Baseball Opens Big South Play at Charleston Southern Friday and Saturday

ASHEVILLE, N.C.?The UNC Asheville baseball team begins Big South Conference play with a three-game series at Charleston Southern this weekend. Game one will be Friday at 2 p.m. The teams will play a double-header on Saturday beginning at 11:30 a.m.

Big South co-Pitcher of the Week, Michael Bogaert (1-1, 7.59 ERA) will throw Friday for UNC Asheville (2-7) in game one. He will be opposed by Anthony Markham (0-2, 4.50 ERA) for Charleston Southern (4-5).

Both teams are coming off losses to top 20 teams. Charleston Southern lost 6-4 at South Carolina on Wednesday while Asheville lost to Clemson.

Big South Player of the Week, Reed Kreiser is the Bulldogs' leading hitter at .353. He has a pair of home runs and eight RBI on the season. Catlin Carter is hitting .342 while Mike Vaughn is hitting .333 for the season. Vaughn will take a five-game hitting streak into the series. It is the longest active streak for the Bulldogs.

Charleston Southern has lost three of its last four games since starting the season 3-2. The Bucs are led offensively by Patrick Dolan who is hitting .394 with four doubles and a triple. Scotty Radabaugh is hitting .391 and Mark Perry is hitting .357 with a home run. As a team, CSU is hitting .275 while its staff ERA is 5.65.

Last season, CSU took two out of three from the Bulldogs in Asheville. The Bucs used the late innings to take advantage of the Asheville bullpen. They scored 32 runs in the three games but 24 of them were scored in the final three innings including an eight run ninth inning in game one of the series.

CSU leads the all-time series 37-23 but UNC Asheville took two out of three the last time they played the Bucs in Charleston.

Live stats for the series will be available at http://csusports.athleticsite.net/livestats/base/xlive.htm