University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
Bulldogs Travel to Winthrop for Conference Series
04.17.2015 | Baseball
ASHEVILLE, N.C. – The UNC Asheville baseball team baseball team continues its seven-game road trip on Friday night when the Bulldogs take on in a Big South Conference weekend series.
Tonight's game from Rock Hill will be available on ESPN3 and can be viewed at this link.
Due to the weather forecast, the series will now wrap up on Saturday with a doubleheader beginning at 2 p.m. to avoid the Sunday's predicted rain.
Looking broader than the current seven-game road trip, Asheville (16-21, 3-9 Big South) will play its 12th road game in their last 13 contests when they open the series with Winthrop (24-14, 4-8 BSC) tonight.
The Bulldogs are 6-8 overall on the road so far this season, and are coming off a three-game Big South Conference series sweep at Presbyterian College this past weekend. The Eagles are coming off a weekend that saw them drop two of three games at Radford, and a Tuesday night victory on the road against UNC Charlotte.
Right-hander Joe Zayatz will get the starting nod for Asheville on Friday night, entering the night 1-5 with nine starts and a 4.47 ERA. Left-handers Lucas Clarke and Jordan Fulbright will get the starts in Saturday's first and second game, respectively. Clarke is 3-5 with a 4.02 ERA on the year, while Fulbright comes into the weekend 4-0 with a 3.46 ERA.
Winthrop will hand the ball to left-hander Sam Kmiec on Friday, who comes in 3-4 with a 3.74 ERA. Saturday's game one will start with left-hander Matt Crohan, 4-3 with a 2.85 ERA, and the second game Saturday will see left-hander Josh Strong start, entering with a 4-3 record and a 3.20 ERA.
The Bulldogs enter the weekend hitting .239 as a team with a 5.78 team ERA. Zayatz leads the team with a .318 batting average and Hunter Bryant ranks second with a .314 average and a team-high 28 RBI.
Winthrop is looking for their first conference series win this season. Winthrop's hitters have combined for the second highest average in the conference (.295) and are led by Roger Gonzalez who has an average of .356 this season.
Bulldog Notes
Hunter Bryant is fifth in the Big South in home runs with seven.
Nick Schavone is tied for second in the Big South in saves with seven.
Schavone has the sixth-most appearances in the Big South with 18.
Lucas Clarke leads the Big South in starts with 10.
Asheville is 10-4 when scoring six or more runs this season.
The Bulldogs are jumping out in front early, outscoring opponents 59-33 in the opening two innings.
Asheville is 13-2 when leading after six innings this year.
The Bulldogs are 10-1 when out-hitting their opponents this season, just 5-19 when being out-hit.
