University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
Photo by: UNC Asheville
Baseball Set to Play Two Mid-Week Games at Western Carolina and Furman
02.27.2017 | Baseball
Asheville-Mid-Week Games Notes (PDF)
ASHEVILLE, N.C. – The UNC Asheville baseball team will play a pair of mid-week road games beginning Tuesday, Feb. 28 at Western Carolina. The Bulldogs will also play at Furman to open the month of March on Wednesday, March 1.
THE MATCHUPS
Teams:Â UNC Asheville (3-4) at Western Carolina (4-3)
Location:Â Cullowhee, N.C. / Ronnie G. Childress Field
When:Â Tuesday, Feb. 28 / 4 p.m.
Live Stats:Â www.uncabulldogs.com
Twitter:Â @ashevilledogs #ThePursuit
Teams:Â UNC Asheville (3-4) at Furman (5-2)
Location:Â Greenville, S.C. / Latham Baseball Stadium
When:Â Wednesday, March 1 / 6 p.m.
Live Stats:Â www.uncabulldogs.com
Live Video: Furman YouTube
Twitter:Â @ashevilledogs #ThePursuit
BULLDOG BITES
INSIDE THE SERIES: When Asheville travels to Western Carolina on Tuesday, it will mark the 73rd meeting between the two programs. The Catamounts own a record of 50-20 over the Bulldogs all-time. Wednesday will mark the 54th meeting between the Bulldogs and the Paladins with Furman owning that all-time series with a record of 24-28-1. The Bulldogs are 3-0 during the Scott Friedholm era against Western Carolina, having won the last three games, and are 2-2 against Furman in the same span.
SCOUTING THE CATAMOUNTS OF WCU: The Catamounts started the season 2-1 at Coastal Carolina's Caravelle Resort's "Baseball at the Beach" tournament. There, WCU downed No. 9 Coastal Carolina and North Carolina A&T. The Catamounts then dropped a mid-week game at No. 12 Clemson before taking a 2-1 series at home over Marshall, dropping the series finale. Through the first seven games of the season, Brett Pope and Matthew Koekler are both batting at least .400. Koehler boasts a team-best 12 runs batted in and 10 runs scored as well as two home runs. Pope has 12 hits on the year, including two doubles, a triple and a home run and is 2-for-3 in stolen bases. As a team, the Catamounts are batting .340 heading into Tuesday's game. On the mound, Tuesday's WCU starter, left-hander Tristan Baker, boasts a 1.80 ERA in just one appearance. He pitched 5.0 innings and struck out two batters compared to two walks against the nationally-ranked Tigers of Clemson last week. The Tigers batted .389 against him with seven hits.
SCOUTING THE PALADINS OF FU: Furman started the season with a 2-1 series win over Dayton at home. The Paladins then traveled the short distance to Clinton, S.C., where they defeated Presbyterian in a mid-week game and followed that up with a 2-1 series win at home over Monmouth. They play at USC Upstate on Tuesday, Feb. 28, before facing the Bulldogs. Currently, three batters are batting over .400 for the year led by Sky Overton's .440 and Brandon Elmy's .433. Elmy leads the Paladins with eight RBIs and four doubles as well as 13 hits while Overton, Cameron Whitehead and Carter Grote lead the team with nine runs scored. Overton is currently 4-for-4 on stolen bases this season.
KOLE HARRIS TO START TUESDAY FOR ASHEVILLE: Head baseball coach Scott Friedholm will turn to true freshman right-handed pitcher/infielder Kole Harris to start Tuesday against the Catamounts. So far on the year, Harris has made two appearances and boasts a 1-0 record and a 0.00 ERA. He has pitched 4.0 innings and struck out four batters compared to giving up four hits and a walk. Tuesday night will mark his first collegiate start on the bump.
