NOTES: Bulldogs Host Tritons For Conference Series

Truman Baseball Notes (April 21-22)
Twitter: @TrumanAthletics || @TrumanBaseball || #BewareofDog

Series 9: Truman (9-27; 3-13 GLVC) vs. Missouri-St. Louis (16-20; 7-9 GLVC)
When: Saturday, April 21, 2018 || 12:00 p.m. (DH)
Sunday, April 22, 2018 || 12:00 p.m. (DH)
Where: Kirksville, Mo. || Truman Baseball Field
Live Stats || Live Stats (Media) || Live Video (GLVCSN-Sunday Only)

KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – After playing the top three GLVC West Division teams in three straight weekends, the Bulldog Baseball team returns home to face the University of Missouri-St. Louis for a four-game weekend series. The Tritons are 7-8 in the GLVC and 15-19 overall.

Truman dropped to 3-13 in the conference after falling in three of four to Quincy over the weekend.

Senior pitcher Kent Frantz has found his stride since conference season begin. The Bulldog is 3-1 in four starts with a 2.17 ERA. He has two complete games and has gone at least seven innings in his last five starts.

Charlie Kreh continues to pace the offense with a .366 batting average. Kreh has driven in 28 runs and has nine doubles and three home runs. Kreh hit .533 this past weekend against Quincy, driving in six runs with four doubles. The team broke out of their offensive struggles against the Hawks with a .321 weekend batting average.

UMSL lost their four-gamer with Maryville over the weeknd. The Tritons won the first game in a slugfest 16-15 but dropped games two, three and four by scores of 4-2, 8-2 and 12-2. They stepped outside of conference play and downed Harris-Stowe (Mo.) on Tuesday by a 10-4 tally.

It was splitsville last year between the Bulldogs and Tritons in St. Louis. Truman grabbed the opener with a seven-run second inning and held on to win 10-7. Game two was all Tritons as they pounded out 17 hits and scored 16 times in a 16-2 win. The following day, Truman returned the favor and handed UMSL an 11-2 defeat. Game four saw UMSL double up the Bulldogs 8-4.

Truman won three of four in 2016, the last time UMSL came to Kirksville for a series.

Format:
Conference series are four games with the first game of the series being a nine-inning game. Games two and three are seven inning games and the fourth game is also a nine-inning affair. The first game of the series serves as a tiebreaker if teams are tied in the conference standings at the end of the season.

Truman In GLVC:
The Bulldogs have played 36 GLVC series since joining the league in 2014. They have swept all four games once (vs. Southern Indiana in 2015), won three games six times, split the series 17 times, won just once nine times and lost all four games three times (last vs. Drury 2018).
Truman's longest GLVC winning streak is five games in 2014 and longest GLVC losing streak is six games twice, in 2017 and this season.

Weather Forecast (as of Thursday 6:00 a.m. update):
National Weather Service Kansas City/St. Louis Office (@NWSKansasCity)
Friday – A 40% chance of showers/thunderstorms after 1 p.m. Mostly Cloudy with high near 75. South win 16-21 mph with gusts as high as 30 mph.
Saturday – Partly Sunny with high near 59. Southwest wind around 13 mph.

Truman individual player stats against Missouri-St. Louis

In two games played in 2016, Josh Abegg was 1-for-1 with a run scored.
Blake Bagenstos tossed one inning last year and allowed four hits and three earned runs.
Bryan Clark was the winner in game one last year with five innings of work and five hits, four earned runs in the 10-7 win.
Tanner Forck threw two innings last season against UMSL.
Kent Frantz has made two starts and appeared in a total of four games against the Tritons. In 19 innings pitched, he is 1-0 with 1 save and a 1.42 ERA. He has struck out seven.
Evan Kayser started three games last year and was 1-for-10 with an RBI. He was 2-for-3 in stolen bases.
Mason King has six hits in 29 at bats in eight starts against UMSL. He had five RBIS and six runs scored.
Charlie Kreh hit .412 last year in their four-game series and .320 overall against UMSL. He had driving in 10 runs in eight games played with four doubles.
Jon Lyons has started two of the six games played with a double in four at bats.
Rian Markes took a win in 2017 going the distance in a seven-inning victory. Markes allowed six hits and two earned runs in the 11-2 victory.
Matt Tometz has faced 31 Triton hitters over six and two-thirds innings pitched. He is 0-1 with a 2.70 ERA with four strikeouts.
Brendan Trimble has played and started in 11 games against UMSL and is hitting .436 against Triton pitching. He has one home run and nine RBIs with 17 hits in 39 at bats.
Peter Young has thrown five innings in three appearances against the Tritons. His is 1-0 with a 0.00 ERA. UMSL and Rockhurst are the only two GLVC West Division teams that Young does not have a save against. The most against a division opponent is six against Drury.

