 Nationally Ranked Ole Miss Awaits Billikens
March 23, 2009
Saint Louis at Ole Miss
Saint Louis vs. SIU Edwardsville
On Deck: Saint Louis travels to Oxford, Miss., Tuesday to face the nationally ranked Ole Miss Rebels in a 6:30 p.m. first pitch at Oxford-University Stadium/Swayze Field. On Wednesday, the Billikens face SIU Edwardsville in a 3 p.m. clash at GCS Stadium in Sauget, Ill. About the Billikens: Saint Louis enters the week 11-10 overall and will look to snap a season-long four-game losing skid. Last weekend, the Bills suffered a three-game sweep at Xavier to begin Atlantic 10 Conference play. Senior shortstop Ryan Bennett leads the team with a .435 average and has registered multiple hits in five straight games. He also leads the team with 30 hits despite missing five games earlier this season due to injury. Freshman third baseman Zach Miller hits .342, leads the team with 23 RBIs and is tied for the team lead with five homers. Junior first baseman Danny Brock is second on the team with a .377 average, while junior catcher Ben Braaten is hitting .359. Junior outfielder Andrew Guerra is tied with Miller for the team lead with five homers. The Billikens will send sophomore left-hander Andrew Buckham to the mound Tuesday at Ole Miss. He is 0-1 with a 9.53 ERA in five appearances (three starts). On Wednesday against SIUE, freshman right-hander Garrett Cooper will make his first career start on the mound. In four relief appearances this season, he is 0-1 with a 2.16 ERA. As a team, the Billikens hit .304 and score 7.0 runs per contest. The pitching staff has a 4.60 ERA and allows opponents a .306 batting average. Recapping the Xavier Series: Saint Louis was in every game against the Musketeers, but Xavier used late-inning rallies to take all three games against the Billikens in Cincinnati. Xavier (10-6, 3-0 A-10), last season's A-10 Championship runner-up and the second-ranked team in the conference heading into the season, got a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 10th in Friday's 4-3 victory. On Saturday, the Musketeers scored six times in the seventh and eighth innings to post a 12-8 win. In Sunday's series finale, Xavier pushed across three runs in the bottom of the ninth to win the game 8-7 in walk-off fashion. Ryan Bennett led the team in hitting in the series with a .500 average (7-for-14), while sophomore left fielder Cody Cotter hit .333 (4-for-12). Zach Miller registered a team-high five RBIs in the series. Scouting the Rebels: Ole Miss is ranked in every major college baseball poll and last week was ranked as high as 12th in the Baseball America poll. The Rebels (15-5, 4-2 SEC) are coming off a weekend series that saw them take two of three from Alabama. Last season, Ole Miss qualified for its sixth-straight NCAA Tournament, and the Rebels advanced to the championship game of the NCAA Coral Gables Regional before falling to top-ranked Miami. Senior outfielder Logan Power leads the club with a .397 average and 25 RBIs. Senior outfielder Jeremy Travis is hitting .349 and leads the squad with four home runs and a .721 slugging percentage. Junior right-hander Wade Broyles will make his first career start on the hill. In two appearances this season, he has not allowed a hit in three innings while striking out four and walking none. As a team, the Rebels hit .319 and score 8.4 runs per contest. The pitching staff has a 4.59 ERA and allows opponents a .281 batting average. Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco is in his ninth season in Oxford and sports a record of 336-188-1. Series History: Ole Miss owns a 5-0 series advantage against the Billikens. The two squads last met in 2006, when the Rebels took two games by the scores of 9-1 and 11-2 in Oxford to start the season. Scouting the Cougars: SIU Edwardsville, which is transitioning to Division I and will compete in the Ohio Valley Conference in 2010, is playing a full Division I schedule this season and enters Wednesday's game with a 3-10 record. The Cougars picked up victories against Lehigh, Long Island and UT Martin. Senior infielder Josh Street leads SIUE with a .391 batting average, five home runs and 24 RBIs. Senior outfielder Adam Eggemeyer also hits .391 and has clubbed two homers and driven in 13 runs. Junior right-hander Spencer Patton, who is 0-3 with a 6.75 ERA in five appearances (two starts), is expected to toe the rubber for the Cougars. As a team, SIUE hits .292 and scores 7.2 runs per game. The pitching staff has an 8.09 ERA and allows opponents a .341 batting average. Head coach Gary Collins is in his 31st season at the helm with a 943-649-7 record. Series History: SIU Edwardsville leads the all-time series 35-17, but the teams have not met on the diamond since the 1996 campaign. Hendrickson