University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
UNC Asheville
Charlotte
Bulldog Baseball Preparing For Two Midweek Games
03.13.2017 | Baseball
Asheville-Midweek Notes (PDF)
ASHEVILLE, N.C. – The UNC Asheville baseball team is slated to play a pair of midweek games this week before jumping into the Big South Conference portion of the schedule. Tuesday's game at Charlotte has been moved up an hour and the Bulldogs will then play at home on Wednesday, March 15.
THE MATCHUPS
Teams:Â UNC Asheville (7-7) at Charlotte (10-6)
Location:Â Charlotte, N.C. / Hayes Stadium
When:Â Tuesday, March 14 / 4 p.m.
Live Video:Â C-USA TV
Live Stats:Â www.uncabulldogs.com
Twitter:Â @ashevilledogs #ThePursuit
Teams:Â UNC Asheville (7-7) vs. East Tennessee State (9-6)
Location: Asheville, N.C. / Greenwood Field
When:Â Wednesday, March 15 / 6 p.m.
Live Video:Â Big South Network
Live Stats:Â www.uncabulldogs.com
Twitter:Â @ashevilledogs #ThePursuit
BULLDOG BITES
MIDWEEK SCHEDULE ALTERED DUE TO WEATHER: UNC Asheville baseball's midweek game on Tuesday, March 14, at Charlotte was moved up one hour to 4 p.m. due to the threat of inclement weather later in the evening.
BULLDOG BASEBALL ON THE BIG SOUTH NETWORK: UNC Asheville will aim to stream all home baseball games on the Big South Network as weather allows.
INSIDE THE SERIES: Charlotte controls the overall series 21-5, including 17-4 in Charlotte. The two have not met since the 2014 season. That year, the Bulldogs and 49ers split two games played in Charlotte. UNC Asheville claimed the first meeting 5-1 and Charlotte took the second game 9-0. Against ETSU, the Bulldogs are 23-30 in the Bulldogs' Division I era. UNC Asheville claimed four straight games in the series from 2000 to 2002 and won all three games in 2003. Under head coach Scott Friedholm, the Bulldogs are 4-1 against ETSU.
SCOUTING THE 49ERS: The 49ers opened the season at home with a series win over West Virginia. Charlotte has played three nationally-ranked teams, including losing 5-4 at then fourth-ranked South Carolina, defeating then sixth-ranked N.C. State on road 6-5 and taking one game of a three-game series at then eighth-ranked East Carolina. Charlotte enters Tuesday's game 10-6 on the year with series wins over West Virginia (2-1), Rider (3-0) and Xavier (2-1). T.J. Nichting leads the way for the 49ers at the plate with a .403 batting average. He is tied for tops on the squad with six doubles, three home runs and 13 RBIs. Jackson Mims, Zach Jarrett and Drew Ober are all also batting over .350 with Mims leading the team with a .647 slugging percentage. The 49ers have already played three midweek games this season with junior left-hander Matt Horkey starting the first two and redshirt senior right-hander Brandon Casas getting in the start last week against North Carolina A&T. Horkey is currently 0-2 on the year with a 9.82 ERA in games against the nationally-ranked Gamecocks, the nationally-ranked Wolfpack and the Aggies. Casas enters the week with an 11.57 ERA. Both have three strikeouts on the year.
SCOUTING THE BUCS: East Tennessee State is currently 9-6 on the season. The Bucs have claimed series over Central Michigan (2-1), Western Michigan (2-1) and Gardner-Webb (2-2) as well as sweeping two midweek games against Oakland. On the road, the Bucs are 1-2 after dropping a weekend series at Florida A&M. At the plate, four different Bucs are batting over .400, including Hunter Parker's team-best .442. Chris Cook leads the team with a .609 slugging percentage, including a team-best three home runs, while Christian Bailey boasts a team-best six doubles. On the bases, Cook, Parker and Aaron Maher have swiped a combined 14 bases already this season. In the Bucs' three midweek games, they have utilized three different starting pitchers in Drew Korzybski, Victor Gonzalez and Griffin Krieg. Korzybski lasted the longest in his start against Oakland, pitching 6.0 innings that saw him give up three hits, two runs and one walk compared to two strikeouts.
OFF TO A GOOD START: UNC Asheville baseball is currently 7-7 on the year. It is the best start to a season through 14 games in the Scott Friedholm era and ties the record for best start through 14 games in program history. It is the best record by a Bulldog baseball team since the 2012 and 1993 squads also went 7-7 through the first 14 games. The 1993 squad boasted the best five-game start in program history, winning the first five games of the campaign. The 2011 team won the first four games of their season and the 2012 squad won the first three games.
BACK-TO-BACK SERIES WINS: For the first time since the 2012 season, the Bulldogs have won back-to-back weekend series. With Saturday's 7-6 walk-off win over UMBC, UNC Asheville claimed the series 2-1 over the Retrievers. The weekend before, the Bulldogs won the series 2-1 over Iona. The last time the Asheville baseball program strung together multiple weekend series was the 2012 campaign. The 2012 Bulldogs won three straight weekend series, including 2-1 over Liberty, a clean sweep (3-0) on the road at High Point and 2-1 at College of Charleston.
TOP-10 AND MOVING UP: With his two stolen bases in game-one of Saturday's doubleheader against UMBC, senior Joe Tietjen moved into 10th all-time in program history for bases swiped with 29 for his career. He is now just two away from ninth and five away from a tie for seventh.
CLOSING IN: Senior centerfielder Joe Tietjen is quickly closing in on the top-10 in program history in six other offensive categories. He is just one triple away from tying teammate Tanner Bush and three former Bulldogs for 10th in triples, two home runs away from 10th all-time and three away from breaking into the top-10 in both doubles and RBIs. He is also 43 hits away from breaking into the top-10 of that category.
NOT ONE, NOT TWO, BUT THREE: The Bulldogs turned a rare 1-3-5-6 triple play in the bottom of the first inning at Appalachian State on Wednesday, March 8. It is just the second triple play to be turned in NCAA Division I this season as George Washington turned one earlier this year. It is also the second triple play in as many years in the Big South Conference as Gardner-Webb turned the only triple play in Division I last season.
BACK-TO-BACK HOMERS: First baseman Jake Madole and catcher Andrew Friedholm hit back-to-back home runs in the first two at-bats of the second inning of Friday's game against UMBC to spur the scoring drive for UNC Asheville. It is the first time this season that UNC Asheville batters have gone yard in back-to-back at-bats. Both homers were also the first of the year for Madole and Friedholm.
EXTRA BASES: Jake Madole had a big second inning on Friday as he not only homered, but also ripped an RBI double in his second at-bat of the frame.
A LITTLE BIT OF EVERYTHING: Justin Woods continued to do a little bit of everything for the Bulldogs last week. He led the team at the plate with a .389 batting average, seven hits and 12 total bases. He also made two appearances on the mound, including starting the midweek game at Appalachian State, and pitched two complete innings that saw him give up no earned runs while striking out two batters.
EXTRA-BASE KNOCKS: The Bulldogs combined for 17 extra-base knocks last week in their four games. Justin Woods and Brandon Lankford led the way with three each as both collected two doubles and a home run. Joe Tietjen had a double, a triple and a homer on the week. In total, eight different Bulldogs had at least one hit go for extra bases.
YOUNG SQUAD: The Bulldogs' starting lineup has featured 12 players who are either freshmen or sophomores to start the year. 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 on Friday, Feb. 24, 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.
LAST TIME OUT (vs. UMBC, 3/11/17): The UNC Asheville baseball team split its doubleheader with the University of Maryland – Baltimore County (UMBC) Saturday afternoon at Greenwood Field, claiming the first game in walk-off fashion 7-6 before falling 8-4 in the series finale. With the win in game-one of Saturday's twinbill, the Bulldogs won their second straight weekend series 2-1. Last weekend, Asheville defeated Iona 2-1 at Greenwood Field.
UP NEXT: UNC Asheville will next open the Big South Conference portion of the schedule with a three-game home series against Winthrop. The series will commence on Friday, March 17, with a 6 p.m. first pitch at Greenwood Field. The two teams will then play a 3 p.m. game on Saturday, March 18, and will close out the series on Sunday, March 19. The series finale is slated for a 1 p.m. first pitch. All three game will be available live on the Big South Network.
LANKFORD NAMED BIG SOUTH FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK: After a stellar week in Spartanburg, UNC Asheville baseball true freshman Brandon Lankford was named the Big South Conference's Come Ready Nutrition Freshman of the Week, as announced by the conference office Monday, Feb. 27. 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.
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.
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
"I think we are probably going to do something similar to what we did at Appalachian State in the sense of using all of our bullpen. We want to let them all continue to get some work. I thought we did a good job last week at App State with our game plan. The big thing for us right now is we have to clean up what we are doing defensively. I think we are pitching and hitting pretty well, if we can get that third phase to come around to the level of those other two, I think we are going to be a pretty good ball club as we head into the conference portion of our season."– Scott Friedholm
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