CHICAGO – After four days off, the Belmont University baseball team travels to the Windy City this weekend for a Missouri Valley Conference series against the University of Illinois-Chicago at Curtis Granderson Stadium.
The important three-game set between two teams battling for an MVC Championships berth begins Friday evening and continues through Saturday afternoon before wrapping up on Sunday at noon.
Friday and Sunday's games will be streamed on ESPN+, while Saturday's game will be streamed on ESPN3. Live audio play-by-play will be broadcast on Belmont Bruins Radio on iHeartRadio and live stats will be available on BelmontBruins.com.
What's Bruin
- Belmont will be looking to start a winning streak to begin the month of May--after going 11-6 in March, the Bruins finished 7-12 in April as they battled the top five teams in the MVC standings in five straight weekend series
- Belmont last traveled to Chicago in 2018, taking two out of three games from Northwestern in May
- Junior third baseman Mason Landers leads the team in batting average, hits, home runs, and RBIs
- Landers enters the weekend on a 20-game on-base streak
- Over his last four games, Landers is 7-for-17 (.412) with three home runs and five RBIs
- Junior first baseman Brodey Heaton ranks fifth in Belmont's NCAA-era for career RBIs (145) and needs two more home runs to crack the top-10 in career homers
- In MVC play, junior right fielder Sam Slaughter leads the team with a .286 batting average and one home run, seven doubles, and ten walks
- Friday's projected starter on the mound is freshman right-hander Will Pryor (3-0, 2.80 ERA)
- Pryor is coming off his first career Friday start last week, going 4.2 innings with three earned runs allowed and seven strikeouts to no walks against Murray State in a 7-5 win
- Saturday's projected starter is junior left-hander Dominic Baratta (3-4, 4.91 ERA)
- Baratta's last outing came in relief on Saturday, as he provided 7.1 innings out of the bullpen against Murray State, with three earned runs allowed against nine strikeouts and just two walks
- Sunday's projected starter on the mound is freshman right-hander Joe Ruzicka (0-3, 4.98 ERA)
- Ruzicka has made ten starts this season and has tallied 41 strikeouts in 34.1 innings
- Redshirt freshman two-way player Ethan Harden owns a team-best 1.83 ERA on the mound with five saves, which ranks second in the MVC
- Harden has also started 26 games in the field, with two home runs and ten RBIs at the plate
- Junior left fielder Max Blessinger is 6-for-13 (.462) with a home run and a double over his last four games
- Junior center fielder Jeff Clarke leads the team in OPS (.983)
- Belmont is 14-0 when leading after six innings
- Belmont and UIC are currently tied for eighth in the MVC standings. The top eight teams clinch a postseason bid to the MVC Championships, hosted by Indiana State at Bob Warn Field on May 23-27
About the Flames
- UIC has made eight NCAA Regional appearances since 2000, including most recently in 2019
- The Flames are in their first year in the Missouri Valley Conference, after several years in the Horizon League
- UIC ranks 31st in NCAA in fielding percentage (.978) and eighth in double plays (42)
- Graduate transfer third baseman Charlie Syzkowny played four seasons at Division III Wisconsin-Stout and was an All-American there before coming to Chicago and leading the Flames with a .350 batting average and 14 home runs to go along with 46 RBIs
- UIC is coming off a series win at home over Bradley last week
Series History
- This weekend marks the first-ever meetings between UIC and Belmont
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#ItsBruinTime