LAST TIME OUT (at Wofford, 2/26/17): Justin Woods has just about done it all this week, and Sunday he added to his already impressive week as he came on to pitch the final two innings against Wofford as he earned the 7-6 win on the mound for the UNC Asheville baseball team, including striking out the final batter of the game. The Bulldogs fell behind 5-0 through the first two innings, but remained resilient and responded in a big way late in the game. Asheville began the comeback by scoring single runs in the third and fourth frames. Carmine Pagano got things going when he hit a shot to center field in the third inning, scoring Danny Wilson from third and in the next inning, Wilson doubled down the right field line to score Brandon Lankford and set the score at 5-2. Wofford scored a run in the bottom of the fifth, but starter Spencer Orr, Woods and the Bulldog defense didn't allow another run from there, including retiring 10 straight batters at one point late in the game. Asheville then did what they have done a lot of early in the season, scoring in bunches. Only this time it came at the end of the game, not at the beginning. In the eighth frame, the Bulldogs plated three runs, including two off a Lankford homer that also scored Chris Troost. Later in the inning, with bases loaded, Kole Harris drew a walk and pushed Woods across the plate to pull the Bulldogs to within one. Wofford was able to delay the inevitable by getting out of the eighth, but in the ninth, the Bulldogs struck again, this time for two runs. Tanner Bush hit a sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Derek Smith to tie the game and then, with bases loaded, Joe Gruszka wore a pitch and pushed Lankford across for the go-ahead run. Despite being ahead, the heroics were not done as Wofford got a runner aboard in the bottom of the ninth, but Gruszka gunned the pinch runner out at second, setting Woods up to record the final out via strikeout. At the plate, Lankford led the way with a 2-for-4 performance, including scoring three runs and batting in two more. The freshman third baseman now has three home runs and eight RBIs on the season. Danny Wislon and Andrew Friedholm also both had two hits in the game with Wilson going 2-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI while Friedholm went 2-for-3 at the dish. Orr had a solid day as the Bulldogs' starter, pitching seven innings that saw the senior southpaw strike out six batters. Woods (1-0) then came on for the final two innings, striking out two batters and giving up just one hit. Wofford relied on seven pitchers in the game with starter Austin Higginbotham pitching 6.2 innings while giving up six hits and two earned runs. Grant Byers (0-1) ended up being the pitcher of record.
UP NEXT: Following Wednesday's game at Furman, the Bulldogs will open the home portion of their 2017 season with a three-game series against Iona. The Bulldogs and Gaels will begin the series on Friday, March 3 with a 3 p.m. first pitch. The two will then renew acquaintances on Saturday, March 4 at 1 p.m. Sunday's series finale's start time is currently to-be-determined, but will be announced Saturday.
LANKFORD NAMED BIG SOUTH FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK: After a stellar week in Spartanburg, UNC Asheville baseball true freshman Brandon Lankford has been named the Big South Conference's Come Ready Nutrition Freshman of the Week, as announced by the conference office Monday afternoon. Lankford's honor marks the second week in a row that a UNC Asheville freshman has earned the honor and gives UNC Asheville a sweep of the award in the first two weeks of its existence. Last week, fellow true freshman Chris Troost earned the first-ever Come Ready Nutrition Freshman of the Week honors for baseball in the Big South. Lankford led the Bulldogs to a 2-2 record this past week in Spartanburg. Over the course of the Bulldogs' four games, he batted a team-best .389 with an outstanding .833 slugging percentage and .500 on-base percentage. He led the team with four extra base knocks, including two home runs and two doubles. The third baseman from Mocksville, N.C., had multiple hits in all but one game last week and also had at least one RBI in each game. He scored seven runs himself, including the game-winner Sunday to lift Asheville over Wofford 7-6, and batted in six others. In the field, he recorded a putout and nine assists for a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage. In Wednesday's game at USC Upstate, Lankford started the scoring drive for the Bulldogs with a double to score Carmine Pagano, putting Asheville up 1-0. On Friday against Dayton, his single through the left side to score fellow freshman Kole Harris in the top of the second inning put the Bulldogs ahead of the Flyers for good. He then scored the first of his two runs of that game when Joe Tietjen doubled to left field. His second run of the game came when Tietjen ripped a home run to center field. In the game against the Flyers, Lankford went 2-for-4 at the plate and drew two walks. In the weekend finale at Wofford, Lankford went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and three runs scored. In the fourth inning, he scored off a Danny Wilson double down the right field line. Then, in the eighth inning, Lankford hit his third home run of the season, second of the week, scoring last week's Big South Come Ready Nutrition Freshman of the Week Troost. He ended his week by scoring the game-winning run in the top of the ninth inning when fellow freshman Joe Gruszka was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
YOUNG SQUAD: The Bulldogs' starting lineup has featured 12 players who are either freshmen or sophomores. Freshmen Chris Troost, Brandon Lankford, Kole Harris, Joe Gruszka, Jake Madole, Tyler Serricchio and Greg Gasparro have all contributed in the starting lineup very early. Sophomores Carmine Pagano, Andrew Friedholm, Danny Wilson, Austin Fahr and Ryan Tapp have all picked up where they left off as freshmen and are beginning to see their roles increase as well.
