UNC Asheville Set to Play VMI on Tuesday in Play-In Round of Big South Tournament

ASHEVILLE, N.C. - The UNC Asheville baseball team is gearing up for Tuesday's opening round game of the 2010 Big South Conference Baseball Tournament to be held at Winthrop Ballpark. The Bulldogs are the seventh seed and will face sixth-seeded VMI Tuesday afternoon starting at 4 p.m. Tuesday's game will be audio-streamed at www.uncabulldogs.com or can be seen via video-streaming for a small fee at www.bigsouthsports.com.

Asheville (17-34, 10-17 BSC) comes into the tournament playing some good baseball. The Bulldogs have won five of their last seven games and all five of those wins came in Big South Conference play. First-year coach Tom Smith's team moved up from ninth place to seventh place in two weekends with the five victories. The one loss came in Saturday's second game of a double-header with Gardner-Webb as Asheville fell, 15-14. In that game, the Bulldogs trailed 11-0 before almost rallying to get the win.

"We're playing some good baseball right now," commented Smith. "And this is the time you want to be peaking right at tournament time. We feel like we're already in tournament mode. The series against Charleston Southern last weekend and the games against Gardner-Webb we're like tournament games for us. We had to win most of them to get in the tournament."

The Bulldogs will be in a must-win situation again on Tuesday against VMI. The tournament has a play-in round for seeds' 5-8 as fifth-seeded Winthrop will face eighth-seeded Gardner-Webb in the other game. Tuesday's winners move into the tournament's double-elimination format that starts on Wednesday. An Asheville win would send them into the main tournament on Wednesday against either top-seed Coastal Carolina or second-seeded Liberty.

VMI (32-20) swept the Bulldogs earlier this year in Asheville. All three were close games as the Keydets were ranked 29^th in the country at the time. VMI has struggled in the final month of the season, but the Bulldogs expect a tough game with the Keydets on Tuesday.

"I know VMI is disappointed about the last few weeks of the season, but they've got excellent pitching and know how to win," commented Smith. "We faced three tough games with them here and all three of could have gone either way. They simply made the plays when they had to make them to get the job done."

The Bulldogs were a preseason pick to finish in 10^th place and not make the tournament. Asheville surprised a lot of people with the seventh-place finish. However, Smith wants more this weekend.

"Our goal is win the tournament and play next week in the NCAA Tournament," declared Smith. "We're going to do everything we can to play as long as we can this season. We're pleased to make the Big South but we're hardly satisfied."

Asheville is scheduled to start sophomore right-hander Ryan Dull (6-3, 4.12 ERA) in Tuesday's game.

NOTES

1. Justin Schumer is red-hot from the plate entering the tournament. He has an eight-game hitting streak. In the last seven games, Schumer is hitting .580 over the last seven games (18-of-31) with seven RBI, 10 runs scored, three home runs and three doubles.

2. The Bulldogs' five-game BSC winning streak in the final two weeks of the regular-season was the longest league winning streak for Asheville since the 1998 season.

3. Asheville has won at least one game in every Big South Tournament it has appeared in since the 2003 tournament. The Bulldogs are 2-0 in play-in games, winning in 2007 and 2008. Last year Asheville did not qualify for the tournament.

4. The Big South Conference is 1-10 vs. Southern Conference power College of Charleston this season. The one win came from UNC Asheville. The Bulldogs downed the Cougars 18-8 at Patriots Point on Feb. 26. Asheville exploded for 21 hits in the win that night as the Bulldogs led 15-1 after six innings.

5. Freshman left-hander Drew Spear has been pretty effective in his last three outings with a win and a save. He earned a win in relief with one scoreless inning of work against Charleston Southern on May 15 when the Bulldogs rallied with two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning. Spear threw four hitless innings against SEC foe Tennessee last Tuesday night in a spot start. He finished up with five innings in relief on Saturday against Gardner-Webb, allowing three hits and two runs, earning a save in the process. His ERA for his last three appearances is 1.80.