GAME NOTES (PDF)
GREENSBORO, N.C. – After its first road contest of the season, an 11-9 loss at East Carolina Tuesday, the UNCG baseball team returns home for a three-game set against Marist at the UNCG Baseball Stadium. The Spartans will play nine of their next 10 games on home soil.
Senior outfielder Zach Leach (Herndon, Va./Herndon) had a big day at the dish against the Pirates, going 3-for-4 with two runs scored. Freshman infielder Nin Marrero (Greensboro, N.C./Western Guilford) delivered two RBI on the day, including his second home run of the season in the seventh inning to give UNCG a brief 9-8 advantage.
The teams combined for 20 runs on 25 hits, scoring 11 of those runs in the fifth through seventh innings. A pair of errors in center field proved costly for the Spartans as junior Dylan Thompson (Snow Camp, N.C./Guilford Technical CC) was tagged with his first loss of the season. He gave up three earned runs in the bottom of the seventh on three hits and a walk.
# UNCG and Marist have faced off on the diamond three times prior to this weekend. The Spartans won all three of those meetings in 2007 by scores of 5-3, 8-3 and 11-6 in Greensboro.
# Link Jarrett is the second head coach in the 24-year history of UNCG baseball. He spent the last three seasons as an assistant coach and the recruiting coordinator at Auburn University. The game with East Carolina marks a return to Greenville for Jarrett as he served as the Pirates' infield coach, hitting instructor and recruiting coordinator from 2005-09.
# The Spartans opened the season 4-0 for the second-straight season before falling to Dayton twice Feb. 24. Last year, UNCG ran off seven-straight victories to begin the campaign before losing to Radford.
# UNCG opens the 2013 season playing 19 of its first 21 games at the UNCG Baseball Stadium. The Spartans played at East Carolina March 5 and will travel to Raleigh to face NC State March 19. In all, the Blue and Gold hosts 36 games during the year.
# A look at the Southern Conference statistics finds the Spartans first in the league in batting with a .309 team average and fifth in pitching as the UNCG staff sports a 3.70 ERA. Individually, Cambric Moye is fourth in batting average (.421) while senior infielder Christian Wolfe is sixth at .413. On the pitching side, Gilliam is first in opposing batting average (.155) and third in ERA (0.52).
# The Spartans have showed well at the plate early in the season, scoring 75 runs (7.5 r/g), racking up 108 hits and batting .309 as a team. The Blue and Gold has six hitters batting over .300 and the offense has produced 36 extra base hits. UNCG is also second in the SoCon in triples with five.
# Senior infielder Trevor Edwards has hit two home runs this season to bring his career total to 28. He is the Southern Conference active career leader in round-trippers and is second in RBI while also placing inside the top five in slugging percentage and doubles.
# The Spartans host a pair of midweek contests next week, welcoming Lehigh to the UNCG Baseball Stadium before going to battle with Rhode Island Wednesday. Both games are scheduled to begin at 4:00 p.m.
- UNCG -