Scouting Missouri-St. Louis:
The Tritons hit .264 as a squad with 10 home runs and 34 stolen bases. Jake Morsch leads the team with a .333 batting average. Derrick Freeman is a perfect 10-of-10 in the stolen base category and leads the Tritons in RBIs with 21.
On the mound, the pitching staff has a ERA of 6.29. Kevin Smith has the majority of starts with eight and is 1-5 and a 4.15 ERA. Jim Brandt leads in innings pitched with 44 and is 3-2 in six starts with a 3.86 ERA.
UMSL averages 5.0 runs per game while allowing 7.6 per game. The team averages 8.1 hits and gives up 9.4 per game.

Bulldog Leaders:
Charlie Kreh is the team's top offensive player with a .366 batting average. Kreh has 48 hits, nine doubles, three home runs and has driven in 28 runs. Truman has had 12 different players swipe bases this season and are 43 out of 68 overall.
As a team, Truman averages 4.5 runs per game with a team batting average of .243.

The Starting Rota:
Bryan Clark, Kent Frantz and Rian Markes all have nine starts apiece through the first nine weekends.
Frantz, in his four GLVC starts, is 3-1 with two complete games and a 2.17 ERA. He has allowed seven runs in 29 innings of work.
Clark and Markes have each thrown 43.2 innings this season. Markes has one complete game and is 4-9 in 20 career starts while Clark is 6-10 in 20 career starts.
Blake Bagenstos (6), Matthew Wade (2) and Josh Woodmansee (1) have made the starts in the other games this year. Bagenstos is 1-3, Wade started the past two weekends and is second on the team in appearances with 14 and Woodmansee is 0-1 in nine appearances.

Shutting Things Down:
Closer Peter Young has four saves this season and 25 for his Bulldog career. Young was a first-team all-GLVC pitcher in 2017 and is the only Bulldog pitcher with more than 10 career saves.
Matt Tometz has the most relief appearances for the Bulldogs at 15 and is 0-2 with a 3.96 ERA. Tometz has five pickoffs this season.

Countdown to 200:
Head Coach Dan Davis needs seven wins to hit the 200-win plateau. He will be only the second Truman Baseball Coach to win 200 games joining all-time leader in wins Sam Nugent (238).

Bulldog Bites:

Truman is averaging 4.5 runs per game this season and 7.2 hits per game. Opponents are averaging 7.3 runs per game and 10.2 hits.
Brendan Trimble is the active leader in multi-hit games with 52, Charlie Kreh is second with 39 and has 14 this season.
Kreh has six multiple RBI games this year with three games of three RBIs and two games with four.
Kreh has matched Noah Schrader's season-best 11-game hitting streak.
Josh Abegg has a season-best 17-game reached base streak that is no longer active, Kreh has the active longest streak at 11.
Young's 1.73 career ERA would rank third on the Bulldog career pitching list with those with a minimum of 25 innings pitched. His 24 career saves is first by 15 over Dan Hillen (2003-05) and his 67 appearances is the all time leader among all Truman pitchers.
Frantz is first in career wins with 18. He is second in starts with 37, seventh in complete games with 12 and second in innings pitched with 252.1. He is tied third in strikeouts with 152. The record is 174 set by Brant Kraner.

Up Next:
Truman will play their final road conference series next weekend in Kansas City when they visit Rockhurst University.

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Players Mentioned

#32 Josh Abegg: OF; 5' 10"; Senior; R/R

#15 Blake Bagenstos: RHP; 6' 0"; Sophomore; R/R

#11 Bryan Clark: LHP; 6' 4"; Sophomore; L/L

#28 Tanner Forck: LHP; 6' 2"; Junior; R/L

#3 Kent Frantz: RHP; 5' 11"; Senior; R/R

#14 Evan Kayser: SS/2B; 5' 10"; Sophomore; R/R

#33 Mason King: OF; 5' 10"; Junior; L/L

#24 Charlie Kreh: 1B; 6' 2"; Junior; L/R

#8 Jon Lyons: C; 5' 10"; Junior; R/R

#16 Rian Markes: LHP; 6' 2"; Sophomore; L/L

#1 Matt Tometz: LHP; 6' 0"; Senior; R/L

#6 Brendan Trimble: 3B/OF; 6' 2"; Senior; L/R

Players Mentioned

#32 Josh Abegg
: 5' 10"; Senior; R/R
: OF

#15 Blake Bagenstos
: 6' 0"; Sophomore; R/R
: RHP

#11 Bryan Clark
: 6' 4"; Sophomore; L/L
: LHP

#28 Tanner Forck
: 6' 2"; Junior; R/L
: LHP

#3 Kent Frantz
: 5' 11"; Senior; R/R
: RHP

#14 Evan Kayser
: 5' 10"; Sophomore; R/R
: SS/2B

#33 Mason King
: 5' 10"; Junior; L/L
: OF

#24 Charlie Kreh
: 6' 2"; Junior; L/R
: 1B

#8 Jon Lyons
: 5' 10"; Junior; R/R
: C

#16 Rian Markes
: 6' 2"; Sophomore; L/L
: LHP

#1 Matt Tometz
: 6' 0"; Senior; R/L
: LHP

#6 Brendan Trimble
: 6' 2"; Senior; L/R
: 3B/OF