The Sigma Pi fraternity is giving the USI men’s baseball team an extra incentive to swing for the fences this season. Through the fraternity’s Altruistic Campus Experience (ACE) program, every home game the Eagles win, a Black Gum Tree will be planted on campus.

“We’re the only fraternity that has an ACE project. Other fraternities may have something similar, but our main priority of this project is to enhance the college experience,” ACE Committee Head Nick Theodosis said. “On our campus, we’re the only fraternity to do something like this.”

ACE is an annual project designed to better USI by giving back to the campus.  The first ACE program on campus involved planting trees around the residence halls back in 2006.

Thus far, the baseball team has been off to a successful start, winning 9 of their 11 home games this season.  The fraternity plans to plant 10 trees at this point.

The next home game for the Eagles (13-1, 5-1 GLVC) will be April 4 against fellow GLVC member University of Illinois Springfield.

“I think this is a great way to cheer on our athletes and give back to the USI community. It’s a win-win,” said Alex Geddes, an active brother of the fraternity and management major.

Vice President of Sigma Pi Abraham Maze hopes ACE will liven up the campus.

“ACE is designed to benefit the campus in some way – make it look better, make it a little more user friendly,” Maze said.

The baseball team has been powered in a large part this year due to the hitting of Evansville natives Kyle Kempf, Caleb Eickhoff and Andrew Cope.  The three are currently hitting a combined .337 average.