KINGSPORT, Tenn. – Fresh off of their second-straight Mid-South Conference Tournament Championship, the Campbellsville University baseball team heads east to Kingsport, Tenn. for the NAIA Opening Round this Monday through Thursday.
 
The Tigers open up as a No. 3 seed in the Kingsport Bracket set to face Webber International as the second game of the Monday slate at 2:30 p.m. ET at Hunter Wright Stadium. The Warriors are the No. 2 seed in the bracket after making The Sun Conference Tournament Championship but falling to Thomas University last Sunday.
 
For the past month, CU has been on a good run of baseball excluding their final regular season series when they were swept by Georgetown. Without those three games, the Tigers have won 12 of their last 14 including going a perfect 3-for-3 in the MSC Tournament.
 
Pitching has been a key during those 12 wins as Campbellsville allowed either four or fewer runs in 11 of those 12 wins with four shutouts in those 11 wins. Over the 27 innings of the conference tournament, CU only allowed their opponents to score in two of those 27 innings as they only allowed a total of three runs in the three games combined.
 
Campbellsville has been more opportunistic at the plate lately, not lighting up the scoreboard with runs but scoring the runs when they need them, especially in the MSC Tournament. CU scored a total of 13 runs over three games with nine of the 13 runs coming in the seventh inning or later of games they were trailing entering the seventh.
 
As many top hitters in the Tiger lineup have seen their batting average slightly drop towards the end of the year, senior utility man Chris Taitague has risen to the occasion, moving from a sub .300 average to enter the NAIA Opening Round with a .321 batting average. Taitague had a 7-for-11 three-game stretch in the tournament scoring either the game-tying or go-ahead runs in all three tournament games.
 
WIU enters the NAIA Opening Round with an overall record of 36-20 and 14-10 in The Sun Conference with a much better home record, 28-6, than their record away from Babson Park, Fla., which was 8-14 combined between road games and neutral sites. 
 
Their best stretch of baseball game between Feb. 28 and March 27 as the Warriors won 18 of 20 games, including winning five of their first six conference games. They finished up the regular season pretty well with wins in five of their final seven games and went 3-2 in their conference tournament with losses to Warner University and Thomas in the championship game.
 
Individually, they are led at the plate by outfielder Willie Carter who is hitting .384 in 54 starts with 18 home runs and 59 RBIs over 211 at bats. The home run total is good for ninth in the country, and the 59 RBIs just cracks the top-20 in a tie for 19^thwith those 59 runs driven in.
 
Along with Carter, the Warriors have four players with over 200 at bats and all of them are hitting .294 or better on the 2019 season. Third baseman Marcus Begg, shortstop Carlo Mancillas, and second baseman Norberto Navarro join Carter as Webber's most consistent hitters in the lineup.
 
The pitching staff for Webber International is somewhat top heavy with three guys at the top of the staff posting solid numbers. Instead of it being three starting pitchers, it's their top starter Zak Spivey along with the pair of relievers Gerig Blackman and Joey Cutrone that all post sub three ERAs. 
 
Spivey has a 10-4 record on the mound with his team-leading 2.56 ERA in 15 appearances, 14 of them being as a starting pitcher to rack up 112.2 innings pitched. Blackman is 8-0 with a 2.60 ERA in 24 relief appearances to total 52 innings pitched and Cutrone has appeared 14 games but his appearances average less than an inning with a 2.84 ERA.
 
In the double elimination format, the loser of this game will stay alive to face the loser of the bracket's first game between No. 4 seed Madonna University and No. 5 seed Marian University on Tuesday morning. The winner will move on to play the winner between No. 1 seed Tennessee Wesleyan and the winner of game one in the second game on Tuesday. 
 
Campbellsville baseball is looking to reach the NAIA World Series for the first time since 2009.