Thursday, May 4, 2023

Weekend Series - Samford Bulldogs




Who: Samford Bulldogs
When: Friday, Saturday, Sunday - May 5-7, 2023
Times: 5 pm, 3 pm, 2 pm (ET)
Where: Joe Lee Griffin Field, Homewood, AL
TV/video: ESPN+
Live Stats: SU Live Stats



Nickname: Bulldogs
Location: Homewood, AL
Colors: Blue and Red
Students: 5,729
Message Board: The Dog Pound

This year's record: 25-20 overall, 17-3 home, 8-17 away, 0-0 neutral, 10-5 SoCon

Head Coach: Tony David, a long-time associate head coach at Samford, enters his second season as the program's head coach. -Overall Record: 52-49 (2nd season)
-Record at Samford: same

The Series: The Cats own a 21-28 overall record vs. the Bulldogs, and are 5-13 in games played at their home field. Western is 3-7 in the last 10 games played and comes into the contest this weekend on a 3-game skid, having lost 5 of the last 6 games played. The Cats have not won in Homewood since 2017.

In preseason polling, the Bulldogs were picked to finish 4th by the coaches and 3rd by the media, and had 5 players named to preseason honors. RHP Michael Ross was selected for the first team, and Jacob Cravey, Alex Goff, Stephen Klien, and Garrett Staton were selected second team. Cravey was most recently named to the watchlist for the 2023 College Baseball Foundation Pitcher of the Year Award on April 24.

This season, Stephen Klein and John Anderson both rank in the top 10 in the SoCon in slugging percentage, with Anderson ranking fourth at .701 and Klein sitting 10th at .593. On the mound, Ben Petschke ranks second in the SoCon with 19 relief appearances and seven saves on the season. The junior closer was named to the NCBWA Stopper of the Year Midseason Watchlist. Junior pitcher Jacob Cravey was named to the watchlist for the 2023 College Baseball Foundation Pitcher of the Year Award. Cravey boasts a record of 6-1 in 10 starts for the Bulldogs this season with a 3.47 earned run average. Cravey, is holding opposing hitters to a .216 average on the year and leads the Southern Conference with 80 strikeouts and 35 strikeouts looking.The Bulldogs are batting .280 collectively as a team – eighth overall in the league rankings – but are hitting .317 in SoCon play, the third-best team average.

Samford junior infielder John Anderson was named one of Collegiate Baseball's National Players of the Week, and he earned SoCon Player of the Week honors for his performance in Samford's four games last week. For the week, Anderson batted .444 (8-of-18) with five home runs, including two grand slams, two doubles, and 5 RBIs. He hit at least one home run and drove in at least two runs in each of Samford's five games last week. For the season, Anderson leads the Southern Conference in home runs with 16, and he is tied for second in the league in RBI with 49 

Currently, the Bulldogs are tied for first place in the SoCon standings with Wofford and Mercer.

Fri., May 5 | 5 pm ET / 4 pm CT
Projected Pitching Match-up:
WCU – Jr. RHP Jonathan Todd (2-2, 8.33 ERA; 12 app., 5 GS, 33K, 19BB)
SAM – Jr. RHP Jacob Cravey (7-2, 3.69 ERA; 11 app., 11 GS, 86K, 29BB)

Sat., May 6 | 3 pm ET / 2 pm CT
Projected Pitching Match-up:
WCU – Jr. LHP Kyle Riesselmann (1-3, 8.05 ERA; 10 app., 9 GS, 32K, 11BB)
SAM – Jr. RHP Brody Westbrooks (3-2, 5.16 ERA; 12 app., 10 GS, 54K, 19BB)

Sun., May 7 | 2 pm ET / 1 pm CT
Projected Pitching Match-up:
WCU – TBD
SAM – Soph. RHP Will Lynch (3-3, 5.06 ERA; 11 app., 11 GS, 50K, 29BB)




No comments: