GREENSBORO, N.C. – The UNCG baseball team heads to Macon, Ga., this weekend to open Southern Conference play against Mercer in a three-game series that begins on Friday, March 22 at 6:00 p.m.
The two teams have met 15 times on the diamond since they first collided on Feb. 27, 1998, with UNCG holding a 9-6 advantage in the all-time series. The Spartans, who have won the last four head-to-head meetings, swept Mercer in a three-game series in Greensboro a season ago by scores of 9-3 (May 5), 6-5 (May 6) and 7-1 (May 7).
UNCG (13-6) has won six of its last eight contests since March 8, earning a sweep of Princeton (March 8-10), a victory over Elon (March 12) and winning two of three contests against Jacksonville University (March 16-17). Meanwhile, Mercer (11-11) has dropped three of its last four contests after losing two of three to Binghamton (March 15-17) and suffering an 14-8 setback to in-state foe Georgia Tech on March 19th.
Phillip Sanderson (1-1, 4.62 ERA) will toe the rubber for the Spartans in the series opener on Friday night, taking on Beau Healy (2-0, 3.33 ERA). UNCG will send Jeremiah Triplett (2-0, 2.60 ERA) to the mound on for Saturday's game, which is set for 2 p.m. The series concludes on Sunday at 1 p.m. with Austin Koehn (1-1, 4.22 ERA) set to face the Bears for his fifth start of the season at 1 p.m.
SPARTANS vs. BEARS BREAKDOWN
-The two schools have met 15 times on the diamond with UNCG holding a 9-6 advantage in the all-time series, which dates back to Feb. 27, 1998. Nine of the 15 games in the series have taken place in Macon, Ga., where UNCG is a combined 5-4. The series includes only one extra inning affair, which came in the first-ever meeting on Feb. 27, 1998, when UNCG emerged with an 11-inning victory over the Bears by a 7-6 margin.
-UNCG has won five of its last six games against the Bears since April 28, 2017, including a sweep in Greensboro in 2018. The three-game sweep came by virtue of 9-3 (May 5), 6-5 (May 6) and 7-1 (May 7) victories by the Spartans.
-Since the first SoCon baseball season in 1998, UNCG has swept five SoCon openers, including 1998 (East Tennessee State), 2000 (Western Carolina), 2005 (The Citadel), 2008 (Appalachian State) and 2016 (VMI). The Spartans also swept the 2011 SoCon opener against Western Carolina, but those three wins were later vacated.
-The Spartans own the longest winning streak in the head-to-head series, four games, which is an ongoing streak. It began with a 12-3 win over the Bears on April 30, 2017 and has includes wins by scores of 9-3 (May 5), 6-5 (May 6) and 7-1 (May 7) in the 2018 campaign.
-The Bears come into their first Southern Conference series of the season with an 11-11 mark following an 8-4 setback against Georgia Tech on Tuesday, March 19.
Mercer has been streaky in its first 34 days of play, putting together a six-game winning streak that included three wins over Florida A&M (Feb. 20 / Feb. 26 / Feb. 27) and Alabama A&M (Feb. 22-24), but also enduring a four-game losing streak which came at the hands of Georgia Southern (March 6) and Indiana State (March 8-10).
The Bears are 10-7 at home on the slate, posting their most recent home win on March 5th against Georgia State, 14-11.
Mercer has six players hitting .300 or better in its lineup, including Angelo DiSpigna, who leads all hitters with a .358 batting average (29-for-81) and is tied for third in doubles (four) and third in home runs (three). The hottest hitter in the Bears' lineup is Kel Johnson, who has a 21-game streak of reaching base safely. The top pitcher on staff is Kevin Coulter (2-0, 2.45 ERA), who is responsible for 26 K's in 22 innings. Sawyer Gipson-Long leads the pitching staff in strikeouts (30), making five starts and logging 23.2 innings on the mound.
ON DECK FOR THE SPARTANS
UNCG will return home, where it is 13-1, to host Wake Forest on March 26 at 6 p.m. It will mark the second game between the Spartans and Demon Deacons this season as UNCG looks to avenge a 2-1 setback in Winston-Salem that came on Feb. 27.
