CSU Baseball Set to Take On Reinhardt

Reinhardt will visit Buccaneer Field Tuesday afternoon to take on the CSU baseball team at 2 p.m. These two teams were originally scheduled to square off on February 26, but inclement weather pushed back the meeting. Live stats will be available for the game through GameTracker.

Full Game Notes for April 15 (Reinhardt)

Media Coverage
Live Stats (GameTracker)

Series Notes
This will be the first meeting between these two teams.

Scouting the Eagles
An NAIA Division I member of the Southern States Athletic Conference, Reinhardt has used a high-powered offense to compile a 27-23 record on the season. The Eagles have outscored their opponents 381-325 on the season, with the largest differential in the third inning when they have a 72-38 advantage.
Jarrod Willis and Daniel Jape lead the Reinhardt offense, each with double-digit home run totals. Willis is the team’s top all-around hitter, recording team highs in both batting average (.425), runs scored (64), doubles (16) and total bases (111). Jape is the Eagles’ leading power hitter, hitting 11 home runs and tallying 60 runs batted in, both of which are team bests.
Reinhardt uses a large pitching staff, with 19 players seeing action on the mound for the team this season. Tim Duncan leads the squad with 31 strikeouts in 46 innings of work, and closer Daniel Hester has four saves on the year with an earned run average of 2.25 over eight innings.

Last Time Out
CHARLESTON, S.C. – With the winds blowing out at Buccaneer Field, there was no shortage of offense on Saturday. The CSU and Coastal Carolina baseball teams combined for nine home runs in the doubleheader, with the Chanitcleers sweeping the day’s action. Coastal won the first game 15-5 and wrapped up a series sweep with an 11-1 victory in game two. Buccaneer freshman Taylor Black had a pair of home runs to give him five for the season, ranking third on the team.

Making His Mark
Senior Payton Tweddale has already cemented his place in CSU baseball history, recording five saves (tied for first in the Big South Conference) this season to push his program-record career total to 18. But the lefty is approaching another milestone as he continues to make appearances for the Bucs. In his four season, Tweddale has made 93 appearance, inching closer to the program record of 100 made by Nino Fasulo from 2002-05. His 1.75 ERA this year is also tied for second in the league.

Dynamic Duo
Freshmen Steven Antolik and Derek Smith have shown why head coach Jason Murray has placed them in the heart of the Buccaneer batting order. Despite it being their first season of collegiate baseball, both have belted seven home runs on the season, tied for seventh in the conference. Smith also ranks seventh in the Big South in batting average (.364) and fourth in slugging percentage (.627).

On The List
Junior catch Jake Cox has been named to the 2008 Coleman Company-Johnny Bench Award Watch List, given annually to the top division one collegiate catcher. On the season, Cox has an on-base percentage of .337 thanks to 16 drawn walks, which is tied for second on the squad. He has thrown out 11 of 30 runners trying to steal bases on him this season, thwarting over 36 percent of the attempts, which ranks among the conference leaders.

On The Horizon
CSU will resume its suspended April 1st game with the College of Charleston at 1 p.m. on Tuesday before playing the regularly-scheduled contest at 2:30 p.m. The Bucs will then continue Big South Conference play with a three-game series against Winthrop over the weekend. CSU will then be off until April 30 when it takes on Savannah State.