Concord Welcomes Kutztown for Three-Game Series

Concord Stats - Kutztown Stats - Live Stats - Live Video 

ATHENS, W.Va. – The Concord University baseball team continues its March homestand when it faces Atlantic Regional foe Kutztown for a three-game series 12:00 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at Anderson Field.

LIVE COVERAGE
Stats: The Concord University Sports Information Department will have live in-game statistics of the three-game series.
Video: Live streaming will be available for the doubleheader Saturday and the single nine-inning game Sunday.

RECORDS
The Mountain Lions are 3-3-1 this season after a midweek split with UVa.-Wise.

Kutztown comes into the weekend at 4-6 after winning back-to-back games against Alderson-Broaddus and Fairmont State.

QUITE A START
Freshman pitcher/infielder Rylee Nicholas has made a great impression through the first seven games of his college career. Against Pitt-Johnstown and Bluefield State, the Summersville, West Virginia native tossed 5.1 innings with just one earned run over three appearances. Getting his first career start in the field on Wednesday, Nicholas' first career hit was a home run as he launched a two-run shot to help CU to a 5-3 win. Nicholas added an RBI in game two versus UVa.-Wise. Junior outfielder Richard Ortiz is the last Concord player to have his first hit in the Maroon and Gray be a home run as Ortiz homered two years ago at Wingate. Freshman pitcher Justin Carden was stellar in his first career appearance on the mound as he pitched two perfect innings in relief against UVa.-Wise to earn the win.

BOTTOM OF THE ORDER PRODUCTION
Junior outfielder Josh Adkins is just one of three players to hit safely in all seven games this season—the others are junior outfielder Kyle Keenan and sophomore infielder Zack Saryeldin. And despite batting either eighth or ninth this season, Adkins has 10 at-bats with runners in scoring in position and his four hits with RISP are tied for second, trailing only Saryeldin and sophomore catcher/infielder Chris Satcher. Adkins is hitting .391 overall which is third on the team as the Nitro, West Virginia native has rebounded from a 2-for-19 finish to the season in 2021. Keenan has scored 10 runs this season, second on the team, despite not hitting higher than fifth in the CU order.

PSAC MATCHUPS
This weekend will be three of the four times that Concord faces competition from the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference. The other game comes next weekend when the Mountain Lions take on Mercyhurst. CU is 2-9 all-time against Kutztown and haven't faced the Bears since 2012. Saturday will mark the first time since March 2020 that Concord has opposed a team from the PSAC. Concord was 2-4 against PSAC teams in 2020 as it defeated Lock Haven and Mansfield at the MEC-PSAC Mixer. Sophomore pitcher Andrew Neff picked up his first career win against LHU two years ago. In his last start, Neff tallied a single-game program record 13 strikeouts against Bluefield State.

KUTZTOWN AT A GLANCE
The Bears enter the weekend hitting just .192 as a team. Jimmy Kerley is the only player with double-digit hits as he bats a team-best .323. KU's pitching staff has been stellar early in the season with 110 strikeouts in 74 innings. Dominic Proietto has 32 strikeouts in 14.1 innings. Gavin Moretski has 22 punch outs in 15 innings. Overall, opponents have had a tough time solving Kutztown on the mound as the Bears allow the opposition to hit just .258. The Bears have yet to pay a home game this season.