ATHENS, Tenn. — After winning its first two series of the season, the 14
th-ranked Campbellsville University baseball team hits the road for a four-game swing in Tennessee this weekend with Bryan College and No. 4 Tennessee Wesleyan.
Campbellsville (7-2) will play Tennessee Wesleyan on Friday, Feb. 24 with first pitch scheduled for 2 p.m. ET. Live stats will be available via Dakstats.
The Tigers will then travel to Bryan College for a doubleheader on Saturday, Feb. 25 starting at 1 p.m. Live video and stats are available as well.
Campbellsville then returns back to Athens for another game with the Bulldogs, starting at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
The Tigers are fresh off an 11-7 victory over Milligan College on Tuesday. Campbellsville pounded out a season-high 18 hits in the win over the Buffs.
Shortstop
Matt Valdez went 4-for-5 at the plate and followed with three-hit games by
Carlos Garmendia and
Diego Reynoso. Garmendia was a triple away from the cycle and delivered a 3-run home run and drove in four runs.
Clay Valenzuela-Reece and
Romello Carbuccia also delivered multi-hit games, while Valenzuela-Reece drove in three runs – one of those his first-career home run - and Carbuccia knocked in one.
The Tigers have upped their team batting average to .307 and are scoring 6.1 runs per game. Reynoso leads the Tigers with a .737 batting average in seven games, hitting 10-for-19. Hunter Christiansen, who is battling a foot injury, also started on fire with a .429 average and is followed by
Matt Valdez at .429 and
Clay Valenzuela-Reece at .375.
The pitching staff has been solid from top to bottom for the most part. CU boasts an ERA of 3.21 and opponents are hitting .214 off the Tiger hurlers.
Nick Przybylek (1-1),
Jhonbert Gonzalez (1-0) and Mailk Evans (1-0) have been the weekend startes for CU thus far and
Nick Johnston (0-0) also has a weekend start under his belt.
The fourth-ranked Bulldogs are coming into the season after reaching the NAIA World Series last season and won the title in 2012. They enter with 6-6 overall record after dropping three consecutive games to Indiana Tech, which is receiving votes in the preseason poll, (7-0 and 5-4), and No. 5 Georgia Gwinnett (8-5).
Dan Ward leads Tennessee Wesleyan by hitting .395 to start the season and is second on the team with three home runs and third with eight RBI. Edwin Bonilla is hitting .386, followed by Collin Ridout at .356 with five home runs and a team-leading 15 RBI.
The pitching staff, which is led by former Tiger pitching coach Brad Neffendorf, boast a team-ERA of 4.05 in 102.1 innings pitched. Aaron Ford (0-2), Chris Washington (1-0), Carson Bach (1-1) and Austin Goss (1-0) have started multiple games for TWU this far.
Bryan College (9-5) is coming off four straight wins over Madonna and Toccoa Falls. The Lions also play Shawnee State in a doubleheader on Friday evening before the Tigers travel to Dayton, Tenn. for a doubleheader on Saturday.
Justin Morhardt has started the year on a torid pace, hitting .457 (21-of-46) with three home runs and a team-leading 19 RBI. He is followed by Wade Weinburger who is hitting an even .400 with a team-lead four long balls and third in RBI with 13.
The pitching staff has struggled at times this season, as Bryan has only outscored opponents by six runs, 93-87. The team ERA enters at 5.78 in 109 innings pitched. Brandon Marklund (1-2), Chris Sauve-Gebhardt (2-1), Tristan Legault (0-1) and Miguel Lopez (1-0) all have three starts to lead Bryan early in the season.
