@NCBearsBaseball CLoses Road Trip With a Pair At Wichita State

Tuesday, March 14

Wichita, Kansas

2:00 pm

University of Northern Colorado

Wichita State

Photo by: AE Photography

3/13/2017 1:46:00 PM | Baseball

UNC finishes its road trip on Tuesday and Wednesday against Wichita State

By: Ryan Pfeifer, UNCBears.com

WICHITA, Kan. – Northern Colorado finishes its two week trip across the Midwest when they face Wichita State for a two-game series beginning at 2 pm Tuesday.

Northern Colorado Notes

Game	Probable Starters	Game Links
March 14 at 2 pm	Keenan Lum (1-1, 6.32 ERA) vs RHP Chandler Sanburn (1-0, 3.18 ERA)	Watch \| Listen \| Live Stats
March 15 at 2 pm	TBA vs RHP Tommy Barnhouse (1-0, 6.00 ERA)	Watch \| Listen \| Live Stats

Leading Off
• UNC is finishing up a two week road trip in which they will play six games against three different teams. The Bears are currently 2-2 on the trip, falling twice to Nebraska and winning twice against Omaha.
• The Bears are coming off a doubleheader sweep of Omaha last Thursday which they won 9-4 and 7-3.
• The final game between UNC and UNO was canceled due to weather.
• Evan Johnson had another strong week for the Bears at the plate, hitting .412 for the season. He had seven hits overall, six of them were singles. Johnson scored four times and brought in two runs as well.
• Jacob Howard had a strong performance against Omaha in relief going four strong innings to earn the win allowing just two hits and no runs on three walks and striking out three as well.
• Dean Lawson had a rebound week at the plate hitting .333 this past week. He also drew four walks for a .500 on-base percentage.
• In game one of the doubleheader against Omaha, Northern Colorado recorded 16 hits, all singles.
• This is the second straight year UNC will play at Wichita State.

Scouting Wichita State
Wichita State comes into the mid-week series against the Bears after traveling this past week to No. 6 LSU, being swept by the Tigers in a three-game series. For the year, WSU is 8-6 overall, including a perfect 7-0 at home. UNC will be the third WAC school the Shockers have faced this year, having hosted and swept both Utah Valley and Grand Canyon to begin the year. Greyson Jenista is leading the team with a .333 batting average. He and Jordan Boyer have combined to drive in 21 runs for the Shockers this season. On the mound, WSU has a 4.72 ERA. The probable starters in Chandler Sanburn and Tommy Barnhouse are a combined 2-0 on the season with 3.18 and 6.00 ERAs, respectively. Wichita State has a 101-52 strikeout to walk ratio. The Shockers were picked to finish tied for fourth with Indiana State in the Missouri Valley.

History Against Wichita State
The Bears and Shockers have played against each other nine times, all of the games taking place in Wichita as WSU holds a 7-2 lead in the series. The first time the two teams played was in 2005. The Bears won the first ever game of the series 8-5 and did not pick up another win until last season when they avoided the sweep with a 4-3 win.

Along Came Pauley
Redshirt sophomore Jack Pauley has made an instant impact for Northern Colorado this season. He leads the team in batting average (.391) and RBI (17).

He earned his first career WAC Hitter of the Week honor for his performance against NDSU. He hit .538 in the series with three extra base hits including a pair of homers. He led the team seven RBI and six runs scored.

Bears Dig The Long Ball
UNC can hit the long ball. The team has 17 home runs this season including five of multi-home run games. They are ranked 21st in the NCAA in home runs hit.

Eight different Bears have hit a long ball this season, led by Cole Maltese's five, which puts him ninth in the nation.

We Play Small Ball Too
Northern Colorado not only hits the long ball, but can play small ball too. The Bears have 10 sacrifice bunts this year. That places them first in the WAC for sac bunts and 62nd in the NCAA.

Big Innings
It was a pair of big innings that led UNC to the wins over Omaha last week, scoring six runs in the eighth for a comeback win in the first game of the doubleheader. They then put up a five spot in the third inning to go onto a 7-3 win to complete the doubleheader sweep.

Quality Starts
Quality starts can go a long way to helping a pitching staff, and is something UNC was able to do three times against North Dakota. The Bears received the quality start from Aaron Hamilton, Troy Watson and Keenan Lum. This helped Northern Colorado keep its arms in the bullpen fresh.

