ATHENS, W.Va. – The Concord University baseball team will play its final Mountain East Conference regular season series of the season 3:00 p.m. Saturday and 1:00 p.m. Sunday at UVa.-Wise.
RECORDS• Concord is fifth in the MEC standings with a conference mark of 22-16. Overall, CU is 26-19 this season.
• UVa.-Wise is 12-28 overall and 11-20 in the league. The Cavaliers have been eliminated from postseason consideration.
PLAYOFF SEEDING SCENARIOS• The top six teams qualify for the MEC Tournament which begins May 7 at Epling Stadium in Beckley, West Virginia. And the Mountain Lions have clinched a berth in the conference tournament.
• Concord can climb as high as third in the conference standings if the three seed Notre Dame or four seed West Liberty were to falter during the final weekend of the season, and Concord won three or four games against UVa.-Wise
• If Concord were to drop three or more games to the Cavaliers this weekend and West Virginia Wesleyan won three or more games against Glenville State, CU would drop to sixth in the standings.
THE COACHES• In his fifth season at his alma mater,
Andrew Wright is 153-108 at Concord.
• UVa.-Wise's Hank Banner is 28-49 in two seasons at the NCAA level for the Cavaliers.
MOUNTAIN LION NOTES• In three of Concord's four road games against West Liberty freshman outfielder
Andy Szamski had at least one RBI and had two or more in two of the contests.
• This season Szamski has recorded three or more RBI in nine games for the Mountain Lions which is just two games shy of former All-American first baseman
Joey Miller's mark in 2014.
• Szamski leads the MEC in RBI (61) and triples (six) while ranking second in hits (57).
• With his next three-base hit Szamski will tie Rob Annicelli and Toby Legacy for the most triples in a season in school history.
• Junior pitcher
Chris Kelly is beginning to appear in the Concord record books.
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After tossing six innings last week, Kelly is now tenth on the all-time list in inning pitched (154.1).
• If Kelly pitches his 12
th career complete game against UVa.-Wise, Kelly can move to seventh on the all-time innings pitched list at CU.
• By winning his next start, Kelly will tie Brooks Cullen for fifth on the all-time wins list with 19.
• Looking further in the CU record books, senior first baseman Ryan Johnson can move out of a tie for fourth in career RBI when he drives in his next run.
• Johnston has 161 career RBI.
• Johnston and junior outfielder
Andrew Seigel are tied for sixth and eighth respectively in career triples.
• Johnston has nine triples while Seigel has eight triples in the Maroon and Gray.
• By earning a save against WLU last weekend, freshman pitcher
Reece Edwards moved into a tie for seventh all-time at Concord with two career saves.
• Meanwhile, redshirt freshman pitcher / third baseman
Damon Frazier is tied for fourth at CU in career saves with five.
• Frazier is second in the MEC with five saves this season, and as a team CU is second in the league in saves with eight.
• In addition to the seven saves Edwards and Frazier have combined for, senior pitcher
Bryant Pybus also picked a save this season.
• Behind the plate, junior catcher
Charles Goss and redshirt freshman catcher
Paul Williams combined to throw out 15 runners this season which is third in the conference behind Fairmont State and Glenville State.
• Last season against UVa.-Wise Concord scored 51 runs in a four-game home sweep over the Cavaliers.
• Senior outfielder
Jerrod Groves had five RBI in the series while scoring six runs.
• In a 20-5 CU win in game two versus UVa.-Wise last season, CU pitching coach
Tim Leather drove in two runs while playing third base.
• In Concord's narrow 6-5 win over the Cavaliers in game three of the series, Leather also earned his fifth win of the season in a relief appearance.
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