MOVING RUNNERS ACROSS THE PLATE: Senior center fielder Joe Tietjen moved seven runners across the plate Friday afternoon against Dayton, coming up just two shy of the individual single-game school record. Tietjen had a double and a home run to help his efforts. He also had two other hits that came close to clearing the fence. One was just foul and the other came up just short of the center field fence.
DOUBLING THEM UP: The Bulldogs have turned six double plays so far this season while their opponents have turned four.
A LITTLE BIT OF EVERYTHING: Senior Justin Woods did a little bit of everything last week while in Spartanburg. The senior started his week off by recording his first career grand slam against USC Upstate on Wednesday. The four-RBI performance was just the beginning as he led the team with nine RBIs on the week. For the week, he batted .313, including two home runs and a double, scored three runs and boasted a slugging percentage of .750 to go with a .450 on-base percentage. In the field, he had seven putouts. But his week didn't end there as he came on to pitch the final two innings of UNC Asheville's 7-6 come-from-behind win over Wofford on Sunday, earning the win and striking out two batters, including the last batter of the game. In his two innings of work, batters hit just .167 against him (one hit) and he didn't walk a batter compared to his two strikeouts.
LANKFORD GOES YARD: Freshman third baseman Brandon Lankford leads the team with three home runs this season.
ORR MOWING THEM DOWN: Starting pitcher Spencer Orr gave the Bulldogs seven solid innings on the mound and recorded six strikeouts, giving him a team-high eight for the season.
TROOST NAMED FIRST-EVER BIG SOUTH FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK: UNC Asheville baseball true freshman Chris Troost was named the first-ever Big South Conference's Come Ready Nutrition Freshman of the Week as announced by the conference office Monday, Feb. 20. 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.
BREAKING THE TREND: When freshman left-handed pitcher Greg Gasparro got the start on Friday, Feb. 17 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 on Friday, Feb. 17. 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
"Sunday was a good win for us, but we still didn't play a clean game. We got a little sloppy in the first couple of innings, but we played a very good seven-inning game after that. We're going to start a freshman on the mound on Tuesday and we will try to play a complete, nine-inning game like we know how to. We always talk about consistency as a team, so we're going to follow that up on Wednesday with the same approach and not worry about the outcome, just worry about the process and how we approach the game and how we play during the game." – Scott Friedholm
Â
ASHEVILLE, N.C. – The UNC Asheville baseball team will play a pair of mid-week road games beginning Tuesday, Feb. 28 at Western Carolina. The Bulldogs will also play at Furman to open the month of March on Wednesday, March 1.
THE MATCHUPS
Teams:Â UNC Asheville (3-4) at Western Carolina (4-3)
Location:Â Cullowhee, N.C. / Ronnie G. Childress Field
When:Â Tuesday, Feb. 28 / 4 p.m.
Live Stats:Â www.uncabulldogs.com
Twitter:Â @ashevilledogs #ThePursuit
Teams:Â UNC Asheville (3-4) at Furman (5-2)
Location:Â Greenville, S.C. / Latham Baseball Stadium
When:Â Wednesday, March 1 / 6 p.m.
Live Stats:Â www.uncabulldogs.com
Live Video: Furman YouTube
Twitter:Â @ashevilledogs #ThePursuit
BULLDOG BITES
INSIDE THE SERIES: When Asheville travels to Western Carolina on Tuesday, it will mark the 73rd meeting between the two programs. The Catamounts own a record of 50-20 over the Bulldogs all-time. Wednesday will mark the 54th meeting between the Bulldogs and the Paladins with Furman owning that all-time series with a record of 24-28-1. The Bulldogs are 3-0 during the Scott Friedholm era against Western Carolina, having won the last three games, and are 2-2 against Furman in the same span.
SCOUTING THE CATAMOUNTS OF WCU: The Catamounts started the season 2-1 at Coastal Carolina's Caravelle Resort's "Baseball at the Beach" tournament. There, WCU downed No. 9 Coastal Carolina and North Carolina A&T. The Catamounts then dropped a mid-week game at No. 12 Clemson before taking a 2-1 series at home over Marshall, dropping the series finale. Through the first seven games of the season, Brett Pope and Matthew Koekler are both batting at least .400. Koehler boasts a team-best 12 runs batted in and 10 runs scored as well as two home runs. Pope has 12 hits on the year, including two doubles, a triple and a home run and is 2-for-3 in stolen bases. As a team, the Catamounts are batting .340 heading into Tuesday's game. On the mound, Tuesday's WCU starter, left-hander Tristan Baker, boasts a 1.80 ERA in just one appearance. He pitched 5.0 innings and struck out two batters compared to two walks against the nationally-ranked Tigers of Clemson last week. The Tigers batted .389 against him with seven hits.
