Baseball Returns to Spartanburg for Three Games

Asheville-Spartanburg Weekend Notes (PDF)

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – The UNC Asheville baseball team will spend the weekend just down I-26 in Spartanburg, S.C. The Bulldogs will play two neutral site games against Dayton and James Madison as well as one true road contest at Wofford. The game against Dayton will be on Friday, Feb. 24, at 12 p.m. while the game against the Dukes of JMU will be Saturday, Feb. 25, also at 12 p.m. Sunday's game at Wofford will be a 4 p.m. first pitch.

THE MATCHUPS
Teams: UNC Asheville (1-3) vs. Dayton (1-2)
Location: Spartanburg, S.C. / Russell C. King Field (Wofford)
When: Friday, Feb. 24 / 12 p.m.
Live Stats: www.uncabulldogs.com
Twitter: @ashevilledogs #ThePursuit

Teams: UNC Asheville (1-3) vs. James Madison (3-1)
Location: Spartanburg, S.C. / Cleveland S. Harley Baseball Park (USC Upstate)
When: Saturday, Feb. 25 / 12 p.m.
Live Stats: www.uncabulldogs.com
Twitter: @ashevilledogs #ThePursuit

Teams: UNC Asheville (1-3) at Wofford (1-3)
Location: Spartanburg, S.C. / Russell C. King Field
When: Sunday, Feb. 22 / 4 p.m.
Live Stats: www.uncabulldogs.com
Twitter: @ashevilledogs #ThePursuit

BULLDOG BITES
INSIDE THE SERIES: This weekend will mark just the second meeting between UNC Asheville and Dayton on the baseball diamond. It will also mark the first-ever meeting with James Madison and it will be the 42nd meeting with Wofford. Asheville claimed the first-ever game against Dayton 4-3 back on Mar. 5, 2005 in the Tennessee Tech Invite. The Bulldogs own a 22-19 all-time record against Wofford, but the two have split the last four meetings 2-2.

SCOUTING THE FLYERS OF DAYTON: Dayton enters the weekend having gone 1-2 at Furman during opening weekend. The Flyers lost the opening game of the series 9-3 and fell in the second game 9-7 before defeating the Paladins 12-11 in the series finale on Sunday, Feb. 19. Connor Echols and Brian Wood both batted .500 through the series with Pat Meehan not far behind with a .400 average through just two of the three games with Furman. Mitch Coughlin knocked two home runs and was one of six Flyers to register multiple RBIs on the weekend. In total, Dayton had 14 extra-base knocks in the series with Furman. On the mound, sophomore right-hander Austin Cline, junior lefty Mason Kutruff and freshman right-hander Tyler Jones were the three starters for Dayton last weekend. R.J. Wagner made the most appearances with two on the weekend, pitching a team-high 5.2 innings. Wagner and Cline led the team with four strikeouts each.

SCOUTING THE DUKES OF JAMES MADISON: James Madison opened the 2017 season at Coastal Carolina's Caravelle Resort's Baseball at the Beach tournament in Conway, S.C. In the tourney, the Dukes went 2-1 with wins over North Carolina A&T and No. 11 Coastal Carolina. JMU defeated NCAT 5-1 and took down the defending national champions 11-3 on Sunday, Feb. 19. They then traveled to Longwood and defeated the Lancers 4-3 in a mid-week game on Tuesday, Feb. 21 to boast a 3-1 record heading into the weekend. Through the first four games of the season, the Dukes have two players batting over .500 and four more batting at least .300. Mike Sciorra leads the team with a .556 batting average while Adam Sisk is batting .500 with a 1.214 slugging percentage. Both boast over a .600 on-base percentage. Sisk leads the team with three home runs on the young season and eight RBIs. He owns four of the Dukes' eight extra-base knocks. On the mound, redshirt-senior right-hander Brandon Withers, junior southpaw Colton Harlow, junior righty Josh Silvestri and freshman right-hander Michael Bechtold have been the four starters for James Madison so far this season. Withers and Bechtold both earned decisions in their games, posting 1-0 reocrds while Harlow was saddled with the loss against St. John's. Withers and Bechtold both boast 0.00 ERAs so far this season and have both pitched at least 5.0 innings. Withers has struck out a team-best six batters and held his opponents to a .167 batting average, as did Kelly Kevin in two appearances over 2.0 innings of work.

