April 25, 2005
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Baseball Player of the Week
Dominic Erney
Cleveland State, Senior, Catcher (Parma, Ohio)
Cleveland State senior Dominic Erney is the Horizon League Baseball Player of the Week for the period ending April 25.
Erney collected nine hits during the week, including four home runs and two doubles. He went 2-for-5 with a home run, a double, two runs scored and five RBI in helping the Vikings defeat IPFW 13-4 on April 20, and went 2-for-4 with a home run, one walk, two runs scored and two RBI in helping CSU to a 13-5 win at UW-Milwaukee on April 22. He also posted a 3-for-4 performance with a homer at UWM on April 24. Erney currently leads the Vikings in hitting (.339), home runs (7), RBI (27), slugging percentage (.578) and total bases (63).
Baseball Pitcher of the Week
Rick Cavaiani
UW-Milwaukee, Junior, Pitcher (Appleton, Wis.)
UW- Milwaukee junior Rick Cavaiani is the Horizon League Baseball Pitcher of the Week for the period ending April 25.
Cavaiani made two appearances on the week, going 1-0 with a 0.00 ERA in 9.2 innings of work. On Sunday, he hurled a complete game five-hitter. One unearned run in the first was his only blemish, as the righthander struck out three and walked none. He also provided 2.2 innings of relief on Wednesday at Creighton, scattering four hits and striking out two.
Other Top Horizon League Player Performers - April 25
Bart Babineaux, UIC, Junior, Outfielder (New Iberia, La.)
Junior outfielder Bart Babineaux helped UIC to three victories, over the past week, batting .462 (6-for-13) with two doubles and four RBI. His most impressive performance came in UIC's 16-15 victory over Eastern Illinois on Tuesday night, going 3-for-4 with two runs scored and a RBI. Since April 1st, Babineaux is batting a team-best, .404 (21-for-52) For the season, Babineaux is batting .304 with two homers and 21 RBI.
Alex Rinearson, Butler, Freshman, 1B (Ft. Wayne, Ind.)
Rinearson batted .500 (5-10) and helped lead Butler to back-to-back, non-league wins last week. He had three hits and four runs batted in, including a walk-off solo home run leading off the bottom of the ninth inning, to help the Bulldogs defeat Indiana Tech 7-6. He came back the next day with two hits and a run scored in Butler's 8-6 victory at Valparaiso. The freshman first baseman also had 26 putouts and one assist in the two wins. Rinearson is leading the Bulldogs in hitting with a .382 batting average.
John Kopilchack, Wright State, Freshman, Outfielder (Lima, Ohio)
Kopilchack saw action in WSU's lone game this week against Miami as a pinch-hitter. Kopilchack smacked a double in his first at-bat and followed that with two more singles. In the game he was three-for-three with a double and an RBI.
Joe Nowicki, UW-Milwaukee, Junior, Outfielder (Milwaukee, Wis.)
Nowicki batted .400 (6-for-15) for the week, leading the team with two home runs and eight runs batted in, while also scoring six times. On Friday against Cleveland State, he hit a three-run home run and added a double, before coming back on Sunday with a 4-for-7 effort in UWM's doubleheader sweep of the Vikings. He collected two hits in both games, scoring twice and driving in four runs in game one, courtesy of his seventh home run of the season.
Justin Banks, Youngstown State, Junior, 3B (Steubenville, Ohio)
Banks went 2-for-2 with three runs scored and three RBIs against Toledo in YSU's rain-shortened week. He hit a two-run double and scored in YSU's three-run fifth. He also had an RBI double and scored in the five-run sixth. The third baseman has now hit safely in the past four games.
Other Top Horizon League Pitcher Performers - April 25
Tom Szalewski, UIC, Senior, LHP (Omaha, Neb.)
Senior southpaw Tom Szalewski tossed seven scoreless innings and struck out four batters, as he and junior reliever Scott Saling combined for the nine-hit shutout, as UIC earned the 3-0 non-conference victory over Northern Illinois on Wednesday evening. Szalewski is currently 3-1 with an ERA of 5.68 with 21 strikeouts in 38 innings pitched.
Brian Boone, Youngstown State, Junior, RHP (Pickerington, Ohio)
Boone earned the win against Toledo, allowing one hit over three innings of work.
Horizon League News & Notes
Butler Bulldogs (13-21, 1-3 HL)
Butler's four-game league series at Youngstown State was cancelled because of rain, cold and wet conditions. The Bulldogs have played just four league games this season.
Senior Dale Mueller hit safely in both Butler games last week, running his current hitting streak to 15 consecutive games. Mueller had four hits in the two games, boosting his school record for all-time hits to 263. Freshman right-hander Brian Deter earned his first collegiate victory by pitching two shutout innings in relief in Butler's win at Valparaiso.
Butler has added a non-league game against Franklin on Tuesday, April 26, to replace an earlier cancelled game against Xavier.
Cleveland State (8-23, 2-10 HL)
Due to several inches of snow and rain accumulated during the past 48 hours, Cleveland State's baseball game with Toledo, scheduled for Tuesday, has been cancelled. No make up date has been set.
Last week saw the Vikings collecting three consecutive victories -- their longest win streak of the season. This week the Vikings look to get a couple more non-conference wins against Duquesne and Notre Dame.
UIC Flames (20-15-1, 3-5 HL)
Sophomore hurler Zach Peterson has picked up victories in his last three appearances (1 start, 2 relief). Senior third baseman Bryan Russo has reached base safely in 28 straight games, dating back to March 6th against the Arkansas Razorbacks.
The combined 31 runs scored in UIC's 16-15 win over Eastern Illinois was the most runs scored in a Flames' game since a 20-14 win over Viterbo on March 30, 2002.
UW-Milwaukee Panthers (17-18, 8-4 HL)
Junior Mike Goetz tied a school record with two triples in the first game of Milwaukee's doubleheader with Cleveland State on Sunday, then came back to single, double and hit his first home run in game two. He finished the day 5-for-7 with five runs scored an a 1.857 slugging percentage. In addition to Goetz's extra base splurge, the Panthers struck for 12 extra base hits over the doubleheader, with junior Zak Rivera and senior Charlie Reschke each collecting three doubles in the twin bill.
Junior Aaron Sorenson won his sixth-straight start on Saturday to move to 7-2 on the season. He struck out eight and walked just one in 6.1 innings for his shortest outing since March 11. He has now worked 46.1-of-50 possible innings
over his last six starts.
Wright State Raiders (18-16, 7-1 HL)
The Raiders faced their only bad weather of the season thus far, as their weekend series with Grand Valley State was canceled. The Raiders are hitting .315 as a team and have an ERA of 5.18 both besting the Raiders averages from a season ago. Wright State will play two non-conference games this week one on the road against cross-town rival Dayton and then hosting Eastern Kentucky on Wednesday evening at Nischwitz Stadium. Then the Raiders will host their third straight League Series when Youngstown State comes to town for a four game series.
Youngstown State Penguins (19-15, 3-1 HL)
All four of YSU's scheduled games against Butler were cancelled because of rain. The Penguins also lost seven league games last season due to inclement weather - four at UW-Milwaukee and three against Wright State at home. In four years in the league, YSU had five league games cancelled in 2002, one in 2003, seven last year and four so far this year.
Ten different Penguins combined to recorded 14 hits against Toledo. The Penguins posted double-digits in hits for the 17th time and the 10th time in 12 games.
