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Washburn University baseball opens its home schedule with three games Friday through Sunday at the Steve Anson Classic against the University of Sioux Falls and Metropolitan State Denver, starting at 2 p.m. on Friday.

 

Washburn's home stadium was named Steve Anson Stadium last season and this weekend's event is the first tournament named in the honor of the Ichabods' longtime head coach, who passed away in 2014.

 

"We've spent a long time trying to get this put together,'' said Washburn coach Harley Douglas, who was an assistant under Anson. "It wasn't going to work out very well to have a tournament where you're playing at a field that wasn't named after him.

 

"But now that you have a setup where it's named after him and it's there, we got it put together pretty quick. And in the future I want it to be a premier tournament that you're going to see awesome baseball the while entire time, just like coach always wanted to have and he always tried to bring in the right teams to do that. It's huge for us.''   

 

The Ichabods begin the tournament against Sioux Falls at 2 p.m. on Friday before facing No. 23-ranked MSU Denver at 1 p.m. on Saturday and finishing off the tournament against Sioux Falls again at 2 p.m. on Sunday. Emporia State will also take part in this weekend's tournament.

 

There is no gate fee for games.  

 

Washburn began the season 1-3 on the year after playing four road games in South Florida. The Ichabods finished the trip with a 6-0 loss to to Barry on Monday.

Douglas said he saw some good things in the Ichabods' Florida performance while also seeing plenty of things that need work.

"I thought this last weekend would be kind of a testament of our identity, kind of where we were going to be, what we were going to be like,'' Douglas said. "I thought we did a good job of coming out and competing and if you look at it, every game was tight and where it needed to be besides the last one when we didn't hit well.

"I think we had some good stuff come out of it.''

The Ichabods are coming off a fourth straight winning season in 2025, going 28-25 overall and 18-18 inside the MIAA. Washburn finished seveth in the regular season and won two games in the MIAA Tournament before falling in the semifinal round.

The Ichabods were picked to finish fifth in the MIAA Preseason Coaches Poll for a second straight year.

Washburn is scoring 7.5 runs per game on the year while opponents are scoring 9.0 runs per game. 

At the plate the Ichabods are hitting .209 with a .394 on base percentage and a .333 slugging percentage. Washburn has tallied three home runs with 31 total walks, including a program-record 17 against Palm Beach Atlantic. 

The WU pitching staff has a 7.99 earned run average with 30 strikeouts across 32.2 innings. The Ichabods have allowed 50 hits and issued 16 walks. 

Washburn has a .966 fielding percentage as a team with five errors and has not turned a double play.

On the basepaths the Ichabods have gone 3-6 in stolen base attempts while opponents have gone 5-7. 

Washburn returned 19 players from the 2025 roster.

Trenton Barry and Jarrett Herrmann have the highest hitting streak entering the weekend at two games while Levi Risenhoover had the longest hitting streak of the year at three games and he leads the team with two home runs and six RBI.

Owen Laessig, Ian Luce and Chase Littrell have all reached base in all four games this season. 

Right-handed hitters are hitting more than .100 points worse than left-handed hitters when facing the Ichabods. 

Washburn is outscoring opponents 21-14 over the final two innings of games.

Seaman product Maclane Finley has pitched a team-high 6.0 innings in his one start. He has a 1.50 ERA with a pair of strikeouts and a 1.33 WHIP. He is 10th in the MIAA in ERA. 

Kai Bennett has made one appearance this year, throwing 5.0 innings. He has allowed just one run for a 1.80 ERA and has three strikeouts with a WHIP of just .80. He is third in the MIAA in hits allowed per nine innings while ranking seventh in the conference in WHIP. 

Seaman product Gavin Wilhelm is 1-0 on the year, throwing a scoreless inning in his only appearance with a strikeout. 

Doulas enters his 12th season at the helm of the Washburn baseball program in 2025.

In 11 full seasons, Douglas carries an all-time record of 285-245 with seven appearances in the MIAA Tournament and led the program to its first-ever NCAA Tournament in 2022.

Sioux Falls will open the 2026 season in Topeka against the Ichabods. 

Last season the Cougars went 32-28 overall and 25-15 inside the NSIC. They fell in the championship game of hte NSIC Tournament.

Mitch Iliff returns after leading the team with a .378 batting average a season ago. He started in 55 games and played in 56, hitting 11 home runs with 50 RBI. He added eight stolen bases. 

Jake Ammann appeared in 14 games on the mound, making 13 starts a season ago. Ammann threw 66.0 total innings, a team-high. He led the team with 74 strikeouts while finishing with a 6-4 record and 7.91 ERA. 

Washburn is 4-0 in the all-time series between the two teams, winning all four at home. 

MSU Denver is an undefeated 7-0 to begin the season after sweeping a four-game series over Newman last time out,. They are ranked No. 23 in the latest NCBWA national poll.

Last season the Roadrunners went 33-24 overall and 22-10 inside the RMAC, advancing to the championship game of the RMAC Tournament and playing in two NCAA Tournament games. 

Erubiel Ortiz has started in six games and is hitting a team-high .450 on the year for Metro State with a .656 on base percentage. He has a team-high nine RBI with one home run.

Gavin Schmeh has started in all seven games and is hitting .423 and is tied for the team-high with two home runs. 

Nolan Livsey has made two starts for the Roadrunners, throwing 9.2 innings with a 3.72 ERA and a 2-0 record. He has struck out six in that time and has a .241 opponent batting average. 

MIAA play begins with a three-game series against Newman in Wichita from Feb. 20-22.