SCOUTING THE TERRIERS OF WOFFORD: Wofford enters the weekend 1-3 on the young season after traveling to Tallahassee, Fla., for an opening weekend series at Florida A&M and a mid-week game at Presbyterian. The Terriers took game-two of the series at Florida A&M 3-2 after falling 17-4 in the season-opener and fell 8-7 in the series finale on Sunday, Feb. 19. They also fell 6-1 in Clinton Wednesday evening. So far this season, only Alex Malsch is batting over .300. He boasts a .417 batting average, a .583 slugging percentage and a .533 on-base percentage. Carson Waln leads the team with four RBIs, but Brett Hash and Max McDougald are close behind with three each. The Terriers started junior left-hander Adam Scott in the season opener followed by, senior right-handed pitcher Spencer Kulman on Saturday, sophomore lefty Austin Higginbotham in the Sunday finale and senior right-hander Elliot Lance against Presbyterian. Kulman pitched the longest of the quartet with 6.0 innings of work. Matt Ellmyer was the only other pitcher to log more than 4.2 innings of work as he pitched 6.1 innings in two appearances. Lance led the entire pitching corps with four strikeouts.

BULLDOGS' WEEKEND ROTATION: For the second weekend in a row, UNC Asheville will go with the starting rotation of freshman left-hander Greg Gasparro on Friday, right-handed redshirt sophomore Ryan Tapp on Saturday and senior southpaw Spencer Orr on Sunday. Last weekend, Gasparro pitched 4.0 innings of two-hit ball and struck out three batters in his collegiate debut, breaking a trend that went back at least 10 years where the Bulldogs utilized a right-hander on opening day. He also became the first freshman pitcher to start on opening day in recent history. Tapp pitched 5.1 innings on Saturday, giving up four earned runs and five hits compared to four strikeouts. Orr closed out the weekend for the Bulldogs with a similar outing, going 5.1 innings while giving up eight hits and four earned runs. Tapp is the only one of the three who has registered a decision on the year.

LAST TIME OUT (at USC Upstate, 2/22/17): The UNC Asheville baseball team came out swinging Wednesday afternoon, scoring in bunches early, but the Bulldogs ultimately fell 10-9 in 12 innings to USC Upstate at Harley Park. The Bulldogs wasted little time getting on the board as they scored two runs in the top of the first inning after Carmine Pagano and Chris Troost reached base off a hit by pitch and a four-ball walk. Two batters later, Brandon Lankford doubled to left-center field to score Pagano and move Troost over to third. Joe Tietjen then sent a sacrifice fly to right field, giving Troost enough time to cruise home and put Asheville up 2-0. After USC Upstate scored four in the bottom of the frame and changed pitchers, the Bulldogs burst back through with seven runs in the top of the second, highlighted by a grand slam by Justin Woods. The new Spartans' pitcher loaded the bases with the first three batters he faced before Pagano recorded the first RBI of the inning when he singled through the left side, scoring Jake Madole who singled to lead off the inning. Two batters later, Danny Wilson sent a blooper single to shallow centerfield, scoring Kole Harris and Pagano. Following another Upstate pitching change, the Bulldogs loaded the bases with two outs. Justin Woods barely flinched and sent a bomb over the left field wall, setting the score at 9-4 in favor of Asheville. The homer was the sixth of Woods' career. The Spartans added single runs in the bottom of the second, third and sixth innings as well as two in the eighth frame to knot the score at 9-9 headed to the ninth. The game progressed into extra innings with both teams putting men on, but unable to move them across the plate until the bottom of the 12th when Devon Ortiz singled down the right field line, scoring Drake Harris from second. In total, the Bulldogs collected 10 hits in the game led by Pagano, Lankford and Madole all registering two hits on the evening. Woods led the way with four RBIs and Pagano and Troost both scored two runs. The Spartans collected 17 hits on the night led by Charlie Carpenter, Brendan Brundage and. Harris all with three. Carpenter scored three runs on the night for USC Upstate. On the mound, both squads utilized eight pitchers. Eric Whitecavage threw the longest for UNC Asheville as he pitched 3.1 innings and faced 13 batters while Kevin Hickey (1-0) pitched 4.0 innings for USC Upstate to register his first win of the season. Derek Smith (0-1) closed out the game for Asheville and was credited with the loss in 1.2 innings of work that saw him strike out two batters.

UP NEXT: The UNC Asheville baseball team will play two more road games before their home-opening series with Iona. Before the three-game series with the Gaels, the Bulldogs will travel to Western Carolina on Tuesday, Feb. 28 and Furman on Wednesday, Mar. 1. The game against the Catamounts will be at 4 p.m. while the game with the Paladins will feature a 6 p.m. first pitch.

