University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
UNC Asheville
Winthrop
Bulldog Baseball Hosts Winthrop in Big South Opening Series
03.16.2017 | Baseball
Asheville-Winthrop Series Notes (PDF)
ASHEVILLE, N.C. – The UNC Asheville baseball team opens its 2017 Big South Conference schedule this weekend with a three-game series against Winthrop. The series schedule has been slightly tweaked with Friday's series opener now featuring a 3 p.m. first pitch. On Saturday, March 18, the Bulldogs and Eagles will play at 3 p.m. and Sunday's series finale will start at 1 p.m. Live video of all three games will be available on the Big South Network.
THE MATCHUP
Teams:Â UNC Asheville (7-8) vs. Winthrop (7-10)
Location:Â Asheville, N.C. / Greenwood Field
When: Friday, March 17 - 3 p.m. / Saturday, March 18 - 3 p.m. / Sunday, March 19 – 1 p.m.
Live Video:Â Big South Network
Live Stats:Â www.uncabulldogs.com
Twitter:Â @ashevilledogs #ThePursuit
BULLDOG BITES
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: UNC Asheville and Winthrop have played 96 times on the baseball diamond heading into this weekend's three-game series. The Eagles control the head-to-head record 71-25.
SCOUTING THE EAGLES: Winthrop was picked fourth in the Big South Conference Preseason Baseball Poll by the league's coaches. The Eagles are currently 7-10 on the year, including opening the season with a three-game sweep of Maine and a 2-1 series win over Canisius College last weekend. Winthrop has played three nationally-ranked teams in No. 7 North Carolina, 18th-ranked Coastal Carolina and No. 7 South Carolina. The Eagles went 0-3 in those games, but led the Gamecocks late. For the year, Winthrop as a team is batting .257 with 30 extra-base knocks. Winthrop is led at the plate by Mitch Spires' .377 batting average, 20 hits, two triples and two stolen bases. Hunter Lipscomb boasts a team-high three home runs and 17 runs batted in on the year in a team-best 67 at-bats. He enters the weekend batting .299. On the mound, Reece Green, Thad Harris and Colton Rendon started the first two weekends as the starting pitching rotation. Two weeks ago, that rotation changed slightly as the Eagles played four games in three days, and last weekend, Harris moved up to the Friday starter, Green moved to Saturday and Nate Pawelczyk earned the start on Sunday. Green has leads the pitching corps with 29.2 innings of work and 23 strikeouts on the year to go along with a 2.12 ERA in five appearances. Harris has pitched 20.1 innings and is 0-5 on the year to go along with a 9.74 ERA. Pawelczyk has made six appearances this season, pitching 14.1 innings. He has struck out 17 batters and boasts a 1.26 ERA.
WEEKEND ROTATION: UNC Asheville will turn to freshman right-hander Brandon Harris to start on the mound Friday. Redshirt junior righty Joe Zayatz will be the Bulldogs' starter on Saturday and senior left-hander Spencer Orr will maintain his hold on the Sunday starting spot.
TOP-10 AND MOVING UP: With his two stolen bases on Tuesday at Charlotte, senior Joe Tietjen moved into a tie for ninth all-time in program history for bases swiped with 31 for his career. He is now just three away from a tie for seventh and five away from sixth.
EXTRA BASES FOR LANKFORD: Both of freshman Brandon Lankford's hits Tuesday went for extra bases. He had a three-run home run in the top of the first and then ripped a double in the top of the eighth frame. For the season, Lankford leads the team with 12 extra-base knocks, including seven doubles and five home runs. He also leads the team with 18 RBIs.
SENIOR LEADERSHIP: Between last Saturday's two games against UMBC, senior centerfielder Joe Tietjen batted .375 with three hits, four runs scored a triple and a home run. He boasted a 1.000 slugging percentage for the twinbill, an on-base percentage of .500 and two stolen bases.
PUSHING RUNS ACROSS THE PLATE: Between the two games of last Saturday's doubleheader against UMBC, Danny Wilson pushed four runs across the dish and scored one himself.
NOT ONE, NOT TWO, BUT THREE: The Bulldogs turned a rare 1-3-5-6 triple play in the bottom of the first inning of Wednesday night's game at Appalachian State. 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.
OFF TO A GOOD START: UNC Asheville baseball started the year 7-7 through the first 14 games. 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.
YOUNG SQUAD: The Bulldogs' starting lineup has featured 13 players who are either freshmen or sophomores. Freshmen Chris Troost, Brandon Lankford, Kole Harris, Joe Gruszka, Jake Madole, Tyler Serricchio, Greg Gasparro and Brandon Harris 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.
A LITTLE BIT OF EVERYTHING: Senior Justin Woods did a little bit of everything while in Spartanburg. The senior started his week off by recording his first career grand slam against USC Upstate on Wednesday, Feb. 22. 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, Feb. 26, 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.
LAST TIME OUT (at Charlotte, 3/14/17): Despite jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning, the UNC Asheville baseball team fell 14-5 to Charlotte at Hayes Stadium Tuesday afternoon. The 49ers scored five runs in the first inning to take a 5-3 lead and never looked back. The Niners then scored three runs in the second, two in the third, three in the fourth and one final run in the fifth. The Bulldogs (7-8) started off red-hot as they claimed a 3-0 lead in the top of the first when freshman third baseman Brandon Lankford ripped his team-leading fifth home run of the season, scoring Joe Tietjen and Danny Wilson in the process. Earlier in the inning, Tietjen swiped his 30th career base. Before the game was done, he collected his 31st and moved up into a tie for ninth in program history for career stolen bases. Asheville was able to get two runs back in the top of the eighth as both Tietjen and Lankford crossed the dish again off a ground out RBI and a passed ball, but that was as close as the Bulldogs would get. Lankford continued his solid freshman campaign, going 2-for-4 at the plate with two runs scored and his three RBIs. Carmine Pagano also collected multiple hits on the day with a 2-for-3 outing. The Bulldogs were out-hit 18-5 by the 49ers. Zach Jarrett had the best day at the plate for Charlotte, going 4-for-5 with four runs scored and five RBIs. On the mound, Jesse Juday (0-1) was the pitcher of record for the Bulldogs while Colby Bruce (1-0) earned his first win of the season.
UP NEXT: UNC Asheville will continue the four game homestand with a midweek game against Tennessee Tech on Tuesday, March 21. First pitch will be at 4 p.m. Next weekend, the Bulldogs will be on the road at Presbyterian College for the second Big South Conference series of the season.
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
"This weekend is going to be a really good challenge for us. Winthrop was chosen fourth in the preseason poll and we are expecting a good challenge from them. Hopefully we can clean up our defense, limit Winthrop's opportunities to 27 outs and continue to pound the zone on the mound. If we do those and continue to perform at the plate, we will give ourselves a chance this weekend."– Scott Friedholm
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