GREENSBORO, N.C. – The Spartan baseball team returns to action on Tuesday, April 23rd, when it heads to Elon for a 6 p.m. contest against the Phoenix.
The Spartans are 22-15 entering the game and looking to pick up their second win against Elon this season after posting a 4-3 win on March 12th at the UNCG Baseball Stadium. UNCG is also in search of its fourth victory away from home this season when the two teams collide for the 56th time in program history.
UNCG will send freshman Maddux Holshouser (0-1, 4.95 ERA) to the mound for his fourth start of the season. Holshouser has also made starts this season against Princeton (March 9), N.C. A&T (March 19) and North Carolina (April 9). His longest outing among his three previous starts was five innings versus Princeton, where he allowed three runs on four hits, walked one Tiger hitter and recorded three strikeouts.
Elon (24-16) enters the game winning six of its last seven contests due in large part to three-game sweeps of Delaware (April 13-14) and William & Mary (April 20-21) in successive weekends. Since suffering a one-run loss to the Spartans on March 12, Elon has gone 15-10 on the season.
The Phoenix, who are 12-10 at home this season, are sending senior right-handed pitcher Brandon Justice (1-0, 4.85 ERA) to the mound on Tuesday. It will mark Justice's first start of the season after making 18 relief appearances. He has logged 26 innings, allowed 20 hits, surrendered 14 runs and issued 17 walks. Justice is tied with teammate Kyle Greenler for most strikeouts by Elon relievers with 24.
UNCG vs. Elon Game Notes
-Slugger Zach Kuchmaner leads the way for the Spartan lineup in triples with four, which has him ranked 27th nationally and second in the Southern Conference in that category.
-One of the positives that came out of the weekend series with Samford is that Austin Embler joined teammates Josh Madole, Caleb Webster and Jacquez Koonce among UNCG hitters with at least 10 multi-hit games in 2019.
Embler, who recorded his 10th multi-hit game of the season in a 2-for-4 outing against Samford in the series opener on April 18th, is now tied with Koonce for third-most double-digit hit performances on the season with 10.
Embler moved into the tie with Koonce after enjoying three multi-hit performances in his last seven games. The first came against No. 18 North Carolina (April 9), where he finished 3-for-5 from the plate with two RBI, two runs scored and a double. He followed that with a 2-for-5 performance against George Mason (April 13), scoring a pair of runs against the Patriots.
-UNCG freshman hurler Austin Koehn has found his rhythm in his last four starts, recording at least five strikeouts each against Western Carolina (March 31, five), Furman (April 7, six), George Mason (April 14, six) and Samford (April 20, six) in succession.
Koehn, who has a 1.38 ERA and a 1-0 mark in his last four outings, has logged a total of 26 innings, surrendered 20 hits, allowed four runs (four earned runs), walked five opposing hitters and recorded 23 strikeouts. Of those 20 hits by opposing hitters, only three have gone for extra-bases, including a double and two home runs, resulting in a .215 batting average against the right-handed freshman.
-The Spartans and Phoenix are meeting for the 56th time on the diamond on Tuesday evening. Elon holds a 38-17 advantage in the all-time series.
The Spartans are 8-7 versus Elon under current head coach Link Jarrett, winning four of the last five games, dating back to March 7, 2017, when UNCG posted a 12-8 victory. After earning the four-run win on March 7, UNCG came through with a 10-3 victory (May 2, 2017) and a 7-5 win (March 7, 2018).
The Phoenix snapped UNCG's three-game winning streak in the series in their last meeting in Elon with an 8-7 triumph on May 15, 2018. However, the Spartans bounced back with a 4-3 win in Greensboro when the two teams met last month at UNCG Baseball Stadium.
-UNCG teammates Greg Hardison and Austin Embler have the longest active hitting streaks for the Spartans heading into this week's games against Elon (April 23) and The Citadel (April 26-28).
The longest current hitting streak of the season (11 games) again belongs to Greg Hardison, who has missed the last 14 games after sustaining an injury against Wake Forest (March 26).
Embler has put together a seven-game hitting streak, dating back to a 3-for-5 outing against No. 18 North Carolina on April 9th. The redshirt-senior followed with a 2-for-4 performance against George Mason (April 13) and returned the following day to go 1-for-4 against the Patriots.
ON DECK FOR UNCG
The Spartans return to UNCG Baseball Stadium this weekend when to host The Citadel for their third Southern Conference home series of the season. The first game of the series is set for 6 p.m. on Friday, April 26th. The first pitch of the second game is for Saturday, April 27th at 3 p.m. and the three-game set will conclude on Sunday, April 28th at 1 p.m.