SCORING IN BUNCHES: Wednesday night, the Bulldogs scored seven runs in the top of the second inning. It was the first time since Feb. 27, 2016, that Asheville scored seven runs in an inning. The last time it happened, the Bulldogs defeated Rider 19-4 in Spartanburg. Between the Rider and USC Upstate game, the Bulldogs have scored six runs in three separate innings, including in the sixth versus Wofford on May 4, 2016, in the fourth against Charleston Southern on Apr. 16, 2016, and in the first inning against Presbyterian on Apr. 3, 2016.

TROOST NAMED FIRST-EVER BIG SOUTH FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK: UNC Asheville baseball true freshman Chris Troost has been named the first-ever Big South Conference's Come Ready Nutrition Freshman of the Week as announced by the conference office Monday afternoon. Troost led the way offensively for Asheville during the opening weekend series at Samford. The 5-8 Medford, N.J., native batted .444 through the three-game series and boasted an on-base percentage of .615 while scoring a run and batting in another. He showed enough improvement over the weekend to move up from the seven-hole of the lineup to the two-hole. In the season-opener on Friday, Troost showed a lot of patience in the batter's box to draw three walks compared to just one strikeout and also had an RBI. In Sunday's series finale, Troost went 3-for-4 at the plate with a run scored and also drew another walk. He scored his run in the ninth inning to add an important insurance run, helping Asheville defeat Samford 6-4 for the first win of the season.

YOUNG GUNS STEPPING UP: While senior Joe Tietjen got things started in Sunday's series finale with a solo homer in the top of the fourth, three freshmen and two sophomores carried the load down the stretch. Freshman Brandon Lankford was the first freshman to record a home run on the season. Fellow true freshman Chris Troost went 3-for-4 at the plate with a run scored and dual threat Kole Harris came on to record the win on the mound with 2.0 innings of pitching. Sophomore Carmine Pagano scored a pair of runs and batted in another while Danny Wilson batted in another run.

BREAKING THE TREND: When freshman left-handed pitcher Greg Gasparro got the start Friday in the season-opener, it was the first time in at least 10 years that a freshman had started for UNC Asheville. It also broke a streak of at least 10 years where a right-hander started the first game of the season. Gasparro had an admirable debut, going 4.0 innings, striking out three batters and not giving up a single run.

FRESHMEN ON OPENING DAY: Four freshmen started the season-opener for Asheville Friday evening. Brandon Lankford recorded the first hit and the first RBI of the season for the Bulldogs while Greg Gasparro recorded the first strikeout of the season for the Bulldog pitchers. Also earning starts as freshmen were Kole Harris and Chris Troost, who drew a two-out walk in the top of the eighth inning with the bases loaded.

THIRD SEASON FOR FRIEDHOLM AND CREW: 2017 will mark the third season for head coach Scott Friedholm and his coaching staff in Asheville. While the first two seasons have seen growing pains, there have also been plenty of positives to build off. Last season included a huge road win over 11th-ranked North Carolina as well as series wins over Mount St. Mary's, Presbyterian and Charleston Southern. Friedholm will have a roster of 26 players to work with this spring, including eight true freshmen. He returns 18 players from last year's roster, including four of the top five offensive producers from last season's team. While the team is young, Friedholm won't be afraid to ask his team to compete.

TIETJEN NAMED PRESEASON ALL-CONFERENCE BY PERFECT GAME: UNC Asheville baseball player Joe Tietjen has been named to the Perfect Game Preseason Big South All-Conference Team by the staff of Perfect Game and was listed in the top-five of the top prospects of the conference for this year's graduating class. A senior outfielder from Waxhaw, N.C., Tietjen was named to the Big South All-Conference Second Team following the 2016 season. During his junior campaign, he led the team in nine offensive statistical categories, including batting average (.344), runs scored (44), hits (74), home runs (10) and stolen bases (12). He also boasted a .553 slugging percentage, batted in 55 runs and collected 119 total bases in 215 at bats. For his career, Tietjen boasts a .306 batting average, has scored 101 runs, collected 145 hits and has driven in 90 runs. He has also swiped 23 bases and has 342 putouts in the field.

QUOTABLES
"This weekend, it is important that we address our focus and energy. I don't think we have done a very good job of bringing those qualities every single day, whether it's been in games or practice. All three teams we play this weekend are very good teams, and if we don't play at our very best, we're going to get beat three times. If we play at our very best this weekend, we give ourselves a chance to win all three games. For right now and through the next 52 games, all we have to worry about is how we prepare, how we approach the game and how we play each game." – Scott Friedholm

Baseball Returns to Spartanburg for Three Games

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Players Mentioned

Greg Gasparro

Kole Harris

Brandon Lankford

Jake Madole

Spencer Orr

Carmine Pagano

Derek Smith

Ryan Tapp

Joe Tietjen

Chris Troost

Eric Whitecavage

Danny Wilson

Justin Woods

University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics