SCHEDULE UPDATE - Game one between W&M and Northeastern on Thursday, May 11, has been moved up to a noon start time with impending weather in the Hampton Roads Area.
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – The William & Mary baseball team completes its home schedule with a three-game CAA series against Northeastern at the end of the week. The series opens on Thursday, May 11 at noon and concludes with a Senior Day doubleheader on Friday, May 12 at 3 p.m.
ON TAP
William & Mary welcomes CAA rival Northeastern to Plumeri Park for its final home series of the season. The series opens on Thursday, May 11 at noon and concludes with a Senior Day doubleheader on Friday, May 12 at 3 p.m. The Green and Gold is looking to extend its four-game winning streak.
SERIES HISTORY
W&M and NU will clash for the 47
th-49
th time in series history this week. The Green and Gold lead the all-time series 22-14, and went undefeated against the Huskies last year at 4-0. During the previous matchup,
Daniel Powers went the distance with six strikeouts and allowed just one run on seven hits, eliminating Northeastern, 5-1, from the 2016 CAA Tournament.
SCOUTING THE HUSKIES
Northeastern looks to get back in the win column after dropping six consecutive games to fall to 22-23, 11-7 in CAA play. After getting swept by UNCW last weekend, the Huskies are now one-game behind first-place shareholders W&M (12-6 CAA) and UNCW (12-6 CAA) in the league standings. NU is batting .273 as a team. Cam Hanley is the team's top hitter, boasting a .313 batting average (55-for-176) with six doubles, five triples, three home runs and 35 RBI. Max Burt (.307 batting average) leads the team with 15 doubles, while Nick Fanneron (.313) has recorded a team-best five homers. On the mound, the Huskies own a 5.67 team ERA. Brian Christian, who sports a 3.47 ERA, has notched team-highs in 60.2 innings pitched, 65 strikeouts and five wins. Mike Glavine is in his third season as head coach of his alma mater. He is 78-79 in his tenure at NU.
ON DECK
The Tribe finishes out the regular season with a trip to Hofstra for a CAA three-game series next weekend. The series opens with a doubleheader on May 19, starting at 12 p.m., and concludes with a single game on May 20 at 12 p.m. The CAA Baseball Championships start up the following week in Wilmington, N.C., on May 24-27.
2017 SENIOR CLASS
Prior to game two of Friday's doubleheader, W&M will recognize its eight-member senior class that consists of
Charles Ameer,
Chase Bailey,
Nick Brown,
Aaron Fernandez,
Ryder Miconi,
Daniel Powers,
Matthew Tilley and
John Yoest. This year's class has compiled 112 wins, won the 2014 CAA regular season title, captured the 2016 CAA Tournament crown and made a 2016 NCAA Regional Finals Appearance.
MOVING ON UP
After starting 2-4 in CAA action, the Tribe has climbed all the way up to a first-place tie with UNCW following a three-game sweep of Charleston. W&M has won its last four conference series to improve to 12-6 in league play. The Tribe also owns the best overall record in the CAA at 28-21, which is its highest win percentage (.571) of the season.
THROWING GOOSE EGGS
The W&M pitching staff notched its third shutout win of the season in the series finale against Charleston on May 7.
Daniel Powers set the tone with 7.2 perfect inning, while
Charlie Fletcher and
Nick Brown combined for the final 1.1 innings to secure the 2-0 victory and the sweep. The Tribe also blanked both non-conference foes VMI (March 22) and Dayton (March 4) on a 7-0 score.
GOING, GOING, GONE
The Green and Gold has blasted at least one home run in four straight games. The team registered a dinger in its final game against Towson (April 30) and tallied four more during the three-game set with Charleston last weekend.
Cullen Large homered twice against CofC, including the two-run game-winning bomb on May 7.
Ryder Miconi added his team-best eighth home run on May 5, while
Ryan Hall recorded his sixth blast of 2017 on May 6.
WEEKLY AWARDS
The Tribe has now totaled seven weekly awards after senior
Daniel Powers earned his second CAA Pitcher of the Week honor for the week of May 8. Senior
Ryder Miconi was the previous recipient as he was tabbed Player of the Week for the week of April 24.
Brandon Raquet (Feb. 21, April 10) and
Patrick Ryan (Feb. 28) combined for three Rookie of the Week awards, while
Bodie Sheehan received Pitcher of the Week accolades on the week of March 7.
LARGE AND IN CHARGE
Junior
Cullen Large now ranks 16
th in the program's all-time most hits list with 215. He needs nine more hits to slot within the program's top 10. The Chesterfield, Va., native is also just four short of reaching 50 career doubles. Large is currently tied for 14th in the school's all-time most doubles list. For the season, the Preseason All-American is batting .347 (66-for-190) with 14 doubles, two triples, six home runs and 36 RBI.
Closer
Nick Brown saved all three games in the series with Charleston by giving up only two hits and no runs over 2.2 innings. Brown now ranks second in the CAA with five total saves on the year. He earned his first save of 2017 during an eight-run comeback win at Richmond (April 18) and tallied his second at George Mason (April 26). Junior
Robert White ranks second on the team with four saves under his belt.
WAKING UP THE BATS
The Tribe has made a big jump in the national statistical standing in hits. W&M now ranks 38th in the nation with 485 total hits as a team. The Tribe is also 17 hits ahead of second-place Delaware in the CAA statistical rankings.
HALL PASS
Junior
Ryan Hall is three sacrifice flies away from setting a new single season program record. Hall's seven sac flies tie for 11th in the nation. He also ranks second in the Colonial Athletic Association in doubles (17) and runs scored (48) and second on the team in RBI (36).
BEST IN THE LEAGUE
Rookie
Brandon Raquet tops the Colonial Athletic Association in both batting average (.364) and on base percentage (.468). Raquet finished the Charleston series 5-for-12 with a pair of doubles to maintain his elite status in the individual conference ranking. Junior
Charlie Fletcher also ranks first in the conference behind 27 appearances on the mound. The reliever has pitched 25.1 innings with 16 strikeouts and a 3.55 ERA. The Tribe paces the CAA statistical standings in wins on the mound (28) and saves (11).
GOING STREAKING
Sophomore
Hunter Smith saw his season-best hitting streak end at nine games, which ranks third on the team.
Cullen Large (16) and
Charles Ameer (11) own the team's only double-digit hitting streak. Large is also riding an on-base streak of 16 games and needs to reach safely in just three more to top his season-best 18-game stretch.
Ryder Miconi (13),
Brandon Raquet (12), Ameer (11),
Kyle Wrighte (10) and Smith (10) also tallied double-digit reached base streaks.
BRINGING OUT THE BROOMS
The three-game sweep of Charleston (May 5-7) marked the Tribe's fourth 3-0 weekend of the season. W&M swept its first CAA series against James Madison on April 21-23. Tribe Baseball brought out the brooms in its home opening series with Lafayette (Feb. 24-26), and recorded an undefeated weekend at the Irish Classic (March 3-5) by defeating Monmouth (W, 6-5), Dayton (W, 7-0) and Rhode Island (W, 2-1).
WALK THIS WAY
The Green and Gold registered back-to-back walk-off RBI singles to complete a CAA sweep of James Madison (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.
