ASHEVILLE, N.C.?UNC Asheville's baseball team, fresh off a pair of mid-week victories, travels to Radford to face the Highlanders in an important Big South series for both teams. Friday's game one begins at 3 p.m. and can be seen live on the Big South Edge.
Asheville (18-27, 2-10 Big South) has won two straight one-run games, while Radford (16-24, 3-9 Big South) dropped two one- run games this week. The winner of the series will stay out of the Big South cellar and positions itself for a run into the top six.
“This is a big series for us,” said Asheville head coach Willie Stewart. “We are playing good baseball right now and are starting to learn how to win close games. It is always difficult to go on the road in conference but if we play the way we have been over the last week, I think we can gain some momentum heading into the stretch run.”
Asheville is led by Kevin Weidenbacher who is hitting .362 on the year and is tied for the national lead in at bats coming into this weekend's series. Weidenbacher and Sam Houston State's Todd Sebek each have 188 at bats. Weidenbacher leads the Big South in hits with 68. Mike Sheridan of William & Mary leads the country with 73 hits.
Elliott Arrington is hitting .341 for the Dogs and has been swinging a hot bat during an eight-game hitting streak. Arrington is 13-for-36 (.361) over the last eight games. His next hit will give him sole possession of 10th place on the Big South's career hit list. He needs 20 hits to become just the fourth player in Big South history to get 300 career hits.
Friday's pitching match-up has Bulldog ace Alan DeRatt (6-1, 0.98 ERA) facing Radford's Eric Evans (2-4, 3.69 ERA). DeRatt is third in the nation in ERA. The Cary, N.C. native has allowed just seven earned runs this year. He has one complete game shutout and teamed up with UNC Asheville relievers to pitch two more. Opponents are hitting just .174 against the right hander. Eastern Illinois' Tyler Brandon leads the nation with a 0.72 ERA.
Asheville has won the last six games in the series sweeping the Highlanders each of the last two seasons. The Bulldogs lead the overall series 39-22. Radford's last win was in the third game of the series in 2005 in Asheville, a game that started with snow flurries. Asheville has won the last 10 series from Radford with the Highlanders last series win coming in 1997.
The series will continue on Saturday and Sunday with both games beginning at 1 p.m. The first two games can be seen at bigsouthsports.com and live stats are available at ruhighlanders.com.
