Eagles Begin Road Stretch With Weekend Series at Northern Illinois

DeKALB, Ill. (EMUEagles.com) – Coming off a series victory over the defending MAC regular season champion Ball State Cardinals last weekend at Oestrike Stadium, the Eastern Michigan University baseball team hits the road for eight-straight contests. The road trip begins with a three-game MAC series this weekend, April 24-26, against Northern Illinois University.
    The series against the Huskies begins Friday afternoon, April 24, with first pitch scheduled for 3 p.m. CT at Ralph McKinzie Field. The final two games of the series on Saturday and Sunday, April 25-26, are scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. CT. Fans can follow live stats on NIUHuskies.com or watch the games for a fee on the Huskies' website.

THE SERIES: Eastern Michigan and Northern Illinois will be meeting on the diamond for the 110th time Friday afternoon, with the Eagles holding a 67-42 all-time series advantage.
    Dating back to the 2008 season, the Eagles and Huskies have met 23 times with the Green and White holding a slim 12-11 advantage in those contests. EMU's last trip to DeKalb, Ill. was during the 2013 season, which resulted in a series victory (2-1) for the Eagles.

ON THE MOUND: Head Coach Mark Van Ameyde and the Eagles have announced the starting rotation for this weekend's series at NIU. On Friday, senior RHP Charlie Land (2-6, 4.80 ERA) will square off against LHP Ben Neumann (4-4, 4.35 ERA). Game two on Saturday will see senior RHP Ryan Lavoie (2-4, 6.42 ERA) match up against RHP Dirk Ormsby (5-5, 4.03 ERA). The Eagles have yet to announce a starter for the series finale on Sunday, but the Huskies will go with RHP Seth Fuller (2-3, 4.21 ERA).

SCOUTING NORTHERN ILLINOIS: Northern Illinois enters the weekend with an overall record of 15-25 and a 5-10 mark in conference play, which puts the Huskies one game behind the Eagles in the MAC standings. NIU is coming off a 4-3 extra-inning defeat at No. 17 Iowa Wednesday, April 22 in a mid-week non-conference matchup.
    At the plate, the Huskies are hitting .257 as a team led by juniors Stephen Letz and Brian Sisler who are both batting at a .324 clip on the season. The right-handed hitting Sisler leads the team in hits (45), doubles (12), RBI (23), total bases (60), and slugging percentage (.432). The Huskies' biggest threat on the basepath is Malique Ziegler, who has successfully stolen a team-high nine bases on 12 attempts.
    On the mound, NIU has compiled a team ERA of 5.38 which is second to last in the MAC. Sophomore RHP Andrew Frankenreider has been the go-to man out of the pen for NIU, having appeared in a team-best 20 games. Frankenreider is 1-2 with an ERA of 2.01 while recording six saves and holding opponents to just a .140 batting average against. The three weekend starters for NIU have a combined record of 11-12 and all support ERA's over four.

DELAPLANE DEALING: Sophomore RHP Sam Delaplane has continued to shut down opponents out of the bullpen for the Eagles. Delaplane has not allowed a run in his last 13.1 innings pitched. In those nine appearances, he has allowed just five hits while striking out 21 batters. He is 2-0 with four saves in that stretch and is holding opponents to a .116 batting average against. On the season, the San Jose, Calif. native is 4-1 with an ERA of 2.73 while recording six saves. He has appeared in 19 games and has racked up a team-best 38 strikeouts in 26.1 innings pitched.

OFFENSIVE EXPLOSION: As a team, the Eagles hit at a .347 clip last weekend in the series victory over Ball State University at Oestrike Stadium. Six different Eagles recorded at least four hits in the series, as Michael Mioduszewski, David Lett, and Jordan Peterson led the way with five hits apiece. Mioduszewski recorded a career-high four hits and four RBI in the first game of the doubleheader on Saturday and finished with six runs driven in against the Cardinals. The Green and White were not only solid at the plate, but on the basepath as well. EMU stole 10-of-12 bags in the series, led by Peterson who had four and John Rubino's three.

