Leading Off
The Omaha baseball team welcomes visits Kansas State this Tuesday, March 27, with first pitch at 6:30 p.m. at Tointon Family Stadium in Manhattan, Kan. The game will be broadcast live on ESPN3, and links to live stats, audio and video will be available on OMavs.com.
The Mavericks then resume Summit League play this weekend, hosting South Dakota State, March 30 to April 1 at Seymour Smith Park. Friday's game is set for 4 p.m., followed by 2 p.m. on Saturday and Noon on Sunday. Links to live stats and audio will be available on OMavs.com.
Quick Hits
• Omaha's 5-0 start in Summit League play marks its best start since 2015.
• The Mavericks have registered 10 or more hits in seven of their last eight games, hitting .330 in that span.
• Omaha's three shutouts this season lead the Summit League and rank 13th nationally. Its league-best 22 sacrifice bunts are ninth in the country.
•
Grant Suponchick and
Braden Rogers carry identical nine-game hitting streaks into the week, which ties for the longest of any Omaha player this season.
•
Keil Krumwiede is on a 20-game reaching base streak, in place since Feb. 18.
• The Mavericks have generated the most runs in the fourth inning this year (19).
• Omaha returns 12 letterwinners, including five position players who were starters last season:
Adam Caniglia (51 starts in 2017),
Grant Suponchick (47),
Cole Thibodeau (44),
Parker Smejkal (40) and
Jack Kalina (35).
• Suponchick is the Mavericks' lone returning All-Summit selection, as he was a first-team pick as a DH in 2017.
• Omaha was picked fifth in the Summit League Preseason Coaches' Poll.
• Omaha's four captains are
Adam Caniglia,
Payton Kinney,
Cal Hehnke and
Keil Krumwiede.
• Omaha is 218-277 all-time against all opponents on the schedule this year and 159-146 all-time against the five other teams in the Summit League. The Mavericks have compiled a 79-65 record in Summit League play since 2013.
Scouting the Kansas State Wildcats
Kansas State enters the week with a record of 12-12 (0-0 Big 12). The Wildcats are on a four-game losing skid after a three-game sweep at No. 15 TCU last weekend, falling 4-2, 12-2 and 6-0.
Head coach Brad Hill is in his 15th season at K-State, carrying a record of 457-372-3 and a career mark of 875-463-3 over 24 seasons.
Tuesday marks the 13th meeting all-time between Omaha and K-State, and the Wildcats lead the series, 10-2. The two teams last met March 21, 2017 in Manhattan, Kan., where KSU won 10-1.
Scouting the South Dakota State Jackrabbits
South Dakota State enters the weekend with a record of 3-17 (1-3 Summit League). The Jackrabbits snapped a nine-game losing skid last Friday with a 6-3 win in 12 innings at Western Illinois before the remaining two games in the series were cancelled due to weather.
Head coach Rob Bishop is in his second season at SDSU, carrying a record of 29-41 and a career mark of 163-194-1 over eight years.
Friday marks the 149th meeting all-time between Omaha and SDSU, and the Mavericks lead the series, 80-68. The two teams last met May 19, 2017 in Brookings, S.D., where SDSU won 6-4.
Maverick Mound Notes
• Right-hander
Joey Machado (2-3) redshirted in 2017. He has started six games so far this year and earned his second straight win last Friday over Oral Roberts, throwing 5.0 innings with four hits and five strikeouts. Machado leads the team with 24 strikeouts this season.
• Left-hander
Spencer Koelewyn (2-1) made his third start last Saturday vs. ORU, picking up his second straight win in 6.0 innings with five hits and three strikeouts.
• Right-hander
Tommy Steier earned his team-leading second save after turning in a gutsy ninth-inning performance against ORU last Friday. The freshman faced a bases-loaded situation with one out but fanned the next two batters to preserve Omaha's series-opening win.
DeBonville Collects Summit League Player of the Week Recognition
Thomas DeBonville was named Summit League Player of the Week his performances March 19-25, the conference office announced Monday.
DeBonville collected his first career player of the week award after batting .417 with a double, a triple and a home run in a three-game series over Oral Roberts. The junior from Silverthorne, Colo., scored five runs with three RBI and had a .917 slugging percentage and a .500 on-base percentage. He capped the series with a 3-for-5 effort with his second homer of the year on Sunday.
Suponchick vs. the Summit League
Grant Suponchick batted a team-leading .323 against Summit League competition last season, up from .224 in non-conference games. In those 28 league contests, the Papillion, Neb., native posted six doubles, two home runs, 10 runs scored, 15 RBI and 11 walks. He also had nine mound appearances and a pair of saves in league play.
Suponchick's junior campaign is off to another roaring start, as he has hit a team-high .522 with an .826 slugging percentage and a .577 on-base percentage over the first two weeks of league play.
DeBonville Named to Summit League Players to Watch List
Thomas DeBonville was included on the Summit League's Players to Watch List released Feb. 8. The transfer was a two-time all-conference and all-region pick at Eastern Arizona College and ranked fifth nationally among junior college players for stolen bases (39) in 2017. He hit .419 last season with five doubles, six triples, two homers and a .597 slugging percentage.
DeBonville joined the Omaha lineup on Feb. 24 and has started all 19 games since then, hitting .303 with five doubles, two triples, two home runs, a team-leading 19 runs scored and 12 RBI.
2018 Slate Takes Mavericks Around the Nation
Omaha's 2018 schedule includes 54 games, and the team plays in 11 states against schools from six other Division I conferences. Four opponents – Ohio, BYU, Oral Roberts and Nebraska – played in the 2017 NCAA Tournament.
Entering the season, Omaha had never faced just one of its opponents -- Ohio. The Mavericks hold a combined all-time record of 218-277 over all teams on the regular-season slate.
Thibodeau On the Move to Third
After starting 43 games at second base as a freshman, sophomore
Cole Thibodeau has made the move to third base in his sophomore campaign. In the opening weekend of play vs. Northwestern, Thibodeau hit .455 with three runs and a team-leading four RBI for the series. For the season, he has batted .268 over 22 games with 16 runs scored, nine RBI and 12 walks.
In 2017, Thibodeau ranked sixth nationally and led the Summit League with 14 sacrifice hits last season, helping Omaha as a team to 10th in the country and first in the conference for sac bunts (52). For the year, he batted .273 with 26 runs scored and had 11 multi-hit games.
Double Digits
Omaha produced double-digit hits in back-to-back games to open the season vs. Northwestern, with 18 in game one of the doubleheader sweep and 10 in game two. The Mavericks have recorded 10 or more hits in seven of their last eight games, including six straight games from March 10-23.
Last season, the Mavericks had 10 or more hits in 15 games, going 9-6. This year, they are 7-3.
Over the last seven years of Division I play, UNO is a combined 103-45 when keying at least 10 hits.
Up Next
Omaha welcomes in-state foe Nebraska for a midweek matchup on Tuesday, April 3 at Werner Park. First pitch is set for 6:35 p.m., and links to live audio and stats will be available on OMavs.com.
