Chicago State Baseball Opens WAC Play This Weekend At Grand Canyon

Chicago State (10-11, 0-0 WAC) at Grand Canyon (11-11, 2-1 WAC)
Date	March 28-30, 2014
Time	6:30 p.m. MT / 1:30 p.m. MT / 12:30 p.m. MT
Location	Phoenix, Ariz. - Brazell Stadium
Internet Radio	http://www.1100kfnx.com/
Live Stats	http://www.sidearmstats.com/gcu/baseball
Social Media	@CSUBaseball

Complete Game Notes (PDF)

• The Cougars enter this weekend's series with Grand Canyon holding nine wins on the year, one short of the 10 they recorded all of last year.  

• This is Chicago State's best 19 game start to a season (9-10) since the 2000 season when they also started 9-10.

• Junior Eric Hall (Oakville, ONT/Oakville Trafalgar)'s 1.52 ERA ranks third in the WAC.

• Chicago State enters the weekend leading the Western Athletic Conference in hitting (.276). The Cougars are second in the WAC in slugging (.362), on base percentage (.354), runs (110) and RBI (93).

• Five Cougars (Stroschein, Patterson, Matheson, Russell and Romanin) have started all 19 games for Chicago State.

• The Cougars held leads in six of their 10 losses.

• The Cougars are 5-1 in their last six games when scoring five or more runs.

• Junior Mattingly Romanin (Burlington, ONT/Notre Dame) has scored 19 runs through 19 games ranking him third in the WAC.

• Junior Jordan Stroschein (Marion, Iowa/Linn-Mar)'s 10 steals ranks third in the WAC.

• Senior Andrew Wellwerts (Cedar Lake, Ind./Hanover Central) has struck out five or more batters in four of his six starts this season. He leads the team with 26 strikeouts.

• Junior Chase Matheson (McHenry, Ill./McHenry) has driven in two or more runs in a game three times this season. He has had multiple hits in a game seven times this season, recorded a base hit in 16-of-19 games and has reached base safely 17-of-19 games this season.

• Current Chicago State teammates Jordan Stroschein (Marion, Iowa/Linn-Mar) and Dane Mehring (Cedar Rapids, Iowa/Xavier) were teammates last year at Ellsworth Community College in Ellsworth, Iowa, while Ean McNeal (Cedar Rapids, Iowa/Xavier) and Robert Swenson (Mason City, Iowa/Mason City) were teammates at North Iowa Area Community College. Ellsworth CC and North Iowa Area CC are conference rivals.  

• Jerry Silva (Chicago, Ill./Holy Trinity) has only given up two earned runs in 18.2 innings this season. He is in the top three in the WAC in hits allowed and earned runs allowed. Opposing teams are only hitting .133 against him which leads the league.

• Evan Davis (Sterling, Ill./Sterling) and Jordan Stroschein (Marion, Iowa/Linn-Mar) have 15 RBI on the year while Chase Matheson (McHenry, Ill./McHenry) has 14. Davis and Stroschein are tied for fourth in the WAC in that category while Matheson is tied for fifth. The threesome has combined to drive in 40 percent of CSU's runs this year.

• Junior Chase Matheson (McHenry, Ill./McHenry) and freshmen Sanford Hunt (Chicago, Ill./Kenwood) both have hitting streaks of ten games this season.

• Freshman Sanford Hunt (Chicago, Ill./Kenwood)'s .338 batting average ranks sixth in the WAC. It is also the highest average for a freshman in the WAC.

• Sanford Hunt (Chicago, Ill./Kenwood) didn't have to travel far to get to Chicago State. He played high school baseball Kenwood Academy High School in Chicago about 15 minutes away from Chicago State's campus.

• Sophomore Julian Russell (Chicago, Ill./Gordon Tech) started all 55 games at shortstop last season and has started all 19 games this year at shortstop.

• 2014 is Chicago State's first season in the Western Athletic Conference after spending the previous four seasons in the Great West Conference. This will be the first time that the Cougars will participate in a conference with a bid to the NCAA Regionals since the 2006 season.

• Despite only having five full-time pitchers last year, Chicago State compiled the program's best single season ERA (5.99) since 1994 in 2013.

• The Cougars won 10 games last year which marked the first time since the 2001 season that the team had won at least 10 games in back-to-back seasons.

• Mattingly Romanin (Burlington, ONT/Notre Dame) and Andrew Wellwerts (Cedar Lake, Ind./Hanover Central) were named to the 2013 All-Great West Conference Tournament Team. Romanin and Wellwerts represented the most players that the Cougars have had on a postseason tournament team since 1999.

• The Cougars earned a pair of victories in the GWC Tournament last year. By finishing in the final four, it was Chicago State's best finish in a conference tournament since 1999.

• Junior Mattingly Romanin (Burlington, ONT/Notre Dame) became a viral Internet celebrity this past summer. A skydiver landed on him prior to a college summer league contest in Hannibal, Mo. The video of the incident earned over 3 million hits and was featured on ESPN, USA Today and Sports Illustrated.

• The Cougars moved into a brand new on-campus baseball stadium this season. The $2.5 million facility gives Chicago State a true home for the first time in program history. The ballpark features a FieldTurf artificial surface, a dirt mound and a crushed-brick warning track.