Baseball: The Citadel comes to town

On Friday April 18th, The Citadel makes the trip up the mountains to the Cullowhee valley to meet the Catamounts in this season's 3-game series between the two most dominate baseball programs in the Southern Conference. The Dogs and Cats have met 138 times on the diamond, with the Cats leading the series 77-61, including a 40-21 mark in games played in Cullowhee.

The Citadel has 13 Regular Season Championships in the record books, while the Cats own 12 of those regular season crowns. The Citadel also has won 8 SoCon tournament championships, while the Cats are the proud owner of  9 tournament championships. However, this season the Citadel comes to Hennon Stadium with a 15-23 overall record and the Bulldogs have a solid hold on last place in the conference standings as well, with a  2-13 conference record.

In SoCon play, the Citadel only has one win apiece over Samford and Appalachian State, as the Bulldogs have lost all 5 conference series this year. The Bulldogs have preformed considerably better against non-conference foes, with a 13-10 non-conference record. The Citadel's problems seem to stem from playing on the road, as they are only 3-12 in road games, but conversely are 12-9 at home in Charleston.

The bright spot for the Bulldogs is their home win on Wednesday night against the #11 South Carolina Gamecocks. However, the Gamecocks seem to be in a nose dive, losing back to back games this week against both Charleston Southern and the Citadel, and are in the midst of a four game losing streak.   I don't know how much the Citadel's win over USC can factored into how the Bulldogs will play against the Cats.

"I hope this will get them going, because we still have a lot of baseball left to play," said Bulldog Coach Fred Jordan after beating USC Wednesday night. "Our alumni enjoy (beating USC) a whole lot more than I do. I'd rather beat Western Carolina two out of three. This game's about confidence, and for the first time in a month when we had the lead, we didn't panic when someone pressed us. We just came back in and swung the bats."

Once again, the Catamount Sports Network will not broadcast this series. So, those wanting to hear the game will be forced to listen to the Citadel broadcast. The game will be streamed on Catamount All-Access.

Projected Pitching Match-Ups:
Friday: WCU - Jr. Jeremy Null, RHP (5-1, 1.63) vs. CIT - Sr. Logan Cribb, LHP (2-4, 5.51)
Saturday: WCU - Fr. Bryan Sammons, LHP (6-2, 3.96) vs. CIT - So. Austin Mason, RHP (1-2, 5.46)
Sunday: WCU - Sr. Jordan Smith, RHP (5-3, 3.73) vs. CIT - TBA