A-STATE/SOUTHERN ILLINOIS SERIES HISTORY

• A-State trails Southern Illinois-Carbondale 22-47 in the all-time series after the two teams met
for the first time in 1948. A-State won both meetings in 1948 with 3-2 and 8-6 victories during
the year. Arkansas State went on to win the first meeting in 1949 before SIU claimed its first
victory in the second meeting that year 6-3. The two teams played yearly from 1948 through
1957 with Southern Illinois winning all four meeting in 1953.
• The two schools played each other fairly frequently through the 1978 season with Southern
Illinois holding a 37-8 advantage over that time frame. Lately the series has been more even
with the Red Wolves holding a 14-10 edge in meetings since 1989, including a 5-1 mark in the
last six contests.
• Speaking of the last six contests, they are the only six times A-State head coach Tommy Raffo
has faced off against the Salukis. The Red Wolves lost the first time the two teams met under Raffo in 2009 by a score of 10-3 in Carbondale. Since then, A-State has won five straight,including last year's 10-8 victory in Carbondale and this year's 1-0 win in 10 innings in Jonesboro back on March 15. Jake Bakamus scored on a wild pitch to give the Red Wolves a walk-off win, while Tanner Ring picked up the win on the mound.
• Southern Illinois is 21-15-1 on the season and 2-4 in Missouri Valley Conference play. Most recently, the Salukis lost two out of three games to Dallas Baptist in a MVC series, while they defeated Eastern Illinois 10-2 at home in their most recent midweek contest.

A-STATE/MISSISSIPPI VALLEY STATE SERIES HISTORY
• Arkansas State and Mississippi Valley State have never met in history in baseball. The Delta Devils are one of two teams from the Southwestern Athletic Conference on A-State's schedule this season with the team slated to play UAPB on April 26.
• MVSU enters the game with a 6-27 mark and 4-14 record in SWAC games. The team split a four- game series with Alabama A&M most recently and had a game scheduled with Memphis for Tuesday, but has already cancelled it.
• The Delta Devils played Little Rock earlier in the year and are also scheduled to play one of A-State's future opponents in Northwestern State later this month.

NOTES FROM TROY SERIES
• Arkansas State fell to 10-31 all-time against Troy after winning Saturday's game 4-3, but losing Friday's and Sunday's contest.
• The 4-3 win halted an eight-game losing streak for the Red Wolves, which ties the longest of the Raffo era, which was set from April 28-May 11 of the 2013 season. That streak featured losses to Middle Tennessee, Memphis, Louisiana-Lafayette (x3), Tennessee, and Troy (x2). That losing streak was also stopped with a one-run win against Troy (15-14).
• The Red Wolves avoided being shut out for the third time this season when Jake Bakamus drove in Garrett Rucker on a single in the bottom of the ninth in Friday's 11-1 loss to the Trojans.
• The 4-3 win Saturday over the Trojans was the team's fifth one-run victory of the season.
• A-State's bullpen of Coulton Lee and Tyler Zuber allowed four hits, one run (unearned) in four innings of work. Lee earned the win, his team-best fourth of the season, while Zuber registered his first save of the season and first since May 22, 2015 against Georgia State in the SBC Tournament. Zuber got the final four outs of the game on just 10 pitches.
• Garrett Rucker hit his second home run of the season in the 4-3 win and also drove in Ty White for the winning run with a RBI double.
• A-State could only muster six hits in Sunday's finale and lost 8-1.
• Jake Bakamus, along with Rucker, both hit .455 in the series with two RBIs each. Rucker led the team with a .909 slugging percentage during the series.
• Austin Baker returned to action for the first time since March 22 and was 2-for-8 in the series with a run scored and a double.

NOTES FROM SOUTHEAST MISSOURI GAME
• A-State fell to 2-4 in midweek games this season and 2-3 on Tuesday games with a 13-8 loss to SEMO April 12 in Jonesboro.
• The Red Wolves had 13 hits against the Redhawks, tied for third most this season (March 12 at UT Arlington). The team high for hits is 19 at Georgia State March 18. It was also the 11th time the team has had double-digit hits in a contest with the number going to 12 after the April 16 game against Troy.
• A-State's Matt Burgess and Tanner Ring each hit a home run in the Red Wolves' most recentmidweek home against SEMO, marking just the second time this season that the two A-State players have homered in the same game. The last time it happened this season was on Feb. 19 at UAB when Tanner Ring and Jeremy Brown each hit home runs in the victory over the Blazers. Ring's home run gave him the team lead back with five on the season.
• Matt Burgess and Joe Schrimpf each had three hits in the game, while Joe Schrimpf knocked in four RBIs, which is a season-high. He has a team-best 30 runs driven in now.
• A-State used six pitchers in the game and they walked eight batters, while striking out eight.

