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The University of Evansville baseball team will honor its six seniors this weekend at UE’s Charles H. Braun Stadium, as the Purple Aces will entertain the league-leading Illinois State University Redbrids on “Senior Weekend” at UE.  The series will begin on Thursday night at 6:00 p.m. and continue on Friday night (6:00 p.m.) and Saturday afternoon (1:00 p.m.), with the seniors being honored prior to Saturday’s regular-season finale.

UE will honor seniors Alex Acheson, Corey Davisson, Keegan Dennis, Tom Heithoff, Matt Major and Andy Pascoe prior to Saturday’s finale of the three-game Missouri Valley Conference series and regular-season.  Combined, those six men have helped Evansville to 102 wins over the last four years while hitting a collective .290 with 65 doubles, eight triples, 12 home runs and 189 RBI offensively and racking up 22 wins and 19 saves on the mound.  They have all been key contributors to UE’s resurgence this season, as the Purple Aces have won 28 games this season after posting just 14 victories two seasons ago.

“These six men have meant so much to our program during their time at the University of Evansville,” said UE head coach Wes Carroll.  “Whether it has been as a member of the starting lineup or bullpen, or off the field as a leader in the dugout or classroom, each one of these six men have really given their all to the program during their time at UE and they have been a pleasure to coach.”

Acheson has been a career .301 hitter for UE on the field while also earning ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District first team honors this spring in the classroom, while carrying a 3.49 grade point average in accounting at UE.  He also is UE’s career record holder with 38 HBPs.  Davisson, meanwhile, became the first pitcher in school history to record 30 mound appearances in back-to-back seasons last weekend with his team-best 30th appearance of the year, and he will enter this weekend’s series needing just three more appearances to tie the single-season record of 33, set by Willie Glen in 2000.  Overall, he ranks fourth all-time with 79 appearances, and he leads the team this year with a 7-1 overall record and 4.30 ERA.

Dennis has emerged as UE’s ace on the mound this season, as he has gone 3-3 with a 4.26 ERA and 64 strikeouts in a team-best 74.0 innings of work as UE’s No. 1 starter.  A transfer from John A. Logan College, Dennis has struck out 127 men in 130.1 innings of work at UE over the last two years.  Heithoff, meanwhile, is getting set to wrap up an outstanding two-year, two-way career, as he has hit .275 in 95 career games as UE’s starting first baseman, while also racking up seven wins, 17 saves and a 3.58 ERA as UE’s closer.  He currently ranks second all-time at UE with the 17 saves.

Major has played in 23 games for UE over his four year career, but responded last year to hit .250 in limited action and owns a career .364 on-base percentage as a Purple Ace.  Major also has excelled in the classroom at UE, owning a 3.31 GPA in Biochemistry in the classroom.  Pascoe, meanwhile, has been a constant in a Purple Aces’ uniform over the last four years, hitting .294 in 146 career games, including 121 starts at UE.  He earned second team all-Missouri Valley Conference honors last year at designated hitter, after hitting a team-best .331 last spring as a junior.

The seniors will hope to play the role of spoiler in the MVC title race this weekend, as UE will try to derail the title hopes of league-leading Illinois State.  Evansville will bring a 28-24 overall record and 8-10 conference mark into this weekend’s series, while Illinois State will counter with a 26-20 overall mark and 14-4 MVC record.  The Redbirds are currently a half-game ahead of Wichita State in the MVC standings, and Illinois State needs one win to clinch a share of the title, and two wins to win the school’s first-ever outright MVC regular-season title in the sport of baseball.  Illinois State is led by sophomore infielder Kevin Tokarski, who will bring a league-best .448 batting average into this weekend’s series.

Evansville, meanwhile, currently occupies fifth place in the MVC standings, but UE could finish anywhere from third to seventh place in the Valley standings depending on what happens this weekend.

“This weekend is obviously very important to us,” said Carroll.  “We want to go into the conference tournament playing good baseball.  This weekend can help us do that, but it will be tough, because Illinois State will be out to win a conference title.  It should make for a good weekend of baseball.”

All three games of the weekend series can be heard live on 91.5 F.M.-WUEV.