Faces Alma Mater: SLU head coach Darin Hendrickson earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from SIUE and played for the Cougars and coach Gary Collins in 1990 and 1991. In 1991, Hendrickson went 10-4 on the mound and pitched 112 innings, a number that ranks second in a single season at SIUE. Rank and File: Tuesday's game at Ole Miss will mark the first time the Billikens have faced a ranked opponent since 2007. The Billikens beat a then-unranked UC Santa Barbara squad 8-7 earlier this season. The Gauchos have since gone 12-4 and is currently nationally ranked. Since 2002, the Billikens are 3-29 against ranked opponents. Bills at GCS Ballpark: Saint Louis will be looking for its first win at GCS Ballpark, which is located just 15 minutes from downtown St. Louis off of Interstate 255 in Sauget, Ill. Earlier this season, SLU was edged 6-5 by SEMO at GCS. The Billikens are 0-7 all time at GCS Ballpark. SLU Skipper: Saint Louis head coach Darin Hendrickson is in his second season as the Billikens' skipper. Last year, he led SLU to 24 victories, the most by a first-year head coach in program history. In addition, the Billikens had two players - Casey Moore and Dave Sever - selected in Major League Baseball's First-Year Player Draft, marking the first time since 1997 that two Billikens were drafted in the same year. Hendrickson, who picked up his 500th career victory last season in a home win against Fordham, has a 14-year career record of 525-213 with stints at Central Missouri, St. Louis Community College-Forest Park and Fontbonne. Also in their second seasons are assistant coaches Kevin Moulder and Will Bradley and volunteer assistant Danny Jackson. New Look Billikens: Saint Louis has had eight field players and eight pitchers make their debuts in a Billiken uniform this season. Four of the Bills' top five hitters are newcomers. Sophomore left-hander Andrew Buckham, junior right-hander Bryant Cotton and freshman lefty Jim Foster all have seen starts on the mound this season. Making it Count: A pair of Billikens posted home runs for their first career hits. Freshman Zach Miller homered in his first collegiate at-bat in the season opener at CSU Bakersfield, while Lucas Calderon hit a two-run shot against Indiana State Feb. 24 for his first hit. Weekly Accolades: The Billikens have had two players pick up A-10 weekly honors so far this season. Chaz Salembier was named A-10 Pitcher of the Week on Feb. 23 after picking up a win and a save against CSU Bakersfield and UC Santa Barbara, respectively, on opening weekend. Zach Miller was tabbed A-10 Rookie of the Week after hitting .485 and driving in 14 runs from March 2 to March 15. Power Surge: Andrew Guerra and Zach Miller each have homered five times this season, just one home run off last year's individual season high. As a team, the Billikens have belted 18 home runs on the year. Climbing the Charts: Senior right-hander Dave Sever is moving up the career strikeout chart in the Billiken record book. He leads the team in Ks this season with 32, and earlier this year he became the sixth pitcher in SLU history to record 200 strikeouts in a career. Sever sits in sixth place on SLU's all-time chart with 231 career Ks, four shy of fifth place. The program's all-time leader in strikeouts is Ryan Bird (2004-07), a current member of the St. Louis Cardinals organization who fanned 286 batters in his SLU career. Sever picked up his 18th career win earlier this year against Chicago State, which moves him into second place on SLU's all-time list. He is three wins shy of tying John Marcum's (1964-66) school record of 21. Win Number One: A pair of Billikens registered their first career wins on the mound this season. Jim Foster pitched six innings to pick up the win in the final Chicago State game in his first career start. Bryant Cotton, who picked up the Bills' lone victory in the Murray State series, also got the win against Eastern Illinois earlier this season. Billikens at Busch: Saint Louis will face the Missouri Tigers at Busch Stadium on April 1. Game time is slated for 7:15 p.m. General admission tickets are $10 and are available at www.stlcardinals.com. The BSC Gets a Facelift: The home of the Billikens underwent renovations in the off-season. The Billiken Sports Center now features a brick backstop and bricked-in dugouts. The infield was laser-graded and re-surfaced, and new padding was added to the outfield wall. Down the Road: Following the two mid-week games, the Billikens host A-10 foe Duquesne this weekend at The Billiken Sports Center. Game one against the Dukes is slated for Friday at 7 p.m., with game two set for Saturday at 1 p.m. The teams conclude the three-game set Sunday at noon.
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