ASHEVILLE, N.C.? UNC Asheville's baseball team returns to the diamond this weekend for an important Big South Conference series against Charleston Southern. The series begins Friday at 3 p.m. and will continue on Saturday at 3 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. at Greenwood Field. All three games can be heard live on uncabulldogs.com.
Asheville (21-28) has won three-straight games and five of its last six heading into the weekend, however, the Dogs have not played since April 30, because of exams.
With tests behind them Head Coach Willie Stewart hopes his club and pick up right where they left off, “We have been playing pretty good baseball the last couple of weeks,” said Stewart. “It is always a relief to have exams behind us and now the guys can concentrate fully on baseball. We know Charleston Southern is a dangerous team and we are going to have to play well but our guys are ready to back at it.”
The series is a big one in the Big South as three teams, Asheville, Radford, and Charleston Southern are all tied at 4-11 in league play. There is still on outside chance for one of those three teams to make a push at a top four finish in conference play.
Charleston Southern (16-29) split a pair of mid-week games this week defeating Furman 6-5 before falling in College of Charleston 13-4. The Bucs have six guys hitting over .300 led by Taylor Black who is hitting .357 with five home runs and 32 RBI. Derek Smith leads the team with 11 home runs and 41 RBI. He is hitting .338. As a team CSU is hitting .302 and averaging just less than a home run per game with 42 homers in 45 games.
Asheville has five guys hitting over .300 on the year led by Kevin Weidenbacher who is seventh in the nation in at bats. He is hitting .353 with 207 at bats on the season. Elliott Arrington is four RBI shy of tying the Asheville school career record for runs batted in. Arrington is the team leader in RBI with 44 this season. Reed Kreiser is tied for the league lead in home runs with 12 and has 39 RBI. As a team, the Bulldogs are hitting .291
Friday's pitching match-up has the nation's leader in ERA Asheville's Alan DeRatt (7-2, 1.15 ERA) facing CSU's Andrew White (4-5, 3.50 ERA).
