2008 KEYDET BASEBALL VMI BASEBALL GAME NOTES VMI BASEBALL GAME NOTES VMI BASEBALL GAME NOTES VMI BASEBALL GAME NOTES #15 Coastal Carolina (34-8, 10-2) at VMI (21-20, 10-5) April 25-27 Gray-Minor Stadium Probable Starting Pitchers CCU Bobby Gagg, Jr., RHP (5-1, 2.31 ERA) vs. VMI Trey Barham, Sr., LHP (2-4, 4.33 ERA) CCU Joey Haug, Sr., RHP (5-0, 1.68 ERA) vs. VMI Michael Bowman, Jr., RHP (2-3, 3.49 ERA) CCU TBA vs. VMI TBA Date Opponent Time/Result VMI and Coastal Carolina renew acquain- weekend, VMI dropped only its second Big South Feb. 23 Lafayette (DH) W, 7-1; L, 5-7 tances this weekend at Gray-Minor Stadium with series of the season, falling in two out of the Feb. 24 Lafayette L, 9-11 Feb. 29 Binghamton W, 11-7 a series that pits the top two teams in the Big three contests at Liberty. Mar. 1 Binghamton (DH) L, 3-4; W, 9-7 South Conference against one another. Coastal has won each of the last six meet- Mar. 2 Central Connecticut St. W, 7-2 Mar. 4 Virginia Ppd. The 15th-ranked Chanticleers have won ten ings against VMI, including all four last year. The Mar. 6 at Auburn L, 3-9 of their last 11 after falling to Wake Forest on last Keydet win in the series came at Patchin Mar. 7 at Auburn L, 4-6 Mar. 8 at Auburn L, 1-10 Wednesday evening. Coastal sits at 10-2 this Field, when VMI won the opening game of the Mar. 9 at Auburn L, 5-6 season in the Big South Conference, having 2006 series, 8-2. In that game, Trey Barham Mar. 11 Old Dominion L, 6-7 Mar. 12 at William & Mary L, 3-12 dropped single games against Liberty and threw a complete-game, three-hitter, allowing only Mar. 14 Marshall L, 3-4 Winthrop, and having swept UNC Asheville and two unearned runs while striking out nine. Mar. 15 Marshall L, 1-5 Charleston Southern. The left-handed Barham (2-4, 4.33 ERA) Mar. 16 Marshall L, 2-7 Mar. 19 at Norfolk State W, 11-2 Coastal is being led this season offensively again gets the Friday night start against Coastal Mar. 21 at High Point* W, 5-4 by senior backstop Dock Doyle, who paces the this weekend, opposing the right-handed Gagg (5- Mar. 22 at High Point* (DH) W, 5-3; W, 3-0 Mar. 25 William and Mary W, 9-8 team with 11 home runs, 43 RBIs and a .364 1, 2.31 ERA). Mar. 26 at James Madison L, 4-8 batting average. Each of the team’s seven every- Saturday night’s match-up is not quite offi- Mar. 28 Winthrop* L, 3-11 Mar. 29 Winthrop* W, 5-4 day players are hitting over .300, as the Chants cial, as Coastal is expected to send Haug (5-0, Mar. 30 Winthrop* L, 0-4 enter the series hitting .314 as a team. 1.68 ERA) to the mound, but may go with anoth- Apr. 1 Richmond W, 9-5 Apr. 2 at Old Dominion W, 7-3 The pitching has been almost equally er hurler. VMI righty Michael Bowman (2-3, 3.49 Apr. 5 Radford* W, 4-3 (11) impressive, holding a 3.83 earned run average. ERA) will make the start for VMI. Apr. 6 Radford* W, 9-5 Senior Joey Haug has been a revelation for the Both sides have listed Sunday’s starters as Apr. 7 Radford* W, 3-2 (16) Apr. 8 VCU L, 5-3 squad, holding a 5-0 mark with four saves and an TBA. Apr. 9 at Longwood Cancelled ERA of 1.68. Big South Preseason Pitcher of the Both Saturday’s and Sunday’s contests will Apr. 11 at UNC Asheville* L, 5-8 Apr. 12 at UNC Asheville* W, 7-4 Year Bobby Gagg stands at 5-1 with a 2.31 ERA, be broadcast locally on WREL 1450 AM, and Apr. 13 at UNC Asheville* W, 10-3 having walked only four batters in 58.1 innings. online at www.VMIKeydets.com. Both of those Apr. 15 James Madison W, 6-4 Apr. 16 Norfolk State W, 10-7 The Keydets, meanwhile, are off to their best games will also be broadcast via live video on the Apr. 18 at Liberty* L, 0-8 conference start in program history at 10-5. Last Big South Edge at www.BigSouthSports.com Apr. 19 at Liberty* W, 6-5 (16) Apr. 20 at Liberty* L, 1-6 Apr. 22 Coppin State L, 5-8 Probable Lineup Apr. 23 Coppin State W, 13-4 Yr. AVG R 2B 3B HR RBI SLG OBP