GREENSBORO, N.C. – After eight-straight games away from home, the UNCG baseball team returns to the friendly confines of the UNCG Baseball Stadium this weekend hosting Ivy League member Princeton. The teams will play doubleheaders both Saturday (1 p.m.) and Sunday (11 a.m.).
The Spartans enter the weekend with a 2-7 record having most recently dropped an 11-7 decision at Wake Forest Wednesday. UNCG rallied from a 6-0 deficit to tie the game but the Demon Deacons scored five of the last six runs in the contest. Junior infielder Collin Woody hit his first home run of the season while four Spartans recorded multiple hits.
The Tigers have played just three games this season, suffering a sweep at then No. 4 LSU. Princeton competed tough in the series opener, falling by just one run (3-2), before LSU took the final two games by a combined 22-6 margin.
Senior outfielder Zac MacAneney paces the Spartan offense with a .343 batting average as the team is hitting .235 collectively. UNCG will go with its usual weekend rotation of junior RHP Ryan Clark (1-1, 4.96), senior RHP Brennen James (0-2, 1.17) and freshman RHP Michael Bates (0-1, 10.38). A starter for the fourth game is yet to be named. After spending last season as a midweek starter, James has settled nicely into the weekend rotation, sporting a 1.17 earned run average with 10 strikeouts in 15 1/3 innings pitched.
Peter Owens is currently second for Princeton with a .400 batting average and is tops among players with at least 10 at bats. The Tigers will send, in order, RHP Chad Powers (1-1, 1.80), LHP Keelan Smithers (0-1, 9.00), RHP Luke Strieber (0-1, 18.00) and RHP Cameron Mingo (0-0, 6.00) to the bump.
UNCG leads the all-time series with Princeton 15-3 and took two of three from the Tigers last season in Greensboro.
After this weekend's games, the Spartans will head to the eastern part of the state for five contests. UNCG will take on East Carolina in Greenville Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. before traveling south to Wilmington for four games against Columbia and UNCW.
Follow the UNCG baseball team all season by logging on to www.uncgspartans.com and monitoring the Spartans' official Twitter accounts @UNCGBaseball/@uncgsports.
