GREENSBORO, N.C. – The UNCG baseball team begins a new season Friday as the Spartans welcome High Point to Greensboro for the first of a three-game series. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m. at the UNCG Baseball Stadium. The teams will shift the series to High Point Saturday at 2 p.m. before returning to UNCG for the finale Monday at 4 p.m.

Friday and Monday's contests will be streamed via the SoCon Digital Network free of charge while live stats will also be available for both games.

The Blue and Gold returns 12 positional players and eight pitchers from a 2014 squad that finished the year with a 21-28 overall record and 8-16 mark in league contests. UNCG also welcomes 15 newcomers to the program, many of which will be called upon to contribute right away.

Head coach Link Jarrett enters his third season in charge of the program and has transformed UNCG into the top offensive team in the Southern Conference. The Spartans have led the league in batting average the last two years, finishing sixth in the nation last season with a .310 mark.

The UNCG weekend rotation is headlined by 2015 Southern Conference Preseason Pitcher of the Year Ryan Clark (Johnson City, N.Y./Johnson City). Senior RHP Brennen James (Taylorsville, N.C./Alexander Central) will pitch Saturday while freshman RHP Michael Bates (Winston-Salem, N.C./West Forsyth) will start the series finale.

Senior infielder Hunter King (Mason City, Iowa/Northern Iowa Area CC), who earned first-team all-conference accolades in 2014, leads a group of seven returning position starters. He led the squad and finished second in the league with a .382 batting average – good for the sixth-highest mark in program single-season history. Fellow senior Eric Kalbfleisch (Pilot Mountain, N.C./North Stokes) picked up second-team all-conference laurels last season after an impressive 30-game stretch in which he hit .317 with 40 hits, 28 runs scored, nine doubles, five home runs, 26 RBI and 84 total bases. He also led the Spartans in slugging percentage at .508.

High Point set a new Division I program record for wins in 2014, finishing with a 33-22 overall mark and an 18-9 record in the Big South. The Panthers return 22 letterwinners in 2015, including all five All-Conference selections. Spencer Angelis, Dane McDermott, Josh Spano and Josh Greene will lead a HPU offense that returns seven of eight position players from last season. In the preseason Big South poll, High Point was picked to finish in second place behind defending league champion Liberty.

UNCG leads the all-time series between the schools 15-8 and the Spartans have captured five of the last six meetings. The Panthers won last season's lone matchup by a 7-4 score early in the season at the UNCG Baseball Stadium.

Weather permitting, the Spartans will play host to UNC Asheville Tuesday at 4 p.m. at the UNCG Baseball Stadium.