14 K Gold Performance
Aaron Hamilton turned in a performance for the ages against San Jose State. He pitched a complete game two-hit shutout striking out 14, and allowing no walks. The 14 strikeouts tied a school-record, with Donnie Alexander.

He followed it up with a quality start for UNC against NDSU going six innings allowing just two runs on four hits, while striking out six and walking just one.

For the season Hamilton is 1-1 with a 2.65 ERA, he has struck out 21 and walked just five over 17 innings pitched.

Close Calls
One or two run ball games have been common for Northern Colorado this season, through the first 13 games, seven have been decided by that margin. UNC is 4-3 in those games.

New Faces
Fans are going to need to keep a roster page handy for the first few weeks of the season as UNC welcomes 19 newcomers this year. The group of 19 is a mixture of true freshmen and junior college transfers.

Three of the fresh faces for the Bears are receiving some attention nationally. They are RHP Aaron Hamilton, OF Jack Pauly and RHP Troy Watson. DIBaseball.com rated both Hamilton and Pauly as some of the top draft prospects for the 2017 and 2018 draft, respectively from the WAC. Watson was ranked the No. 3 impact freshman for this season.

UNC also welcomes Nate Rasmussen as a volunteer assistant to staff. Rasmussen will serve as outfield coach, first base coach, and camp director as well as assisting hitters.

During the first weekend of play, Northern Colorado saw 12 different newcomers make their debut for the team. In that group included starters Jack Pauley, Evan Johnson, Alex Kiel and pitchers Sam Leach, Aaron Hamilton and Troy Watson.

Say W(h)atson?
Freshman Troy Watson earned his first career start Tuesday when UNC took on San Francisco State. The righty from Texas didn't disappoint either. He went five and a third innings without allowing a hit to the Gators. His final line was six innings, two hits, two runs, both earned and three strike outs and walks. He ended up getting the win.

Interesting Ending
Northern Colorado's final game against San Francisco had a very interesting ending. First, the conclusion of the game was pushed to two days after it began due to darkness and weather. Then in the bottom of the 10th San Francisco's final two outs came when they were caught trying to steal second base.

Tanner on a Terror
Nick Tanner was the best Bear last season, earning second team All-WAC. He finished the 2016 season with a slash line of .327/.401/.388 and added one home run along with 15 RBIs. Tanner was also one of UNC's key pitchers, finishing with a 4-1 record. His team leading 2.89 ERA was good for third in the conference and 158th in the nation. Tanner pitched in a team-high 53 innings with 33 strikeouts and 13 walks during the season.

He hit an impressive and important home run for UNC last Friday over the right field fence to give the team a 6-5 lead. The Bears would go on to win the game 7-5.

Exceeding Expectations
In the preseason WAC coaches poll, Northern Colorado has been picked to finish eighth in the conference for the second consecutive year. The Bears will need to surprise the teams in the conference in order to book a trip to Mesa, Arizona at the end of May.

UNC has been able to exceed expectations the past two seasons. Last year the team was picked to finish eighth and ended up fifth in the conference. While in 2014 Northern Colorado was picked last, but finished seventh in the WAC.

Following the Bears
Want to stay up to date with all things UNC Bears Baseball? There are a few ways to. During all games this year there will be live updates on the team's Twitter account @NCBearsBaseball.

For home games there will also be a live audio broadcast of the games as well as live stats on UNCBears.com.

Making the Grades
There were seven UNC players who earned spots on the 2016 Academic Honors list. Those earning honors are Jake Garcia, Cam Huber, Brett Minnick, Cole Maltese, Dan Reese, Payton Tapia, Corey Nakakura.

Wild Wild West
The Bears roster is comprised of almost every state in the western part of the US. Eleven different states are represented on the roster, as far east as Nebraska and as west as Hawaii.

Home Grown
Head coach Carl Iwasaki and his staff have done a good job of keeping the home grown talent in the state. 12 of UNC's 35 hail from the Centennial State.

Hawaiian Connection
The Bears have four players who hail from Hawaii plus head coach Carl Iwasaki and assistant Kaiona Correa all coming to Colorado from the islands.

Class of 2018
Help arrives for Northern Colorado with eight new players joining their roster for the 2018 season. The Bears add three infielders, a catchers, two utility players and a pair of right handed pitchers.

On Deck
The Bears return home next week to host Regis on Tuesday March 21 at 2 pm.

In the Hole
Conference season begins next weekend when Sacramento State comes to town. The Bears and Hornets will play a three game series beginning on March 24 at 2 pm.