Southern Conference Baseball
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Southern Conference Baseball 702 North Pine Street, Spartanburg, SC 29303 • 864-591-5100 • Fax: 864-591-3448 2019 Hannah Simmons, Media Relations Assistant (Baseball contact) facebook.com/SouthernConference • twitter.com/SoConSports • instagram.com/SouthernConference #SoConBB Southern Conference baseball standings - through March 25 Notes Conference Overall •Eight of the nine SoCon teams opened up conference play this past weekend. Team Record Pct Home Away Streak Record Pct. Home Away Neutral Streak • Both ETSU and Samford opened up confer- ETSU 3-0 1.000 3-0 0-0 W3 17-5 .773 15-1 2-4 0-0 W3 ence play with series sweeps against Western Samford 3-0 1.000 3-0 0-0 W3 17-6 .739 11-3 6-3 0-0 W3 Carolina and Furman, respectively. UNCG 2-1 .667 0-0 2-1 W1 15-6 .714 12-0 3-5 0-1 W1 •UNCG and The Citadel claimed their respec- tive series against Mercer and VMI. The Citadel 2-1 .667 2-1 0-0 W2 9-15 .375 9-9 0-6 0-0 W2 •UNCG head coach Link Jarrett is now four Mercer 1-2 .333 1-2 0-0 L1 12-13 .480 11-9 1-4 0-0 L1 wins away from his 200th career win. VMI 1-2 .333 0-0 1-2 L2 5-18 .217 2-8 1-9 2-1 L2 •The Spartan’s Greg Hardison is in the midst Wofford 0-0 .000 0-0 0-0 - 17-9 .654 16-5 1-4 0-0 L1 of a 10-game hitting streak. His streak started against Princeton on March 10 and he is hit- Western Carolina 0-3 .000 0-0 0-3 L3 10-11 .476 8-8 1-3 1-0 L6 ting 13-of-41 with a .317 batting average. Furman 0-3 .000 0-0 0-3 L3 5-16 .238 4-8 1-7 0-1 L7 •VMI’s freshman pitcher Adam Jewell threw a complete-game three hitter Saturday af- ternoon, needing just 98 pitches for his com- Upcoming Schedule (all times eastern) plete game and allowing just three hits, three walks and one earned run with five strikeouts. March 26 (Tuesday) March 30 (Saturday) Georgia Southern at Mercer 6 p.m. Samford at VMI*# 2 p.m. •As a team, Samford hit seven home runs and Wake Forest at UNCG 6 p.m. Georgetown at ETSU 2 p.m. batted .319 in its first four games last week. The Bulldogs outscored their opponents, 29- Furman at Winthrop 6 p.m. Western Carolina at UNCG*^ 3 p.m. 14 in those four contests. The Citadel at College of Charleston 6 p.m. The Citadel at Furman*^ 4 p.m. ETSU at Tennessee$ 6 p.m. Mercer at Wofford*# 4 p.m. •The ETSU Bucs are 15-1 at home and have VMI at VCU 6:30 p.m. five straight weekend sweeps at home, in- cluding the first home conference sweep Samford at UAB 7:30 p.m. March 31 (Sunday) since 2016. They are also off to their best 22 Samford at VMI* 12 p.m. game start in program history at 17-5, win- March 27 (Wednesday) Georgetown at ETSU* 1 p.m. ning eight of their last nine. Wofford at Presbyterian 3 p.m. Mercer at Wofford*^ 1 p.m. Gardner-Webb at Furman^ 6 p.m. The Citadel at Furman*^ 1 p.m. UNC Asheville at ETSU 6 p.m. Western Carolina at UNCG*^ 1 p.m. James Madison at VMI 6 p.m. * = conference game March 29 (Friday) ^ = SDN Western Carolina at UNCG* 6 p.m. # = ESPN3 Samford at VMI*# 6 p.m. $ = SEC Plus Mercer at Wofford*# 6 p.m. The Citadel at Furman*^ 6 p.m. Georgetown at ETSU 6 p.m. Player of the Week Pitcher of the Week Jordan Fucci, OF, R-Jr. Shane Connolly, So., LHP Samford The Citadel Starting all four games for the Bulldogs last week, Connolly tossed his second complete-game shutout Fucci hit .611 (11-for-18) at the plate with five doubles, of the season on Saturday against VMI in the Bulldogs a triple, a home run with three RBIs and seven runs conference opening series. The sophomore limited scored. Against No. 2-ranked Mississippi State, the the Keydets to just four singles and after giving up redshirt-junior went 3-for-5 with a home run and two two hits in the second inning, did not allow another RBI and in the three-game series sweep of Furman, hit until the seventh and only allowed one base he went a combined 8-for-13 with five doubles and a runner to reach second base. His efforts gave the Bull- triple. He had at least two hits in every game last week dogs the 1-0 victory and evened the series, allowing with the his best game of the week coming in game the Bulldogs to take the final game and win the series two of the weekend series when he went 4-for-5 with on Sunday afternoon. three doubles. SoCon Baseball