Location: Flour Field, Greenville, SC
Date: Wednesday, May 22th
Time: 1:30 PM
Radio: Catamount Sports Network
Live Stats: GameTracker
Live Video: SoCon TV (free)
Record: 27-28 Overall, 12-17 SoCon
Series: The Cats are 8-8 all time against the Bulldogs
The 2013 SoCon Regular Season Baseball Champion Catamounts will meet the defending tournament champions and number 8 seed Samford Bulldogs in the opening round of Southern Conference Baseball Tournament on Wednesday at 1:30 pm.
The Cats sweep the Bulldogs in the conference series in Cullowhee back in mid-April. The Cats evened the overall all time record against Samford to 8-8 with the sweep.
The Bulldogs come into this game on a two game loss streak, and are 3-7 in their last 10 games. The Cats also dropped their last game of the season, to ASU but are 9-1 in their last ten games.
Samford's RPI stands at 182 and the Bulldogs are 3-19 against teams with an RPI of 100 or less. The Cats are currently at 51.
While it's not known yet who the starting pitchers will be, there stands a good chance that Samford will open with junior pitcher C.K. Irby. Irby was recently named a semifinalist for the Dick Howser Trophy.
On the mound, Irby leads Samford and ranks fourth in the SoCon in wins with seven, is tied for the league lead in complete games (2), and ranks second in the SoCon in shutouts (1) and fifth in strikeouts (86).
As a hitter, Irby leads Samford and ranks second in the SoCon with a .386 batting average, ranks second in in hits (83), third in triples (4), fourth in runs batted in (56), fourth in total bases (130), fourth in on-base percentage (.454) and sixth in slugging percentage (.605).
Having said that, the Cats faced Irby in game 2 of the series back in Cullowhee in April, "Irby took the loss for the Bulldogs on the mound in his shortest outing of the season....... Irby (5-3) was chased after just an inning and two thirds, surrendering five runs - four of which were earned - on just three hits. He managed to strikeout four, but gave up five freebies including four walks as Samford pitching gave up 11 base on balls in the game and plunked three batters. The Bulldogs also committed four errors in the field including a catcher's interference call in the loss."
Don't expect an easy win over the Dogs..
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