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Baseball Looks To Continue Strong Start In Series Against Dayton
GREENSBORO, N.C. – Coming off a wild 10-9 walk-off victory over in-state rival UNC Asheville Wednesday, the UNCG baseball team welcomes Atlantic 10 member Dayton to the UNCG Baseball Stadium for a three-game weekend series. The Spartans and Flyers have never met on the diamond. Dayton enters the weekend sporting two losses and a tie.
Edwards broke out in a big way in the midweek affair against UNCA as he was 3-for-5 at the plate with five RBI – including a three-run bomb in UNCG's six-run fourth inning. Senior outfielder Christian Wolfe (Bel Air, Md./John Carroll) continued his strong offensive start to the season, recording three hits in six at bats while also scoring three runs and posting a pair of RBI. Additionally, redshirt freshman infielder Nin Marrero rounded out the Spartans' 15-hit attack with three base knocks of his own. As a team, the Blue and Gold recorded double-digit hits for the second time in three contests to open the year while UNCG also tallied its first double figure run output of the young season.
The Flyers are coming off a 5-1 loss at Wright State this past Monday. The game was a make-up contest that was taken on a day's notice with both schools losing games due to inclement weather last weekend. Dayton kept the game close early on thanks to Broughton's RBI single, but the Raiders pulled away in the late stages of the game. Senior infielder Jared Broughton is leading the team with a .444 average while junior infielder Robby Sunderman is chipping in a .400 average of his own. Together, the players lead Dayton with four hits apiece.
# The Spartans have showed well at the plate early in the season, scoring 25 runs (8.3 r/g), racking up 37 hits and batting .346 as a team. The Blue and Gold has six hitters batting over .300 and the offense has produced 13 extra base hits.
# UNCG has opened 3-0 for the second-straight season. Last year, the Spartans won their first seven games before falling to Radford at home. The Blue and Gold currently sports the best record in the Southern Conference at 3-0.
# Link Jarrett is the second head coach in the 24-year history of UNCG baseball. He spent the last three seasons as an assistant coach and the recruiting coordinator at Auburn University.
# The UNCG lineup is full of experience this season as Jarrett penciled in six upperclassmen into Wednesday's lineup against UNCA. The Spartan seniors were key in both opening weekend victories over Army both at the plate and on the bump.
# Senior southpaw Corey Taylor's two saves against the Black Knights were the second and third of his career. His first occurred last season against College of Charleston (May 18) when he threw four innings, giving up just one run and striking out four in a 10-8 UNCG victory.
# An early look at the Southern Conference statistics finds the Spartans second in the league in batting with a .346 team average and fourth in pitching as the UNCG staff sports a 2.67 ERA. Individually, Wolfe is first in the SoCon in double (4) and second in batting average (.600) while Edwards sits in a tie for fourth in RBI (7). Additionally, a total of three UNCG pitchers sport a league-best 0.00 ERA.
# UNCG faced a tough task in its opener, matching up against senior All-America pitcher Chris Rowley. However, the Spartans roughed up the right-hander for five runs in 3.2 innings of work. Rowley walked two and four of the first five UNCG batters recorded hits - including two extra base knocks. The Spartans handed the Patriot League preseason Pitcher of the Year just his second loss in two seasons. He was 11-1 with a 2.40 ERA in 2012.
Pitching Matchups (Tentative)
Friday: Parker Schrage (Dayton) vs. Max Povse (UNCG)
Saturday: Noah Buettgen (Dayton) vs. Lee Gilliam (UNCG)
Sunday: Joe Wahl (Dayton) vs. Dylan Thompson (UNCG)
NEXT UP…
After its series with Dayton, UNCG will take the midweek off before welcoming Albany to Greensboro for a three-game set March 1-3. The Spartans and Great Danes will open the weekend Friday at 4 p.m.
- UNCG -