Preseason teams/polls MLB first-year player draft Preseason Player of the Year The Southern Conference had 17 players selected in the 2018 MLB First-Year Player Draft, with Wofford’s Adam Caleb Webster, Jr., 3B, UNCG Scott going in the fourth round at No. 133 overall. UNCG leads the way with six picks. Preseason Pitcher of the Year Round Overall Player School Pos. Team Sam Strickland, So., LHP, Samford 4 133 Adam Scott Wofford LHP Cleveland Indians 5 152 Austin Cox Mercer LHP Kansas City Royals First team 6 172 Andrew Moritz UNCG OF Atlanta Braves SP Dyland Spence, The Citadel 7 211 Andrew Wantz UNCG RHP LA Dodgers SP Sam Strickland, Samford 7 214 Josh Winder VMI RHP Minnesota Twins RP Nick Spear, Mercer 10 313 Robert Broom Mercer RHP Cleveland Indians C Anthony Mulrine, Samford 12 367 Matt Pita VMI INF/OF New York Yankees 15 436 Matt Frisbee UNCG RHP San Fransico Giants 1B Brooks Carlson, Samford 17 508 Cesar Trejo UNCG INF/OF Seattle Mariners 2B Austin Embler, UNCG 20 609 Erin Baldwin Samford RHP Arizona Diamondbacks SS RJ Yeager, Mercer 21 632 Nathan Eaton VMI INF/RHP Kansas City Royals 3B Caleb Webster, UNCG 22 662 Bryce Hensley UNCG LHP Kansas City Royals OF Jeffrey Brown, The Citadel 24 719 Troy Dixon Samford OF Texas Rangers OF David Beam, ETSU 25 738 Jack Maynard UNCG RHP Chicago White Sox OF Colin Davis, Wofford DH Le Bassett, Mercer Second Team Preseason national honors SP Nik Verbeke, Furman SP Austin Higginbotham, Wofford Collegiate Baseball Preseason All-America Third Team RP Anthony Garcia, Wofford Le Bassett, 2B, Mercer C Bryce Leasure, The Citadel Sam Strickland, LHP, Samford 1B Jacob Huggins, VMI 2B Cullen Smith, ETSU NCBWA Preseason All-America Third Team SS Branden Fryman, Samford Brooks Carlson, C, Samford 3B Justice Bigbie, Western Carolina OF Jabari Richards, Furman NCBWA Preseason Stopper Watch List OF Matthew Koehler, Western Carolina James Giambalvo, ETSU OF Kel Johnson, Mercer Jordan Buster, The Citadel DH Lawson Hill, Wofford Nick Spear, Mercer Coaches Poll Place Team (1st-place votes) Points 1. Samford (7) 63 SoCon head coaches’ career records 2. UNCG (2) 55 COACH, SCHOOL SOCON (YRS) SCHOOL (YRS) CAREER (YRS) 3. Mercer 52 Tony Skole, CIT 121-161 (10th) 40-65 (2nd) 605-623-1 (23rd) 4. ETSU 35 Joe Pennucci, ETSU 16-17 (2nd) 60-40 (2nd) Same 5. Wofford 33 Brett Harker, FUR 23-31 (3rd) 76-88 (3rd) Same 6. Western Carolina 31 Craig Gibson, MER 66-37 (5th) 549-374 (16th) Same 7. Furman 24 Link Jarrett, UNCG 82-71 (7th) 216-160 (7th) Same 8. The Citadel 22 Casey Dunn, SAM* 283-129 (11th) 477-395 (15th) Same 9. VMI 9 Jonathan Hadra, VMI 39-66 (5th) 110-156 (5th) Same Bobby Moranda, WCU 167-138-1 (12th) 336-330-2 (12th) Same Media Poll Todd Interdonato, WOF 134-184 (12th) 324-357 (12th) Same Place Team (1st-place votes) Points 1. Samford (8) 123 * 124 overall wins and 58 SoCon wins from 2011-14 later vacated 2. UNCG (6) 107 3. Mercer 98 4. Wofford 83 SoCon media relations directory 5. ETSU 64 Samford (SamfordSports.com) 6. Furman 49 The Citadel (CitadelSports.com) Joey Mullins ([email protected]) 7. Western Carolina 46 John Brush ([email protected]) (Office) 205-726-2799 (Press box) 205-726-4167 8. VMI 32 (Office) 843-953-6795 (Press box) (803) 270-5716 VMI (VMIKeydets.com) 9. The Citadel 28 ETSU (ETSUBucs.com) Mike Carpenter ([email protected]) Mike Ezekiel ([email protected]) (Office) 540-464-7015 (Press box) 940-642-9865 (Office) 423-439-8212 (Press box) (256) 349-1290 Western Carolina (CatamountSports.com) Furman (FurmanPaladins.com) Daniel Hooker ([email protected]) Hunter Reid ([email protected]) (Office) 828-227-2339 (Press box) 828-227-7020 (Office) 864-294-2061 (Press box) 864-294-3066 Wofford (WoffordTerriers.com) Mercer (MercerBears.com) Brent Williamson ([email protected]) Gerrit Van Genderen (Office) 864-597-4093 (Press box) 864-597-4478 ([email protected]) (Cell) 919-632-0217 (Press box) 919-632-0217 Southern Conference (SoConSports.com) Hannah Simmons ([email protected]) UNCG (UNCGSpartans.com) Office: 864-591-5100 Jon Cole ([email protected]) (Cell) 336-302-5504 (Press box) 336-218-3885 MarchArpil 9,25, 2018 2019 SoCon Player/Pitcher of the Week SoCon active career leaders Player of the Week Date Pitcher of the Week Batting Average (Min.