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 April 1 Notes Conference Overall •The Terriers won the weekend series over the Bears for the first time since the Bears joined Team Record Pct Home Away Streak Record Pct. Home Away Neutral Streak the conference. ETSU 3-0 1.000 3-0 0-0 W3 21-6 .778 18-2 3-4 0-0 L1 •Wofford’s senior pitcher and this week’s con- ference pitcher of the week, Austin Higgin- Samford 5-1 .833 3-0 2-1 L1 19-8 .704 11-3 8-5 0-0 L1 botham’s career-high 11 strikeouts on Friday Wofford 2-1 .667 2-1 0-0 L1 19-11 .633 18-6 1-5 0-0 L1 night, helped him corss the 200-career strike- out milestone. He is the 14th Terrrier to reach UNCG 3-3 .500 1-2 2-1 L2 17-8 .680 14-2 3-5 0-1 L2 that mark. Furman 3-3 .500 3-0 0-3 W3 10-16 .385 8-8 2-7 0-1 W5 •The Bucs seven-game win streak was the Western Carolina 2-4 .333 0-0 2-4 W2 12-12 .500 8-8 3-4 1-0 W2 longest streak of the Pennucci Era and the longest for ETSU since 2013. Mercer 2-4 .333 1-2 1-2 W1 13-16 .448 11-10 2-6 0-0 W1 •ETSU’s weekend starters combine for a 14-1 The Citadel 2-4 .333 2-1 0-3 L3 9-19 .321 9-9 0-10 0-0 L4 record and a 2.09 ERA following the weekend. VMI 2-4 .333 1-2 1-2 W1 6-22 .214 3-11 1-10 2-1 W1 •VMI junior right-hander Zak Kent recorded 14 strikeouts Sunday, allowing just one run entering the ninth inning. He now owns a 3-2 Upcoming Schedule (all times eastern) record with a 3.82 ERA and a league-leading 69 strikeouts. April 2 (Tuesday) April 6 (Saturday) Wofford at Wright State 3 p.m. Wofford at Western Carolina*# 2 p.m. •VMI right-handed pitcher Zak Kent and Fur- Winthrop at Furman^ 6 p.m. Mercer at The Citadel* 2 p.m. man outfielder Jabari Richards were both named Collegiate Baseball’s National Players Virginia Tech at VMI@ 6 p.m. ETSU at VMI*@ 2 p.m. of the Week. High Point at UNCG 6 p.m. UT Martin at Samford# 3 p.m. Radford at ETSU 6 p.m. Furman at UNCG*^ 3 p.m. •Richards was also named this week’s confer- UAB at Samford@ 7 p.m. ence player of the week as well as was named this week’s SoCon College Sports Madness April 7 (Sunday) Player of the Week for his efforts in helping April 3 (Wednesday) Wofford at Western Carolina# 1 p.m. lead Furman to a perfect 5-0 record last week. Western Carolina at Marshall 3 p.m. Furman at UNCG^ 1 p.m. The senior also hit for the cycle, the first Pala- Furman at Georgia State 5 p.m. ETSU at VMI@ 1 p.m. din to do so since Case Cassedy did against Appalachian State in 2006. The Citadel at Charleston Southern@ 6 p.m. Mercer at The Citadel^ 1 p.m. North Alabama at Samford^ 7:30 p.m. UT Martin at Samford# 2 p.m. April 5 (Friday) * = conference game ETSU at VMI*@ 6 p.m. ^ = SDN Furman at UNCG*@ 6 p.m. # = ESPN3 Wofford at Western Carolina# 6 p.m. @ = ESPN+ Mercer at The Citadel 6 :30 p.m. UT Martin at Samford# 7 p.m. Player of the Week Pitcher of the Week Jabari Richards, Sr., OF Austin Higginbotham, Sr., LHP Furman Wofford Starting four games this last week, Richards helped Wofford’s Higginbotham tossed a complete game the Paladins to their perfect 5-0 week. In the four on Friday night against Mercer, helping the Terri- games he played, he went 10-for-16 (.625) with three ers to a 4-1 win. He only allowed one earned run home runs, one being a grand slam, two doubles, while striking out 11, a career-high for the senior. a triple and 11 RBIs. He also scored seven runs and The Gainesville, Georgia, native leads the SoCon in recorded one stolen base. Wednesday, the senior hit striking batters out looking (16) and leads the Terriers for the cycle in the Paladins 18-3 victory over Gardner- in innings pitched (48.1), batters struck out (45) and Webb. He doubled in his first at ball, tripled the games started (7). second time up, hit a grand slam in the seventh and singled in the ninth, to become the first Paladin to hit for the cycle since Case Cassedy did against Appala- chian State in 2006. 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 121-164 (10th) 40-70 (2nd) 605-627-1 (23rd) 4. ETSU 35 Joe Pennucci, ETSU 15-15 (2nd) 49-31 (2nd) Same 5. Wofford 33 Brett Harker, FUR 26-31 (3rd) 81-88 (3rd) Same 6. Western Carolina 31 Craig Gibson, MER 67-39 (5th) 550-377 (16th) Same 7. Furman 24 Link Jarrett, UNCG 83-71 (7th) 217-162 (7th) Same 8. The Citadel 22 Casey Dunn, SAM* 285-130 (11th) 479-397 (15th) Same 9. VMI 9 Jonathan Hadra, VMI 37-65 (5th) 98-148 (5th) Same Bobby Moranda, WCU 169-139-1 (12th) 338-331-2 (12th) Same Media Poll Todd Interdonato, WOF 136-185 (12th) 326-359 (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) 434-770-8813 (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 ArpilApril 9,1, 20192018 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, Jr., ETSU F18 Shane Connolly, RHP, So., The Citadel 1.