NOT ON MY WATCH: Junior catcher Tony DiLeo is making the most of his first significant playing time behind the dish for the Green and White this season. DiLeo currently ranks 12th in the nation in caught stealing percentage. He has thrown out 45 percent (27-of-60) of potential base stealers while starting in 27 games at the catcher position. The Rockford, Mich. native trails only Bowling Green's Trey Keegan (51.7 percent) for the lead in the MAC.

NOTABLE STREAKS: Senior John Rubino has picked up his play over the past several weeks for the Green and White. Rubino extended his hitting streak out to eight-games with his second inning single into right field in the nightcap of Saturday's doubleheader against the Cardinals. The second baseman has now reached base in 15 consecutive games, which is two games short of a new career high. Mitchell McGeein and Jordan Peterson also reached base in all three games against BSU, stretching their reached base streaks out to 15 games as well. Freshman David Lett enters this weekend's play riding a six-game hitting streak and 11-game reached base streak.

GET THE BROOMS OUT: The Eagles were forced to play a doubleheader on Saturday, April 18, against Ball State due to the potential threat of bad weather on Sunday. However, it paid off for the Green and White as the Eagles swept the doubleheader over the defending MAC regular season champions by scores of 8-4 and 9-8. It was the first conference doubleheader sweep for EMU since the 2013 season when the Eagles took both games at Western Michigan, April 23.

UPDATING THE RECORD BOOK: Several Eagles this season have climbed their way into the record book or moved up several spots. Senior John Rubino has made the most moves in EMU laurels, as he is ranked in the top-22 in six different all-time career categories: runs (19th-121), walks (22nd-66), at-bats (10th-698), hits (t-15th-201), triples (20th-6), and stolen bases (9th-58). Sophomore RHP Sam Delaplane is currently tied for seventh in the single season record for saves with six. Delaplane's six saves also places him in a tie for 11th in the all-time career save leaders. Junior Mitchell McGeein has hit nine homers this season for the Eagles, placing him in a tie for 21st on the all-time home runs list with 18.

A LOOK AT THE NUMBERS: In conference games only this season, Eastern Michigan ranks in the top four in several team categories. The Eagles are fourth in batting average (.291), on-base percentage (.359), and hits (146). The Green and White also rank second in stolen bases with 28 and second in fielding percentage with a mark of .970.
    Junior Mitchell McGeein still remains atop the league in home runs in all games with nine, while McGeein is also tied for second in total bases (80). John Rubino's 22 stolen bases rank him third in the league, while the senior has recorded the most at-bats this season with 163. Junior LHP Michael Marsinek also ranks third in the league, making 20 appearances on the mound this season for the Green and White. These statistics are all as of April 20, 2015.

REMAINING MAC SCHEDULE: Based on the opponents combined record, Eastern Michigan has the easiest remaining conference schedule. Northern Illinois (5-10), Miami (6-9), Ohio (8-7), and Toledo (8-7) have a combined record of 27-33 (.450). Central Michigan and Kent State's remaining opponents also have a combined record of 27-33, while Bowling Green has the toughest league slate left with a combined opponents record of 35-25 (.583). The Eagles are currently tied for the final spot in the MAC Tournament with Miami and Western Michigan, who have the third toughest schedules remaining.

RUBINO'S STRONG FINISH: Last season through the first 40 games, John Rubino was batting .280. Rubino went on to hit at a .473 clip the remaining 13 games to post a final average of .329 in his junior campaign. This season, the senior is hitting a very similar .282 average through the first 40 games. The Eagles have 15 regular season games remaining, so Rubino has plenty of time to bump his average once again in his final collegiate season.

ON DECK FOR THE EAGLES: Following the three-game weekend set at Northern Illinois, the Eagles remain on the road for a mid-week contest at Michigan State next Wednesday, April 29. EMU will look to record its second-straight victory over the Spartans with first pitch scheduled for 3:05 p.m. at McLane Baseball Stadium at Kobs Field.

Eagles Begin Road Stretch With Weekend Series at Northern Illinois

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Players Mentioned

Sam Delaplane

Tony DiLeo

Charlie Land

Ryan Lavoie

David Lett

Michael Marsinek

Mitchell McGeein

Mike Mioduszewski

Jordan Peterson

John Rubino

Eastern Michigan Athletics