LET'S TURN TWO
• A-State is now 17th in the nation in double plays turned with 37 and also ranks as the top team in the Sun Belt Conference in the category. The Red Wolves turned six in the four games the team played last week with a high of two each in the Friday game and Saturday game against Troy. The team turned two 6-4-3 and 6-3 double plays each over the four games.
• The team's season-high for double plays is four against Saint Louis Feb. 27 in the second game of a doubleheader. The team has turned nine 6-4-3 double plays for the team lead, with eight 4-6-3 twin-killings in second. The Red Wolves turned their first 3-6 double play of the season Friday night against Troy, giving the team 14 different ways a double play has been turned this season. Tony Ortiz recorded A-State's only unassisted double play of the season at South Alabama April 8 when he snagged a line shot at first base and doubled the runner off. A-State's weirdest double play of the year is a 7-5-4 one that was turned after Garrett Rucker dove and appeared to catch a ball in left field for a split second. Rucker was able to pick it up and throw to third for a force out and then the ball was throw to second for another force out.
• Arkansas State turned 34 double plays a year ago and has already surpassed that total only 35 games into the regular season. The school record for double plays is 59 in both 1998 and 1994.

SO CLOSE, YET SO FAR
• Arkansas State has held the lead in 26 of its 33 games so far this season. A-State led after one inning the April 12 midweek game against Southeast Missouri before ultimately falling by a score of 13-8. The team didn't lead in the two games the Red Wolves lost to Troy over the weekend, but did win Saturday's game 4-3.
• The only games the Red Wolves haven't led in were the 5-0 loss to UAB in the first game of a doubleheader on Feb. 20, the March 6 loss to Milwaukee, the 2-0 loss to UTA on March 12 in the second game of a doubleheader, the March 24 loss to Georgia Southern 8-3, the two losses to Louisiana-Lafayette April 2 and 3, the 8-2 loss to USA April 8, and the losses to Troy on April 15 and 17.
• A-State has already been involved in six walk-off games this season, three coming in a row against Ole Miss, Morehead State, and Saint Louis. The first two were losses, but the Red Wolves defeated SLU 5-4 when Ty White delivered a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth to plate to score pinch-runner Garrett Huff. It was the team's first walk-off win since May 15, 2015 when Stuart Levy hit a sacrifice fly to defeat UALR 4-3 in 14 innings. It was the team's first walk-off hit since Matt Burgess hit a single to beat UALR on March 15, 2014 in the second game of a doubleheader, which also wound up being a 4-3 win for the Red Wolves in 14 innings. Since then, A-State defeated Southern Illinois 1-0 in walk-off fashion March 15 on a wild pitch and lost to Georgia State 5-4 on a walk-off infield single March 19. Tanner Ring gave the Red Wolves a walk-off win with a single in the bottom of the ninth against Georgia Southern March 25.

HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT
• Arkansas State was hit with five pitches over the past week against SEMO and Troy with Jeremy Brown getting plunked by two of them. Joe Schrimpf, Matt Burgess, and Garrett Rucker also reached base by HBP. That gives the team 61 on the year, which ranks fifth in the nation and first in the Sun Belt Conference. Jackson State leads the country with 78.
• The Red Wolves have a good start on chasing last year's team in the category after the 2015 squad was hit by a pitch 94 times, good for fifth in the country. Zach George led the team a season ago with 16 HBPs.
• Jake Bakamus leads the team with 13 hit-by-pitches, which is first in the SBC and 10th in the country. Jeremy Brown is second on the team with eight hit-by-pitches, which is seventh in the conference. 14 different players have been hit by a pitch for the team.

TOUCH 'EM ALL JOE (BUT HURRY)
• A-State junior infielder/catcher Joe Schrimpf hit his first home run of the season in the first game against Saint Louis Feb. 27, but it wasn't your normal home run as it was an inside-the-park home run. He smoked a ball to deep center field that hit off of the wall and
ricocheted back towards the infield. By the time the centerfielder was able to get the ball to the cut-off man, Schrimpf was already racing towards the plate. He was able to slide in safely ahead of the throw that wound up being too high for the catcher to corral.
• The inside-the-parker for Schrimpf was the first of his career and the first for the Red Wolves since Austin Baker hit one at Tomlinson Stadium against Memphis on March 25, 2014.
• The round-tripper was the team's third home run of the season after Tanner Ring and Jeremy Brown both left the yard in the first game of the year at UAB. The team has 14 homers now and Schrimpf is tied for the team lead with Ring with four bombs this season. All of Schrimpf's homers since his first have gone over the fence.

SAVE YOUR RAIN (AND SNOW) DANCES
• A-State has had six games altered due to potential rain chances causing UAB and the Red Wolves to play a doubleheader opening weekend and move the game with Ole Miss to Wednesday, Feb. 24. The two-game midweek series against Austin Peay was canceled due to rain March 8-9. The weather in the Arlington area forced the Red Wolves and UT Arlington to push back Friday's league opener to part of a Saturday doubleheader March 12. Most recently, A-State postponed its March 30 game with Mississippi Valley State to April 20.
• The Red Wolves had 26 games altered to weather a season ago with a healthy mix of both rain and snow as the culprits. The Red Wolves optioned to go to the Perfect Game Complex in Emerson, Ga., to play No. 7 Louisville instead of to Northwestern State where rain was likely on Feb. 20-21. The Red Wolves would go on to take two-of-three from the Cardinals.
• The second big alteration to the schedule was when Arkansas State shifted its home-opening Sun Belt Conference series versus UT Arlington to Smith-Wills Stadium in Jackson, Miss., due to winter weather preventing the team from playing in Jonesboro.
• All in all, the Red Wolves ended up playing seven doubleheaders, with the only one that was originally scheduled versus Illinois State on opening weekend. A-State played six consecutive doubleheaders on weekends to open the season.