SB-A Apr. 25 Coastal Carolina* 7 p.m. Apr. 26 Coastal Carolina* 6 p.m. RF Sam Roberts Fr. .303 19 8 0 0 13 .369 .401 8-9 Apr. 27 Coastal Carolina* 1 p.m. DH Mike Roberts Jr. .319 21 7 0 5 32 .478 .387 5-5 Apr. 29 at VCU 7 p.m. Apr. 30 Virginia Tech 6 p.m. 3B Tanner Biagini So. .352 27 7 0 6 37 .503 .411 2-2 May 9 Maryland-Eastern Shore 6 p.m. LF Brian Sandridge R-So. .353 19 7 0 6 30 .532 .393 3-5 May 10 Maryland-Eastern Shore 6 p.m. May 11 Maryland-Eastern Shore 1 p.m. 1B Jordan Ballard So. .289 25 9 0 8 23 .521 .383 3-4 May 13 at Virginia 6 p.m. SS A.J. Yoder Jr. .242 20 4 1 2 14 .342 .329 3-4 May 14 Longwood 6 p.m. May 16 Charleston Southern* 7 p.m. CF Justin Hess So. .254 15 8 0 1 9 .341 .333 6-10 May 17 Charleston Southern* 6 p.m. DH Justin Topping Fr. .291 3 4 0 0 5 .364 .339 0-1 May 18 Charleston Southern* 1 p.m. May 20-24 at Big South Tournament TBD 2B Shane Geisslinger Sr. .318 33 8 1 0 16 .385 .410 15-17 VMI’s Record in 2008..... VMI Off to Hot Start In Conference innings. He did not walk a batter in either appear- Thanks to a pair of sweeps and a road series ance, and ranks second in the the Big South by Overall . .21-20 win over the Big South’s first five weekends of issuing only five walks all year. The right-hander currently ranks atop the Big South . .10-5 play, VMI is in a tie atop the league standings with a 10-5 mark. Keydet career recordbook by issuing only 1.71 Non-Conference . .11-15 The start is the program’s best-ever to a con- walks per nine innings in his career. In his two- At Home . .13-11 ference season, besting the 8-7 mark of the 1988, plus years with the Keydets, Henderson now has 1989 and 2003 teams. 136 strikeouts and 32 walks in 168 innings. On the Road . .8-9 At Home (Big South) . .4-2 Bullpen Comes Up Big Keydets Top League Pitching Charts On the Road (Big South) . .6-3 While VMI’s weekend rotation received many Midway through the season, the VMI pitching staff currently tops the Big South ledger in several At Home (Non-Conference) . .9-9 of the headlines in the preseason, the team’s bullpen has come up big as of late. categories. On the Road (Non-Conference) . .2-6 In the past 18 games, the VMI bullpen has The Keydets currently the fewest walks (106) In Extra-Inning Games . .3-0 gone 5-1 with four saves in 41 total appearances, in the Big South, while ranking second with the posting an ERA of 2.14 with opponents hitting most strikeouts (335) in the League. Vs. Top 25 Teams . .0-0 only .173. Additionally, the Keydets lead the Big South Vs. In-State Teams . .10-6 In conference play this season, the bullpen and rank third nationally with only 2.55 walks per has been impressive as well, going 4-0 with four nine innings, while also leading the league with a Playing a Day Game . .13-14 saves and a 2.38 ERA in 26 total appearances. 3.16 strikeout-to-walk ratio and a 1.30 WHIP Playing a Night Game . .8-6 Opponents are hitting only .205 off of Keydet (Walks + Hits per Inning Pitched). In First Game of a Doubleheader . .2-1 relievers, who have struck out 41 batters and walked only 15 in 45.1 innings. Sixteen Innings In Sixteen Lines In Second Game of a Doubleheader . .2-1 (Part Two) In Single Games . .17-18 Sandridge On A Tear In Conference VMI improved to 2-0 in 16-inning conference In one-run games . .6-4 Redshirt-sophomore Brian Sandridge has games by outlasting Liberty 6-5 on Saturday, April been on a tear in conference play, as the outfield- In two-run games . .3-4 19 at Worthington Stadium. er currently tops several Big South charts in con- The Keydets knotted the game at four in the In five + run games . .6-7 ference play. ninth, when Brian Sandridge scored Thane Smith. When Scoring First . .13-7 Sandridge leads the Big South in Conference Travis Smink blanked the Flames for seven- play with 29 hits, and 45 total bases. He also plus innings, until the 15th. When Opponent Scores First .