WILLIAMSBURG, Va. - The William & Mary baseball team travels to Towson for a three-game Colonial Athletic Association series this weekend. The set gets underway on Friday, April 28 at 3 p.m., resumes on Saturday, April 29 at 2 p.m. and wraps up on Sunday, April 30 at 1 p.m.
Â
ON TAP
William & Mary takes a trip to Towson for a three-game CAA series this weekend. The set gets underway on Friday, April 28 at 3 p.m., resumes on Saturday, April 29 at 2 p.m. and wraps up on Sunday, April 30 at 1 p.m. The Tribe looks to sustain its longest winning streak of the season, which is currently at four games.
Â
SCOUTING THE TIGERS
Towson hopes to get back in the win column after suffering a three-game CAA series sweep at the College of Charleston last weekend. The Tigers are 15-23, 3-9 in league play after both their mid-week games were rained out. The Tigers are batting .245 as a team. Richie Palacios paces the lineup with a .329 batting average (50-for-152), 11 doubles, 21 RBI, two triples and two home runs. Richard Miller is also hitting .325 (41-for-126) to go along with a team-best 25 plated runs. On the mound, TU owns a 6.22 team ERA. Friday's starter Kevin Ross leads the pitching staff on 49.2 innings pitched and a 3.62 ERA. Michael Adams, who will start on Saturday, has notched a team-high 37 strikeouts. Mike Gottlieb is in his 29
th season at the helm of his alma mater. He owns a 728-810-10 in his long-standing tenure at TU.
Â
SERIES HISTORY
W&M and Towson will compete against each other for the 52nd-54th time in series history this weekend. The Tribe leads the all-time series behind a 33-19 mark. Last season, the Tribe claimed two out of three against Towson at Plumeri Park. Both
Ryan Hall and
Kyle Wrighte shined in the 2016 three-game set. Hall finished the series 7-for-13 with two RBI, while Wrighte was 6-for-12 with two RBI, two doubles and five scored runs.
Charles Ameer also homered and drove in three runs.
Â
ON DECK
The Green and Gold returns to Plumeri Park for a Colonial Athletic Association three-game series with the College of Charleston next weekend. The series starts on May 5 at 6 p.m., continues on May 6 at 4 p.m. and finishes on May 7 at 1 p.m. The three-game set will represent the Tribe's third CAA home series of the season. W&M boasts a 15-5 home record.
Â
MID-WEEK FINALE
W&M concluded its mid-week schedule with a 4-2 victory at in-state rival George Mason on April 26.
Owen Socher recorded two hits and drove in a run, while
Kyle Wrighte also notched a pair of hits to lead the Tribe to its fourth straight win.
Charlie Fletcher collected his second win of the season and
Nick Brown earned his second save of 2017. The contest also marked the final Commonwealth clash for the Tribe, finishing 9-5 against its in-state foes.
WALK THIS WAY
The Green and Gold registered back-to-back walk-off RBI singles to complete a CAA sweep of James Madison last weekend (April 21-23). In the second game, senior
Ryder Miconi recorded the first walk-off single to lift the Tribe to an 8-7 victory in 10 innings. Freshman
Patrick Ryan provided more late game heroics as he carried W&M to a 7-6 win behind another walk-off single in the series finale.
MESS WITH THE BULL YOU GET THE 'PEN
The Tribe's bullpen was critical in helping the team complete its first conference sweep of the season against James Madison. During the series, the bullpen combined to pitch 11 innings with three earned runs and nine strikeouts to hold the Dukes in check down the stretch. In the second game, senior
Nick Brown tossed the last 3.1 innings to capture his fourth win, while classmate
Chase Bailey closed out the series finale in two innings for his first win of 2017.
Â
WEEKLY AWARDS
The Tribe added its sixth conference weekly award of 2017 after
Ryder Miconi was named Player of the Week for the week of April 24. Miconi batted .409 (9-for-22) with three doubles, six runs scored and nine RBI's in William & Mary's 4-1 week.
Brandon Raquet (Feb. 21, April 10) and
Patrick Ryan (Feb. 28) combined for three Rookie of the Week awards, while
Bodie Sheehan (March 7) and
Daniel Powers (March 27) contributed Pitcher of the Week accolades.
LARGE AND IN CHARGE
Junior
Cullen Large reached a new career milestone after eclipsing 200 career hits during the three-game set with JMU last weekend. Large finished the JMU series 6-for-11 to achieve 205 total career hits. He now needs 12 more to rank top 15 in the program's all-time most hits list. The Chesterfield, Va., native is also just four shy of recording his 50th career double. He currently ties 14th on W&M's all-time most doubles list with 46.
Â
BRINGING OUT THE BROOMS
William & Mary recorded its third 3-0 weekend of 2017 following a series sweep of James Madison on April 21-23. The JMU series also represented the Tribe's first CAA sweep. W&M brought out the brooms for the first time this season during its home opening series against Lafayette (Feb. 24-26). The Tribe went on to notch its second straight undefeated weekend at the Irish Classic on March 3-5, defeating non-conference foes Monmouth (W, 6-5), Dayton (W, 7-0) and Rhode Island (W, 2-1).
Â
GETTING ON BASE
Cullen Large pushed his current on-base streak to double-digits at 10 games after reaching safely on a walk twice at George Mason. Large also owns the longest on-base steak of the season at 18 games.
Ryder Miconi (13),
Brandon Raquet (12),
Charles Ameer (11) and
Kyle Wrighte (10) also tallied double-digit reached base streaks.
Â
Â
BEST IN THE LEAGUE
Junior
Charlie Fletcher leads the Colonial Athletic Association with 24Â appearances on the mound. The reliever has pitched 23.0 innings with 14 strikeouts and a 2.74 ERA. Classmate
Ryan Hall not only tops the conference in sacrifice flies, but also ties for sixth in the nation with seven. Hall is just three sac flies shy of a new single season program record.
GRAND OLD TIME
Senior
Charles Ameer blasted his and William & Mary's first grand slam of the season during an 11-10 comeback win at in-state rival Richmond on April 18. Ameer leads the team in home runs this season with seven.
Â
Â
