ASHEVILLE, N.C.?UNC Asheville's baseball team will wait one more day to open the 2008 season. The home opener scheduled for 2 p.m .on Friday has been postponed due bad weather in the Asheville area. The game will be made up as a doubleheader on Saturday at Presbyterian beginning Noon. Sunday's single game will also begin at 1 p.m. in Clinton, S.C.
“We are excited to get the season started,” said Asheville head coach Willie Stewart. “Our guys have worked hard to get ready and now it is time to see what they can do. I think we are going to surprise some people this year. We are very young but we are more athletic than we have been in the past and I think that will come through in wins and losses.”
The Bulldogs finished sixth last season with a 22-38 overall record and return both of their top pitchers for 2008. Alan DeRatt who and Ben Buchanan will get the starts on Saturday. DeRatt was 5-4 with a 4.54 ERA while Buchanan went 4-8 with a 5.02 ERA with seven saves.
Asheville also returns centerfielder Kevin Mattison who is on the Brooks Wallace Award Watch List by the College Baseball Foundation. Mattison has led the Big South in triples in each of the last two seasons and is coming off a very strong summer. Elliott Arrington is a career .323 hitter who struggled at times last season but is Asheville's career hits leader.
Asheville fans will need to by a program because the Bulldogs will have 20 new faces on this year's team. Among the newcomers are junior college transfers Kevin Wiedenbacher and Reed Kreiser.
Michael Bogart will get the start on Sunday for Asheville. The Dogs will begin the season with five-straight road games before opening the home portion of the schedule on next Friday, Feb. 29, vs. Akron.
