FULTON, Mo. -- The William Woods University baseball team returns home after a successful four-game road trip to take on the American Midwest Conference's top team, No. 3 Missouri Baptist, for a three-game weekend series this weekend. The first game from Owls Field is slated for a 6 p.m. start on Friday night and will conclude on Saturday afternoon with a doubleheader starting at 12 p.m.
William Woods (25-8, 12-6 AMC) returns home after going 3-1 on its most recent road trip. The Owls took two of three from AMC foe Williams Baptist College last weekend, and collected a 10-9 come-from-behind win at Culver-Stockton College.
The Owls currently trail Missouri Baptist (32-5, 15-2 AMC) by 3.5 games coming into this weekend's play. WWU is currently in a tie with Lyon College for third in the conference, as both teams are 12-6 through 18 games. William Woods holds the tiebreaker over the Scots, thanks to their three-game series win against them earlier this season.
The offense has been one of the key reasons for WWU's success this season, as they are second only to MBU for the highest batting average in the conference at .321. The strong batting average has enabled the Owls to score 6.9 runs per game, which is the second-highest runs per game average in the league.
Cody Stewart still holds the team lead in batting average with his .418 clip. The Temecula, Calif., native broke out of a recent slump during the road trip, as he hit .454 (5-for-11) and recorded his first back-to-back multi-hit game since the Mar. 18 doubleheader against Park University.
The speedy centerfielder scored five runs on the trip and stole two stolen bases. The pair of swipes gives him a team-high 18 steals, as he is 18-of-20 in stolen base attempts this season. The total is also the fifth-best in the AMC for stolen bases.
Despite having three of the conference's top five RBI men on their team, the Owls still rank just third in the AMC in team RBI with 229. Matt Thomas (37), Zach Nichols (33), and Austin Clapp (30) rank third, fourth, and fifth in the league in RBI.
On the pitching rubber, William Woods is having just as much success as they are at the plate. The team holds a staff ERA of 3.96, which is the second-best in the league, just behind Missouri Baptist's league-leading 3.16 staff ERA.
Closer James Ball leads the team in terms of ERA with his 2.27 mark, which is the fourth-best in the AMC. The righty has ran into a rough spot here of late, as he has allowed eight runs, six earned, in his last five outings. Most of that damage came in game two against Williams Baptist, when he allowed four runs in three innings of work, but was still able to pick up the win.
Ball has collected nine saves on the year, which is the most since the 2011 season when Alex Cann picked up 12. The nine saves are the second-most in the AMC, just one behind league-leader Justin Kittel of Mid-Continent University.
Starter Dane Smith comes into this weekend as the team's best starting pitcher, as he is 6-1 with a 3.28 ERA in eight starts. The Halls, Tenn., native has collected four complete games this season, as he leads the team in innings pitched at 49.1 innings.
Smith's six wins are tied for the fourth-most in the league, while he has struck out the third-most batters in the conference with 39. He also holds the ninth-lowest ERA with his 3.28 clip.
For Missouri Baptist, they come into this weekend's game as the conference's top hitting and pitching team. The Spartans bring in a staff ERA of 3.16, while they are first in batting average at .325.
The No. 3-ranked team in the nation has won 11 of its last 12 games, with the lone loss in that stretch coming to Lyon College.
Orlando Olivera leads the team in hitting with his AMC-best .431 batting average. The junior has collected a league-best 56 hits in 130 at-bats. He also leads the team in RBI (38) and doubles (12).
Olivera is one of three batters who are in the top 20 in the AMC in batting average.
Jeff Smith leads the team with his seven home runs, which also leads the league. The power hitter is hitting .314 on the year with 27 RBI and a .605 slugging percentage.
MBU has a dominating pair at the top of its rotation, as Michael Yarborough and David Mullins leads the AMC in ERA with their 1.68 and 1.80 mark respectively. The duo are also one-and-two in opponent batting average, as Mullins is holding teams to a .144 batting average and Yarborough is limiting his opposition to a .209 batting average.
These two teams have played a total of 75 times, and Missouri Baptist holds the all-time series lead at 56-19.
Check back with wwuowls.com for a full recap of all of this weekend's action.
