Concord Opens MEC Tournament Against Fairmont State

Concord Stats - Fairmont State Stats - Live Stats - MEC Tournament Central

ATHENS, W.Va. – The Concord University baseball team begins the Mountain East Conference Tournament 3:00 p.m. Thursday as it takes on Fairmont State at Linda K. Epling Stadium in Beckley, West Virginia

TOURNAMENT INFORMATION
Admission for the tournament will be $8 for adults, $5 for youth and children under 12 is admitted free.

LIVE COVERAGE               
Live statistics will be available throughout the duration of the tournament while live audio will be provided by the MEC starting Friday. To access the live coverage, follow the links at the
top of the page or click here.

MOUNTAIN LION NOTES
CU plays the 3:00 p.m. game Thursday by virtue of winning the MEC South Division on the final day of the regular season and drawing the third-place team from the MEC North, Fairmont State.

Concord has a mark of 26-23 overall and 19-13 in the league.

On Wednesday, Concord had eight players named to the All-MEC Team led by league player of the year Chad Frazier. Sophomore pitcher Troy Beckner, sophomore outfielder Evan Webb, sophomore infielder Trevor Wiersma and junior catcher Paul Williams joined Frazier on the All-MEC First Team. Sophomore catcher Jordan Clark and freshman infielder Nathan Neff was on the second team all-conference and senior pitcher Nate Werner was tabbed to the honorable mention all-league squad.

The Mountain Lions had the most selections to the all-conference team with eight and had its first player of the year in Frazier since 2014.

It was a week of awards for the Roanoke, Virginia native as Frazier collected MEC Player of the Week and was the National Collegiate Baseball Writers' Association Atlantic Regional Hitter of the Week.

Frazier was at the forefront of the CU offense as Concord took three of four games against UVa.-Wise to close the regular season.

Frazier batted .615 (8-for-13) with 10 runs scored, two doubles, a triple, a home run and six RBI versus the Cavaliers. The 10 runs scored vaulted Frazier into the national lead for runs scored with 72, and also broke the single season record at Concord.

By recording three doubles in the series with UVa.-Wise, Webb finished the regular season tied for first in the MEC in doubles.

Meanwhile, Clark concluded the regular season with the lead in both home runs (13) and RBI (62) in the conference. Additionally, Clark's 62 runs driven in are 12^th in Division II.

Concord won its final two home games of the season by defeating UVa.-Wise 3-2 and 16-6 on Friday.

Beckner earned his seventh win of the season as he tossed 5.1 innings, allowing just one earned run. It was the sixth start this season for Beckner where he allowed one earned run or less.

In the 16-6 victory for the Mountain Lions, Webb recorded four hits and brought in five runs in the game as he set a career high in single-game RBI.

The final regular season doubleheader for CU yielded a split at UVa.-Wise as the Cavaliers notched a walk-off win in the first game, but Concord rebounded in the second game to win 9-8, erasing a 6-0 deficit after two innings.

Sophomore infielder Adrian Peralta came through a pinch-hit home run in the eighth inning, his second homer of the year to tie the game at 6-6, before freshman outfielder Jakob Divers came through with a two-RBI single in the ninth to tie the game at 8-8. All three runs for Concord came with two outs in the inning.

Williams scored on an error in the 10^th for the winning run.

Over the weekend, redshirt freshman pitcher Cody Dooley provided 7.2 innings out of the bullpen for Concord.

Dooley picked up his first career save in relief of Beckner who he allowed a Concord comeback in game four versus UVa.-Wise by tossing six quality innings and striking out a career-high six batters along the way.

After his two most-recent outings, Dooley's MEC ERA is now 0.98.

Likewise, junior pitcher Reece Edwards was instrumental out of the bullpen for the Mountain Lions. Edwards provided 5.2 innings of relief as he picked up his first save of the season after entering game two.

The Woodlawn, Virginia native was the winning pitcher for Concord in the 9-8 decision, tossing the final 2.2 innings while not allowing a hit and striking out two batters.

Earlier this season, Concord swept two games from Fairmont State on the road.

Beckner tossed a shutout in a 9-0 win for CU in game one before the Mountain Lions took an 8-5 win in game two.

Beckner struck out a career-high 12 batters while giving up just four hits to the Fighting Falcons.

Concord's offense backed Beckner with two home runs included in the nine runs.

Webb hit his first career home run in the win while Clark added one of his 13 on the season. The duo went back-to-back in the seventh inning.

Senior pitcher Austin Southcott picked up the win for CU in the nightcap at FSU on March 30. Southcott scattered six hits and four earned runs with six strikeouts in six innings.
Freshman pitcher Trent Abernathy added four strikeouts in three innings out of the bullpen.

Concord racked up 22 strikeouts against Fairmont State in the twin bill.

Webb added five RBI in the quick, two-game series

Concord will be seeking to have a better MEC Tournament than it did last year when it went two-and-out in the double elimination tournament.

The Mountain Lions lost 14-10 to Shepherd and 8-7 to West Liberty in an elimination game.

Williams was 6-for-10 in two games at the MEC Tournament last season. In his career at the MEC Tournament, the Vinton, Virginia native is hitting .590 (13-for-22) in six postseason, and has at least one hit in all six games with four multi-hit games.

Frazier has also played in six MEC Tournament games in his career and has at least one hit in five of those contests including a four-hit performance last season against Shepherd.

Edwards provided 2.2 innings of scoreless relief out of the bullpen last season versus West Liberty as he struck out two and only allowed two hits.

This will be the first time Concord and Fairmont State meet in the conference tournament since CU won a 6-3 decision in 2013.

SCOUTING FAIRMONT STATE
The Fighting Falcons will be making their first appearance in the MEC Tournament and their first conference tournament appearance since the 2013 WVIAC Tournament.

Fairmont State posted a record of 28-22 overall and 20-12 in the MEC North.

Head coach Phil Caruso was named the MEC Coach of the Year for his guiding FSU to its second straight 20-win season.

Johnny Kesling, Austin Norman, Tyler Hill, Michael Stout, Ben Myers and Jacob Whitmore were all named to the All-MEC Team with Kesling, Norman and Stout being first team selections.

Kesling finished with the second-highest average in the conference with a mark of .405.

Kesling and Norman each hit eight home runs this season.

By average, Thursday will be a matchup of the first and third offenses in the MEC. Concord has a batting average of .331 while FSU posts a .306 team batting average.