SCOUTING THE PALADINS OF FU: Furman started the season with a 2-1 series win over Dayton at home. The Paladins then traveled the short distance to Clinton, S.C., where they defeated Presbyterian in a mid-week game and followed that up with a 2-1 series win at home over Monmouth. They play at USC Upstate on Tuesday, Feb. 28, before facing the Bulldogs. Currently, three batters are batting over .400 for the year led by Sky Overton's .440 and Brandon Elmy's .433. Elmy leads the Paladins with eight RBIs and four doubles as well as 13 hits while Overton, Cameron Whitehead and Carter Grote lead the team with nine runs scored. Overton is currently 4-for-4 on stolen bases this season.
KOLE HARRIS TO START TUESDAY FOR ASHEVILLE: Head baseball coach Scott Friedholm will turn to true freshman right-handed pitcher/infielder Kole Harris to start Tuesday against the Catamounts. So far on the year, Harris has made two appearances and boasts a 1-0 record and a 0.00 ERA. He has pitched 4.0 innings and struck out four batters compared to giving up four hits and a walk. Tuesday night will mark his first collegiate start on the bump.
LAST TIME OUT (at Wofford, 2/26/17): Justin Woods has just about done it all this week, and Sunday he added to his already impressive week as he came on to pitch the final two innings against Wofford as he earned the 7-6 win on the mound for the UNC Asheville baseball team, including striking out the final batter of the game. The Bulldogs fell behind 5-0 through the first two innings, but remained resilient and responded in a big way late in the game. Asheville began the comeback by scoring single runs in the third and fourth frames. Carmine Pagano got things going when he hit a shot to center field in the third inning, scoring Danny Wilson from third and in the next inning, Wilson doubled down the right field line to score Brandon Lankford and set the score at 5-2. Wofford scored a run in the bottom of the fifth, but starter Spencer Orr, Woods and the Bulldog defense didn't allow another run from there, including retiring 10 straight batters at one point late in the game. Asheville then did what they have done a lot of early in the season, scoring in bunches. Only this time it came at the end of the game, not at the beginning. In the eighth frame, the Bulldogs plated three runs, including two off a Lankford homer that also scored Chris Troost. Later in the inning, with bases loaded, Kole Harris drew a walk and pushed Woods across the plate to pull the Bulldogs to within one. Wofford was able to delay the inevitable by getting out of the eighth, but in the ninth, the Bulldogs struck again, this time for two runs. Tanner Bush hit a sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Derek Smith to tie the game and then, with bases loaded, Joe Gruszka wore a pitch and pushed Lankford across for the go-ahead run. Despite being ahead, the heroics were not done as Wofford got a runner aboard in the bottom of the ninth, but Gruszka gunned the pinch runner out at second, setting Woods up to record the final out via strikeout. At the plate, Lankford led the way with a 2-for-4 performance, including scoring three runs and batting in two more. The freshman third baseman now has three home runs and eight RBIs on the season. Danny Wislon and Andrew Friedholm also both had two hits in the game with Wilson going 2-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI while Friedholm went 2-for-3 at the dish. Orr had a solid day as the Bulldogs' starter, pitching seven innings that saw the senior southpaw strike out six batters. Woods (1-0) then came on for the final two innings, striking out two batters and giving up just one hit. Wofford relied on seven pitchers in the game with starter Austin Higginbotham pitching 6.2 innings while giving up six hits and two earned runs. Grant Byers (0-1) ended up being the pitcher of record.
UP NEXT: Following Wednesday's game at Furman, the Bulldogs will open the home portion of their 2017 season with a three-game series against Iona. The Bulldogs and Gaels will begin the series on Friday, March 3 with a 3 p.m. first pitch. The two will then renew acquaintances on Saturday, March 4 at 1 p.m. Sunday's series finale's start time is currently to-be-determined, but will be announced Saturday.
