University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
UNC Asheville
Charleston Southern
Bulldog Baseball Hosts Charleston Southern for Weekend Series
04.06.2017 | Baseball
Asheville-Charleston Southern Series Notes (PDF)
ASHEVILLE, N.C. – The UNC Asheville baseball team dips back into the Big South Conference schedule this weekend with a three-game home series against Charleston Southern. The series begins Friday, April 7, with a 6 p.m. first pitch. The Bulldogs and Buccaneers will then play a 3 p.m. game on Saturday, April 8, and will close out the series on Sunday, April 9, with a 1 p.m. first pitch.
THE MATCHUP
Teams:Â UNC Asheville (12-16, 3-3 Big South) vs. Charleston Southern (14-13, 3-6 Big South)
Location:Â Asheville, N.C. / Greenwood Field
When:Â Friday, April 7, 6 p.m. / Saturday, April 8, 3 p.m. / Sunday, April 9, 1 p.m.
Live Video: 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: Dating back to the 1988 season, UNC Asheville is 35-54 all-time against Charleston Southern. The Bulldogs have claimed eight series victories over the Buccaneers, including series sweeps in 1992 and 2010. In the last two seasons, the two programs have split the series 3-3. Charleston Southern claimed the series 2-1 in 2015 and Asheville took last year's 2-1.
SCOUTING THE BUCCANEERS: Entering this weekend, Charleston Southern is 14-13 overall and 3-6 in Big South Conference action. The Buccaneers have claimed three series over Delaware State, VCU and Hofstra. In league action, the Bucs have dropped series to Longwood, Liberty and Campbell. At the plate, CSU is led by a pair of above-.300 batting averages in Jason Miller and Brandon Gragilla. Miller leads the way with a .330 average and 35 hits. Gragilla is third on the squad with 17 runs scored and boasts a .313 batting average. Chris Singleton leads the team with 20 runs scored and Nate Blanchard has batted in a team-best 19 runs. Singleton leads the teams with 10 stolen bases and Miller is second on the team with seven. The Bucs will send Nik Constantakos and Kyle Dyson to the mound on Friday and Saturday. Constantakos, a right-handed freshman, has made seven starts and pitched 36.1 innings while striking out 36 batters with a 3.72 ERA. Dyson, a redshirt senior righty, has made six starts for the Bucs, pitching 27.0 innings where he has struck out 18 batters while boasting a 5.33. Constantakos is 2-1 on the year while Dyson is 0-1.
WEEKEND ROTATION: The Bulldogs' starting rotation this weekend will feature a right-hander on Friday and two lefties to close things out. Brandon Harris will toe the rubber first on Friday and fellow freshman Greg Gasparro will get the start on Saturday. Senior Spencer Orr will remain the Sunday starter to close things out. Friday will mark the fifth consecutive Friday start for Harris, who enters the weekend with a 3-2 record and a 2.18 ERA. He has pitched 33 innings and struck out 14 batters. Gasparro will be making his sixth start of the year and third in the last three weekends. He has pitched 33.2 innings and struck out 24 batters, the second-most on the squad. Orr leads the team with 39.1 innings of work and has remained the steady Sunday starter for the Bulldogs this season. He boasts a 3.43 ERA and has struck out a team-best 33 batters.
LANKFORD GOES YARD: Brandon Lankford hit his sixth home run of the season Tuesday night against N.C. State. The six homers this season is tied for the fifth most in the Big South Conference.
EFFECTIVE PINCH HITTER: Joe Gruszka came in to pinch hit for UNC Asheville in the top of the ninth inning in last Sunday's series finale against Richmond. The freshman made the most of his at-bat, ripping a two-run home run to left field. The homer was the first of his collegiate career.
FIRST CAREER HOMER: Five Bulldogs have hit their first collegiate home runs so far this season. Joe Gruszka was the most recent as he hit a tater against Richmond. Prior to that, Kole Harris, Brandon Lankford, Jake Madole and Tyler Serricchio all hit their first homers of the year earlier this season.
WOODS SWINGING THE LUMBER: Justin Woods ripped his fourth home run of the season in the first game of a doubleheader on Saturday, April 1, at Richmond. It was the ninth homer of his career and surpasses his previous season-high of three set as a redshirt sophomore in 2015.
GASPARRO SHUTTING DOWN THE OPPOSITION: Greg Gasparro has now pitched 15 consecutive scoreless innings. Gasparro pitched seven scoreless innings Saturday against Richmond and seven scoreless innings last Saturday in the series finale with Presbyterian. The weekend before, in the Bulldogs' Big South Conference opening series against Winthrop, Gasparro pitched one scoreless inning against the Eagles in the Sunday series finale.
SWIPING BASES: Joe Tietjen moved up a spot in program history last weekend as he stole a base in the first game of the doubleheader at Richmond on Saturday, April 1. The stolen base gave him 13 for the season and 36 for his career. He is now in a tie for sixth in program history for career stolen bases and is just two away from fifth.
BREAKING INTO THE TOP-10 IN A BIG WAY: Senior center fielder Joe Tietjen broke into the top-10 in program history in two offensive categories on Wednesday, March 29, when he ripped a grand slam in the bottom of the seventh inning. It was his 19th home run, which has him tied for 10th all-time in the category. He now has 110 runs batted in, a mark that has him ninth in program history.
CLOSING IN: Senior centerfielder Joe Tietjen is quickly closing in on the top-10 in program history in three other offensive categories. He is just one triple away from tying teammate Tanner Bush and three former Bulldogs for 10th in triples and he is three doubles and six runs scored away from breaking into the top-10 in program history.
CANNONS FOR ARMS IN THE OUTFIELD: Danny Wilson had two assists from left field Wednesday, March 29, against Western Carolina, both throwing runners out at home. He threw one Catamount runner out at home without a cutoff man in the top of the second inning and then combined with Kole Harris to throw another greedy runner out in the top of the sixth. The two assists gives UNC Asheville 11 outfield assists on the season, a mark that has them in the top-five in the nation in the category.
A LITTLE BIT OF EVERYTHING: Justin Woods has done a little bit of everything this season for the Bulldogs. Offensively, he boasts a .233 batting average, has scored seven runs and drove in 17 others. He also has three home runs on the year, including a grand slam at USC Upstate. He is third on the team with a .425 slugging percentage. He has also split time on defense in left field and on the mound. He has made 27 putouts and five assists on the year and is second on the team with a 0.82 ERA in nine appearances. He boasts four saves and has struck out eight batters.
LAST TIME OUT (at N.C. State, 4/4/17): The UNC Asheville baseball team continued the out-of-conference slate Tuesday night with a midweek game at N.C. State. The Bulldogs fell 13-1 to the Wolfpack at Doak Field with the lone run coming off a Brandon Lankford home run. After Chris Troost singled to lead things off in the top of the first, the Wolfpack went up 10-0 through the first three innings off three runs in the first, two in the second and five in the third. In the top of the fifth inning, Lankford broke up the Pack's shutout when he hit a solo home run to right-center field. It was the sixth homer of the season for Lankford. N.C. State added single runs in the bottom of the fifth, sixth and eighth innings to claim the 13-1 win. Nick Boyles (0-4) made his third start of the season on the mound for UNC Asheville, pitching just over two full innings to be the pitcher of record. Boyles then gave way to Jesse Juday, Derek Smith, Kole Harris and Austin Fahr. Smith had the most effective outing on the mound as he struck out four batters in two full innings of work. Johnny Piedmonte (1-0) earned his first start of the year for N.C. State and pitched five full innings en route to securing the win.
UP NEXT: UNC Asheville will continue the current four-game homestand with a midweek game on Tuesday, April 11. The Bulldogs will host Wofford in the second part of a home-and-home series. The two will play at 6 p.m.
BACK-TO-BACK SERIES WINS: When UNC Asheville won the first game of a doubleheader against UMBC on Saturday, March 11, it marked the first time since the 2012 season that the Bulldogs had won back-to-back weekend series. The 7-6 walk-off win over UMBC gave UNC Asheville a 2-1 series win 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.
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.
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.
LANKFORD NAMED BIG SOUTH FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK (2/27): 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 (2/20): 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 should be another great test for us in Big South Conference play. We need to have the same focus and energy every inning this weekend against Charleston Southern." – Scott Friedholm
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