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 Feb. 18 Notes Conference Overall •ETSU and Western Carolina opened up their 2019 seasons with sweeps against Iona and Team Record Pct Home Away Streak Record Pct. Home Away Neutral Streak Oakland. ETSU 0-0 .000 0-0 0-0 - 3-0 1.000 3-0 0-0 0-0 W3 •Mercer, The Citadel and Woff ord won their series, splitting with their opening day op- Western Carolina 0-0 .000 0-0 0-0 - 3-0 1.000 3-0 0-0 0-0 W3 ponents, 2-1. UNCG 0-0 .000 0-0 0-0 - 2-0 1.000 2-0 0-0 0-2 W2 •The Citadel pitching staff allowed just two Mercer 0-0 .000 0-0 0-0 - 2-1 .667 2-1 0-0 0-0 L1 earned runs in the Bulldogs three games against Delaware State, tossing a shutout The Citadel 0-0 .000 0-0 0-0 - 2-1 .667 2-1 0-0 0-0 W2 on opening weekend for the second straight Woff ord 0-0 .000 0-0 0-0 - 2-1 .667 2-1 0-0 0-0 W1 season. VMI 0-0 .000 0-0 0-0 - 2-2 .500 0-0 0-0 2-2 L1 •Woff ord’s shutout over Ohio on Friday was the fi rst for Woff ord since April 2, 2017 and Furman 0-0 .000 0-0 0-0 - 1-2 .333 1-2 0-0 0-0 W1 the shutout to open the season was the fi rst since the 1989 season. Samford 0-0 .000 0-0 0-0 - 1-2 .333 0-0 1-2 0-0 L1 •A combined 20 of Western Carolina’s 34 hits this weekend went for extra bases in the Upcoming Schedule (all times eastern) three game weekend series, including 11 doubles, three triples, and six home runs. The Feb. 19 (Tuesday) Feb. 23 (Saturday) six home runs were spread between three USC Upstate at Furman 4 p.m. St. John’s at Western Carolina 1 p.m. diff erent players with two (Luke Robinson UNCG at High Point ^ 4 p.m. La Salle at Furman* 1 p.m. (3) and Justice Bigbie (2)), homering multiple times in the season-opening series. ETSU at Virginia Tech^ 4 p.m. VMI at Clemson 2 p.m. North Alabama at Samford^ 5 p.m. Mercer at Alabama A&M 2 p.m. •Mercer won on opening day for the ninth Virginia Tech at UNCG* 2 p.m. straight season. Feb. 20 (Wednesday) VCU at Woff ord* 2 p.m. •ETSU earned its fi rst three game opening VMI at Virginia 3 p.m. Wagner at ETSU 2 p.m. series sweep since 2005 over Niagara, with Mercer at Florida A&M 5 p.m. Xavier at Samford 3 p.m. three wins over Iona. The Bucs totaled 32 runs UNC Asheville at Woff ord* 5 p.m. Michigan at The Citadel* 4 p.m. in the series, the second most in a series un- Furman at Gardner-Webb 5 p.m. der second year head coach Joe Pennucci. * Southern Conference Game •UNCG is now 6-1 in season openers under Feb. 22 (Friday) SDN - SoCon Digital Network head coach Link Jarrett. VMI at Clemson TBA ^ - ESPN+ Virginia Tech at UNCG* 4 p.m. • Wagner at ETSU 4 p.m. • St. John’s at Western Carolina 4 p.m. Bucknell at Woff ord* 5 p.m. La Salle at Furman* 5 p.m. Michigan at The Citadel* 5 p.m. Xavier at Samford 5 p.m. Alabama at Mercer 6 p.m. Player of the Week Pitcher of the Week Jackson Greer, C, Jr. Sean Connolly, RHP, So. ETSU The Citadel In ETSU’s season-opening series against Iona, Greer The Citadel’s Connolly pitched a complete-game hit .471, going 5-for-12 from the plate with two home shutout on Saturday for the Bulldogs, marking the runs and his fi rst career triple, resulting in nine RBIs fi rst complete-game shutout for a Bulldog pitcher as the Bucs began the season 3-0. Greer served as since JP Sears tossed a two-hit shutout against VMMI teh catcher for the whole series, gunning down the on March 24, 2017. The sophomore only needed 90 only two stolen-bases attempts in the three games. pitches to toss a three-hit shutout against Delaware The junior was batting cleanup for the fi rst time in his State, allowing only two hits in the fi rst three innings career in game one and in the three hole for the fi rst and not allowing another hit until a bunt single in the time ever in games two and three of the series. eighth inning. 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 119-160 (10th) 31-50 (2nd) 596-608-1 (23rd) 4. ETSU 35 Joe Pennucci, ETSU 13-17 (2nd) 43-35 (2nd) Same 5. Wofford 33 Brett Harker, FUR 23-28 (3rd) 71-72 (3rd) Same 6. Western Carolina 31 Craig Gibson, MER 65-35 (5th) 537-361 (16th) Same 7. Furman 24 Link Jarrett, UNCG 80-70 (7th) 201-153 (7th) Same 8. The Citadel 22 Casey Dunn, SAM* 280-129 (11th) 460-389 (15th) Same 9. VMI 9 Jonathan Hadra, VMI 38-64 (5th) 105-138 (5th) Same Bobby Moranda, WCU 167-135-1 (12th) 326-319-2 (12th) Same Media Poll Todd Interdonato, WOF 134-184 (12th) 307-348 (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 FebruaryArpil 9, 19, 2018 2019 SoCon Player/Pitcher of the Week SoCon active career leaders Player of the Week Date Pitcher of the Week Batting Average (Min. 100 AB) ERA (Min. 100 IP) Jackson Greer, C, ETSU F18 Shane Connolly, RHP, So., The Citadel 1.