Concord Begins 2015 Season in South Carolina Versus Shepherd

2014 Concord Stats - 2014 Shepherd Stats

ATHENS, W.Va. – The Concord University baseball team will open the 2015 season 1 p.m. Sunday against Shepherd at Clover High School in Clover, South Carolina.

THE COACHES
• Concord's Andrew Wright begins his fifth season at CU and has compiled a 127-89 mark in his previous four years.

• Matt McCarty of Shepherd has put together a 67-34 record in two seasons at SU.

MOUNTAIN LION NOTES
• The two teams will play two seven inning doubleheaders with the series getting underway 1 p.m. Sunday and finishing up 11 a.m. Monday.

• Even though the game will be played 200 miles away from Concord's campus, the Mountain Lions will be the home team in all four games.

• Shepherd leads the all-time series between the teams with a narrow 24-22 edge.

• Last season Concord split a four-game series with the Rams on the road with the Mountain Lions winning the second and third games of the series.

• Junior pitcher and 2015 NCBWA preseason all-region selection Chris Kelly shut Shepherd's offense down a season ago by scattering nine hits over seven innings while allowing just one run.

• Concord won game three of the series against SU behind Kelly's performance, 4-1.

• In 2014, Kelly tied for the team lead in wins with eight while compiling an ERA of 3.21 in 75.2 innings of work.

• Senior second baseman Jerrod Groves and junior outfielder Andrew Seigel each had two hits to aide Kelly's performance on the mound.

• Groves finished the 2014 season with a .337 batting average and was second on the team in runs scored with 53 runs.

• Senior outfielder T.J. Brockway drove in three of Concord's four runs in the game three victory over SU.

• Senior third baseman Ryan Johnston will start the 2015 season with a hitting streak of nine games and has at least one hit in 20 of his last 22 games.

• The Mountain Lions are coming off a single-season record 38 wins in 2014 and the four Concord four-years senior of Brockway, Groves, Johnston and senior pitcher Bryant Pybus have won 100 games and need to win 28 games to be the all-time winningest class at Concord.

SCOUTING SHEPHERD
• Shepherd was picked to the win Mountain East Conference regular season title in 2015 by the coaches while the Mountain Lions were picked to finish in a tie for second.

• SU won the 2014 MEC regular season crown.

• The Rams are led by NCBWA preseason all-region selection catcher Spencer Wolfe who finished the 2014 season with a batting average of .388 while hitting seven home runs and tallying 53 RBI.

• The top returning pitcher for SU is Ryan Pansch who went 7-4 with a 2.67 ERA over 64 innings in 2014.