Concord Begins Series with Nationally-Ranked Charleston Saturday

Concord Stats - Charleston Stats - Live Stats - Live Video

ATHENS, W.Va. – The Concord University baseball team continues its eight-game home stand when nationally-ranked Charleston visits Anderson Field 1:00 p.m. Saturday and 1:00 p.m. Sunday in a pair of Mountain East Conference doubleheaders.

LIVE COVERAGE
Stats: The Concord University Sports Information Department will provide live in-game statistics of the four-game series.
Video: Live streaming video is also available for the two doubleheaders.

RECORDS
Concord has won seven of eight games, and enters the weekend with a mark of 11-17 overall and 10-14 in the MEC.

Charleston is ranked 14^th in the latest National Collegiate Baseball Writers' Association (NCBWA) Poll with records of 28-4 overall and 22-2 in the MEC.

WINNING WAYS
The Mountain Lions had a seven-game winning streak snapped on Monday, but still won three of four games against Davis & Elkins to take over third place in the MEC South Division by a game over Glenville State. In the last eight MEC games for CU, the Maroon and Gray has seen its team batting average go from .276 to .311, now second in the conference behind Charleston's .344 average. Individually, freshman infielder Zack Saryeldin is batting .556 (15-for-27) at the top of the CU order over the last eight contest, and has six multi-hit games. Junior infielder Anthony Stehlin is hitting .481 (13-for-27) in the last eight games with three games of three or more hits. The RBI production has been evenly spread out with freshman catcher Nick Funk record 11 in the last eight games, sophomore outfielder Richard Ortiz adding 10 and junior infielder Evan Antonellis and sophomore infielder Juan Fortique each with seven RBI. Stehlin (.458), Antonellis (.413) and Saryeldin (.409) are all hitting .400 for the season.

MOVIN' ON UP
With the Mountain Lions scoring 19 runs—including 10 in the second inning—in game four, and five shutout innings from senior pitcher from Spencer Hoyt, Concord moved into the top three for the first time this season in the MEC South. Monday also marked the first time since April 2015 that CU won back-to-back series, and it was the first time of three or more wins on consecutive weekends since March 18-19 and 25-26, 2018 when CU was 7-1 against Wheeling Jesuit, West Liberty, Urbana and Notre Dame. Sophomore outfielder Josh Adkins had his first career grand slam in the 10-run frame while Fortique notched his first career home run earlier in the frame. It's the second time Concord has posted 10 runs in an inning this season. On the mound, Hoyt retired 14 straight batters to start the game as he recorded a season-best seven strikeouts to pick up his second win.

BACK TO BACK
On Monday, freshman pitcher Andrew Neff was named MEC Pitcher of the Week for his first career complete game in a win over Davis & Elkins as he fanned a career-best nine hitters while allowing just one earned run on three hits. The week prior, freshman utility Eddie Blake was named MEC Pitcher of the Week for his performances against West Virginia State and West Virginia Wesleyan. Dating back to the 2008 season, CU has never had conference pitchers of the week back-to-back weeks. In his last three starts, Neff has allowed just seven earned runs in 18 innings paired with 21 strikeouts. Meanwhile, senior pitcher Trent Abernathy needs just six strikeouts to be the fourth player in program history to amass 200 career strikeouts.

CHARLESTON AT A GLANCE
The Golden Eagles start the month of May having only lost once during April, a game four loss to Davis & Elkins two weeks ago. Like Concord, UC has won seven of eight, but overall has been victorious in 19 of 20. Also like CU, Charleston has three players hitting over .400 this season. Braxton Boddorf leads the way with a .426 average to go with a team-best 32 RBI. Hayden Cartt and Bryce Toussaint are both hitting .407 with Cartt adding 25 RBI. Logan Campbell and Colt Webb lead the way for a UC pitching staff that sports an ERA of 2.92. The duo is a combined 13-0 this season with Campbell leading the MEC in strikeouts—71 in 44.2 innings. Both are also holding opponents to less than .170 at the plate.