the Aces earned a 5-4 victory over the Hoosiers. Friday’s win over NIU was achieved in different fashion, coming from behind with a four-run rally in the bottom of the ninth.

ILS: Immediate Impact
Illinois State received a trio of impressive performances by Redbird rookies on the mound over the week.  Second-year freshman Jordan Lussier and Cameron Mabee each recorded a win at SIUE on 2/23. Lussier threw five innings with seven strikeouts and one earned run while Mabee tossed four scoreless innings with four strikeouts.  Against No. 17 Oklahoma State, first-year freshman Josh Dima fired two scoreless innings with five strikeouts. Dima’s five strikeouts were the most by an ISU reliever in their Redbird debut since Will Headean fanned five at Memphis on 2/15/2013.

INS: Success on Rocky Top
With a weekend split at No. 16 Tennessee, Indiana State became the first team to defeat the Volunteers in the month of February since 2018. Entering the weekend, UT was 26-0 against opponents during the month over the last three seasons. The weekend also marked the first ranked win for the Sycamores since knocking No. 25 Dallas Baptist out of the MVC Tournament in 2019; two of four ranked wins for the Trees in 2019 (Illinois, Michigan, DBU).  

MSU: Hot Bats
Missouri State ranks ninth nationally with a .331 batting average and is scoring 8.4 runs through five games this season, improving the team batting averaging nearly 100 points from last season’s total. Additionally, the Bears reached 42 total runs through five games this year after not scoring their 42nd run until game 12 in 2020. 

SIU: Undefeated Dawgs
SIU is 7-0 for just the second time in program history (SIU started 11-0 in 1967), and the Salukis have won 12-straight games dating back to the end of last season. Stetson (9-0) is the only undefeated team in the nation with more wins than SIU. SIU’s seven-game winning streak this season alone is the program’s longest since an eight-game streak in 2007. If you include the final five wins of the COVID-shortened 2020 season, SIU’s 12-game winning streak dating back to last season is the longest for the program since a 16-game winning streak in 1990. 

VU: Tieman Approaching 200
Valpo right-handed pitcher Jon Tieman is on the cusp of a significant career milestone as he needs two strikeouts to become just the 11th player in program history to fan 200 batters. He’ll become just the second Valpo player to join that club in the last decade, joining Dalton Lundeen (2013-2016). In addition, Tieman needs just four strikeouts to crack the program’s all-time Top 10 by moving into a tie for 10th with Jim Pomeroy (1996-1999, 202).  

This week's Missouri Valley Conference Baseball Player/Pitcher of the Week are Southern Illinois'  Philip Archer and Bradley's Brooks Gosswein. 

MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE PLAYER OF THE WEEK:
Philip Archer, Sr., 1B, Southern Illinois
Philip Archer hit .625/.700/1.250 in SIU’s 4-0 week. Archer went 10-for-16 with four doubles, two homers, five runs scored, and nine RBI. Archer had three multi-hit games in the week. He went 4-for-5 with two doubles, a homer, and five RBI in SIU’s 17-7 win against Mercer on Friday, and was 7-for-12 with three doubles and two homers in the series, leading SIU to become the second team in the last 10 seasons to sweep Mercer at their home ballpark.  

Other Notable Performances: Ryan Wrobleski (DBU), Simon Scherry (UE); Diego Gines (INS); Jack Duffy (MSU);  Steven Fitzsimmons (VU)

MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE PITCHER OF THE WEEK:
Brooks Gosswein, Jr., LHP, Bradley
Gosswein set the tone for Saturday’s series finale versus #30 Ball State, blanking the Cardinals on two singles with seven strikeouts in 7.0 scoreless innings and he needed just 86 pitchers in his effort. Gosswein retired the first five Ball State hitters, before experiencing his lone hiccup of the game - a single, walk and wild pitch – that put runners at second and third with 2 outs in the second inning. He responded with a ground out to start a string of eight consecutive outs and he did not allow another hit until two outs in the sixth inning.  He finished the game by retiring 16 of the final 18 batters he faced.  Gosswein’s effort figured as the second-best pitching performance in the nation Saturday, according to the Game Score formula managed by D1Baseball.com. 

Other Notable Performances: Dominic Hamel (DBU); Shane Gray (UE); Colton Johnson (ILS); Connor Cline (INS); Logan Wiley (MSU); Ben Chapman (SIU)