ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – Lewis University's baseball team opens its 2021 season with a three-game series at Trevecca Nazarene this weekend in Nashville, Tenn. The Flyers and Trojans will play a doubleheader on Friday at 2 p.m. and then will play a single game on Saturday afternoon beginning at noon. The schedule was changed due to impending weather in Nashville this weekend.
Lewis finished the abbreviated 2020 season with a record of 7-4 and opened Great Lakes Valley Conference play taking two of three from William Jewell. The Flyers were also on a three-game winning streak at the time of the shutdown and were averaging over 11 runs per game in their last five games.
Lewis returns five of its top seven hitters from its lineup last year including
Anthony Cavalieri (Western Springs, Ill./Fenwick) and
Anthony Rios (Lemont, Ill./St. Laurence) who were hitting .395 and .389 respectively when the season ended.
Austin Tittle (Lemont, Ill./Lemont) hit .333 while
Dalton Crowder (Romeoville, Ill./Plainfield East) and
Joe Preusser (Orland Park, Ill./Brother Rice) were at .324 and .302 respectively.
Rios was second on the team last season with 10 runs batted in and
Julian Everett (Frankfort, Ill/Lincoln Way East) added nine RBI. Cavalieri, Tittle and
Angelo Cantelo (Blue Island, Ill./Marian Catholic) each drove in seven runs. Cantelo also hit two home runs.
The Flyers added two transfers
Kevin Barry (Bartlett, Ill./South Elgin) and
Jackson Dvorak (New Lenox, Ill./Providence Catholic) to the lineup. Barry began his career at Valparaiso and appeared in 10 games in 2020 with nine starts and had seven hits including three doubles and four RBI. Dvorak joins Lewis after playing the last two seasons at GLVC rival Missouri-St. Louis. He started all 14 games for the Tritons a year ago and was hitting .302 with three doubles and seven RBI at the time of the shutdown.
The Flyers also return a majority of their arms on the mound this season including their top three starters from a season ago.
Brad Littleton (Coal City, Ill./) was 2-1 with a 2.55 earned run average in 17.2 innings pitched with 20 strikeouts and held opposing hitters to a .209 average.
Ben Davis (Homer Glen, Ill./Lockport Township) was 2-0 in three starts and 15 innings pitched with 10 strikeouts while
Jake Karaba (Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) was 2-0 and lead the team with 23 strikeouts. Lewis will have to replace its closer in
Ryan Ward (Hanover Park, Ill./Hoffman Estates) who was 1-0 with a 3.00 ERA and a save in six appearances.
The Flyers were picked to finish fifth in the GLVC's Blue Division this season receiving 48 points. Lindenwood is the favorite to win the division with 92 points and received eight first place votes. Southern Indiana came in second receiving 84 points and five first place votes while Indianapolis was third with 74 points and picked up the final two first place votes and Maryville was fourth with 60 points.
Each team is scheduled to play a 36/32-game divisional schedule in which every school plays every divisional opponent in a standard round-robin slate and one/two non-divisional foes in a four-game weekend series.
The 2021 GLVC Baseball Tournament will take place May 13-16 at Lindenwood University.