LANKFORD NAMED BIG SOUTH FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK: After a stellar week in Spartanburg, UNC Asheville baseball true freshman Brandon Lankford has been named the Big South Conference's Come Ready Nutrition Freshman of the Week, as announced by the conference office Monday afternoon. Lankford's honor marks the second week in a row that a UNC Asheville freshman has earned the honor and gives UNC Asheville a sweep of the award in the first two weeks of its existence. Last week, fellow true freshman Chris Troost earned the first-ever Come Ready Nutrition Freshman of the Week honors for baseball in the Big South. Lankford led the Bulldogs to a 2-2 record this past week in Spartanburg. Over the course of the Bulldogs' four games, he batted a team-best .389 with an outstanding .833 slugging percentage and .500 on-base percentage. He led the team with four extra base knocks, including two home runs and two doubles. The third baseman from Mocksville, N.C., had multiple hits in all but one game last week and also had at least one RBI in each game. He scored seven runs himself, including the game-winner Sunday to lift Asheville over Wofford 7-6, and batted in six others. In the field, he recorded a putout and nine assists for a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage. In Wednesday's game at USC Upstate, Lankford started the scoring drive for the Bulldogs with a double to score Carmine Pagano, putting Asheville up 1-0. On Friday against Dayton, his single through the left side to score fellow freshman Kole Harris in the top of the second inning put the Bulldogs ahead of the Flyers for good. He then scored the first of his two runs of that game when Joe Tietjen doubled to left field. His second run of the game came when Tietjen ripped a home run to center field. In the game against the Flyers, Lankford went 2-for-4 at the plate and drew two walks. In the weekend finale at Wofford, Lankford went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and three runs scored. In the fourth inning, he scored off a Danny Wilson double down the right field line. Then, in the eighth inning, Lankford hit his third home run of the season, second of the week, scoring last week's Big South Come Ready Nutrition Freshman of the Week Troost. He ended his week by scoring the game-winning run in the top of the ninth inning when fellow freshman Joe Gruszka was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
YOUNG SQUAD: The Bulldogs' starting lineup has featured 12 players who are either freshmen or sophomores. Freshmen Chris Troost, Brandon Lankford, Kole Harris, Joe Gruszka, Jake Madole, Tyler Serricchio and Greg Gasparro have all contributed in the starting lineup very early. Sophomores Carmine Pagano, Andrew Friedholm, Danny Wilson, Austin Fahr and Ryan Tapp have all picked up where they left off as freshmen and are beginning to see their roles increase as well.
MOVING RUNNERS ACROSS THE PLATE: Senior center fielder Joe Tietjen moved seven runners across the plate Friday afternoon against Dayton, coming up just two shy of the individual single-game school record. Tietjen had a double and a home run to help his efforts. He also had two other hits that came close to clearing the fence. One was just foul and the other came up just short of the center field fence.
DOUBLING THEM UP: The Bulldogs have turned six double plays so far this season while their opponents have turned four.
A LITTLE BIT OF EVERYTHING: Senior Justin Woods did a little bit of everything last week while in Spartanburg. The senior started his week off by recording his first career grand slam against USC Upstate on Wednesday. The four-RBI performance was just the beginning as he led the team with nine RBIs on the week. For the week, he batted .313, including two home runs and a double, scored three runs and boasted a slugging percentage of .750 to go with a .450 on-base percentage. In the field, he had seven putouts. But his week didn't end there as he came on to pitch the final two innings of UNC Asheville's 7-6 come-from-behind win over Wofford on Sunday, earning the win and striking out two batters, including the last batter of the game. In his two innings of work, batters hit just .167 against him (one hit) and he didn't walk a batter compared to his two strikeouts.
LANKFORD GOES YARD: Freshman third baseman Brandon Lankford leads the team with three home runs this season.
ORR MOWING THEM DOWN: Starting pitcher Spencer Orr gave the Bulldogs seven solid innings on the mound and recorded six strikeouts, giving him a team-high eight for the season.
TROOST NAMED FIRST-EVER BIG SOUTH FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK: UNC Asheville baseball true freshman Chris Troost was named the first-ever Big South Conference's Come Ready Nutrition Freshman of the Week as announced by the conference office Monday, Feb. 20. 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.
BREAKING THE TREND: When freshman left-handed pitcher Greg Gasparro got the start on Friday, Feb. 17 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 on Friday, Feb. 17. 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
"Sunday was a good win for us, but we still didn't play a clean game. We got a little sloppy in the first couple of innings, but we played a very good seven-inning game after that. We're going to start a freshman on the mound on Tuesday and we will try to play a complete, nine-inning game like we know how to. We always talk about consistency as a team, so we're going to follow that up on Wednesday with the same approach and not worry about the outcome, just worry about the process and how we approach the game and how we play during the game." – Scott Friedholm
Â
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