Wednesday, May 9
Davidson, N.C.
6:00 p.m.
Davidson College Athletics
vs
USC Upstate
Brian Russell
Photo by: Tim Cowie - DavidsonPhotos.com
Baseball Hosts USC Upstate In Home Finale
5/9/2012 9:53:00 AM | Baseball
DAVIDSON, N.C – The Davidson baseball team will hope Mother Nature allows one more game at Wilson Field, as USC Upstate is scheduled to take on the Wildcats starting at 6 p.m. tonight.
Senior RHP Brian Russell (7.17, 4-5) will start for the Wildcats (17-28) after holding No. 3 South Carolina to a pair of runs in 5.2 innings last week. RHP Ben Augenstein (2.85, 3-1) will start for the Spartans (32-14).
Leading Off
- This is the final non-conference game and the final home game of the regular season for Davidson. The regular season will conclude Thursday and Friday, May 17-18 at Furman.
- Davidson is looking to reach the SoCon tournament for the first time since 2009, as only eight teams from the 11-member league qualify. The Wildcats (8-19), currently in ninth, can finish no better than eighth, and Furman (9-15) can clinch the eighth and final spot with a sweep of The Citadel this weekend. If Furman wins two of three against The Citadel, Davidson would have to sweep Furman on the road May 17-18 to place ahead of the Paladins by virtue of the head-to-head tiebreaker. The 10th and 11th-place teams, UNCG (7-17) and Wofford (6-18), also meet this weekend. Wofford is the only team mathematically eliminated from the tournament.
- Senior CF Drew Gadaire leads the team in hitting (.309) and RBI (31).
The Series
VS. USC Upstate: This is just the second meeting between the teams, as the first was earlier this season. Davidson won in Spartanburg, 8-7.
About USC Upstate
The 2012 season marks the first season of full NCAA Division I eligibility for the Spartans. After a five-year transitional phase from D-II to D-I, Upstate is eligible for postseason play. Since dropping all three contests at Belmont (Apr. 6-7), the Spartans have won 12 of their last 15 contests and have won three-straight A-Sun series. At 32-14, Upstate is just four wins shy of tying the school-record for wins (36, 1987). Gaither Bumgardner's run of 15 consecutive trips on base and 11 straight hits came to a close Friday with a first-inning ground out.
SISSON RANKED: Freshman LHP Henry Sisson's opposing batting average of .206 leads the Southern Conference and ranks 50th in the nation.
GREAT GADAIRE: Senior Drew Gadaire continues to be Davidson's leading hitter (.309) after leading the team last season batting .362. Gadaire joined the team as a true walk-on and earned the team's rookie of the year award and a place on the SoCon All-Freshman team (2009), and has been the team's MVP the past two seasons. Gadaire has also been strong defensively primarily playing in centerfield. He robbed a potential game-tying home run in the Wofford series. Gadaire and classmate Seth Freeman are the team captains.
GADAIRE ON DAVIDSON CAREER RECORDS LISTS
| Category | Place | Total | Next | Record |
| Hits | t-3rd | 237 | 250 (Heafner '06) | 272 (Frend '02) |
| Doubles | 5th | 50 | 52 (Two tied) | 57 (Benefield '05) |
| Triples | t-8th | 7 | 8 (Three tied) | 12 (Goodwin '98) |
| Extra Base Hits | 8th | 74 | 75 (Lewis '87) | 94 (Frend '02) |
| Total Bases | 6th | 352 | 369 (Boretti '94) | 439 (Frend '02) |
| RBI | 10th | 129 | 131 (Bender '92) | 183 (Turgeon '87) |
| At-bats | 6th | 720 | 735 (Two tied) | 787 (Frend '02) |
| HBP | 3rd | 24 | 26 (Boretti '94) | 27 (Davis '99) |
| Sac Flies | t-8th | 8 | 9 (Two tied) | 16 (Boretti '94) |
KILLER B'S: Senior right fielder Jake Berman and sophomore left fielder Forrest Brandt have heated up at the plate. Berman hit his team-leading sixth home run of the season against Samford and batted .279 with 16 RBI and five homers for the month of April. Brandt has gone 22-for-55 (.400) in his last 13 games, raising his batting average from .244 to .292.
THIEVES: Davidson entered the week ranked 43rd in the nation in stolen bases per game at 1.47, with 66 total to rank fifth in the Southern Conference. Forrest Brandt leads the team and ranks seventh in the SoCon with 16 stolen bases. The Wildcats stole a team record 10 bases at Presbyterian (4/10).
WALK THIS WAY: Davidson leads the SoCon with 202 bases on balls this season. Michael Zeblo leads the team and is tied for sixth in the SoCon with 30. His 0.73 walks per game rates 60th in the nation. Zeblo tied Davidson's single-game record with four at Presbyterian (4/10). Jake Berman is second on the team and eighth in the SoCon with 29 walks.
IRONMEN: 3B Andrew Barna and LF Forrest Brandt have started each game this season.
TOUGH TRAVELS: On the road, Davidson is 5-6 against teams that have not been nationally ranked at any point this season, and 0-9 against teams that have been ranked at some point in the season. Davidson is 12-13 at its home park, Wilson Field.
SISSON THROWS NO-HITTER: Davidson LHP Henry Sisson threw the sixth no-hitter in Davidson history and the first since 2001 as the Wildcats shut out Wofford, 1-0 (4/13). The milestone came in just Sisson's fifth career start as he upped his record to 2-1. He allowed four base runners on three walks and an error and matched his career high of nine strikeouts. The no-hitter was the first in the SoCon since College of Charleston combined to blank Western Carolina in 2004, and it was the first complete game no-hitter by a starter since The Citadel's T.A. Fulmer shut down East Tennessee State in 2002. Sisson's no-hitter was recognized as the top pitching performance in the nation for the week by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper, as the publication named him Louisville Slugger's National Pitcher of the Week and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA), which also named him the National Pitcher of the Week. Sisson was also named to the College Baseball Hall of Fame National All-Star Lineup and the CollegeBaseballInsider.com National Pitcher of the Week. A game ball from his no-hitter was sent to the College Baseball Hall of Fame.
OVERCASH NAMED SOCON STUDENT-ATHLETE OF THE WEEK: Ryan Overcash was named the SoCon Student-Athlete of the Week after tossing his first career complete game in a 2-1 victory over Wofford (4/14) with a career-high 11 K's. The RHP maintains a 3.74 GPA in economics.
BREAK OUT THE BROOMS: The three-game SoCon series sweep of Wofford was Davidson's first since 2009 when it took three from UNCG at home.
YOUNG ARMS: Of the 14 relief pitchers Davidson has called upon this season, seven are freshmen (Ben Arkin, Rob Bain, Clark Beeker, Ryan Lowe, Nick Neitzel, Matt Saeta and Henry Sisson), two were originally exclusive position players (Bryan DaCanal and Michael Zeblo) and two (Justin Charles and Michael Loeb) did not appear in a game last season. Just one, sophomore Jip Richards, was regularly called into action last season. Brian Russell made his first relief appearance vs. Duke (3/27) after making six starts, while sophomore Danny Mooney made his first relief appearance at UNCG (4/21, G2). One of the biggest adjustments Davidson is making in 2012 is adapting to the absence of bullpen stalwart Mike Frongello. The reliable, righty-reliever concluded his stellar four-year career by breaking the SoCon's all-time appearance record in the 2011 season finale, taking the ball for the 136th time. He appeared in 39 of 48 games last season, throwing 67.1 innings (second on the team) and posted a team low 2.54 ERA. Also missing from the bullpen is flamethrower Andy Bass, who graduated and was drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays in the 18th round. Starter Chris Lamb elected to forego his senior season after the Oakland A's selected him in the 11th round last year, so combined with the departure of graduating seniors, Davidson lost nearly 68 percent of last year's innings pitched.
CLOSER BY COMMITTEE: Four different pitchers have earned Davidson's seven saves this season. Freshmen Clark Beeker and Matt Saeta and junior Michael Zeblo, who primarily plays shortstop, have two each. Zeblo earned Davidson's first save of the season and most recent against Wofford (4/15). Freshman Ryan Lowe earned his first save at USC Upstate (4/3) after Saeta ran into trouble in the ninth inning.
STREAKS END: OF Drew Gadaire saw his 27-game reached base streak, which dated back to last season come to an end vs. Duke (3/27) with an 0-for-4 night. It also ended an eight-game hitting streak. 1B Calvin Sigelbaum reached base in 15-straight games after moving into the starting lineup, but failed to reach base in the series finale at Coll. of Charleston (3/25). Sigelbaum and Gadaire are tied for the longest hiting streaks of the season, as Sigelbaum had a hit in each of his first eight starts.
BONUS BASEBALL: Four of Davidson's games this year have gone into extra innings, including three SoCon games. Davidson fell to Ohio and Appalachian State earlier in the year in games that went 10 innings and defeated Elon in back-to-back 11 inning contests. The Wildcats had four extra inning games all of last season.
TEAM OF THE WEEK HONORABLE MENTION: Davidson earned a “Team of the Week” honorable mention (Mar. 12-18) from CollegeBaseballInsider.com, after going 3-1 with a pair of dramatic wins 11th inning wins over Elon.
THEY FOUGHT LIKE WILDCATS: No. 6 UNC needed a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the eighth inning and NCBWA Stopper of the Year Watch List selection RHP Michael Morin to defeat Davidson on Mar. 6. Trailing 4-2 in the sixth inning, the Wildcats tied the game at 4-4 with a pair of runs, putting them in position to pull off the upset.
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