DURHAM, N.C. – North Carolina Central University has an opportunity to take first place in the Southern Division of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference when the Eagles battle with Bethune-Cookman in a weekend series at the Durham Athletic Park. The series will begin with a doubleheader at 1:00 p.m. Saturday, April 11 with game two set to follow at 4:00 p.m. The series finale will be Sunday, April 12 at 1:00 p.m. as well. Admission is free.
The last time these two sides met, B-CU took two out of three in Daytona Beach, Florida on March 7-8, so the Eagles will have some extra incentive this weekend against the Wildcats.
NCCU (16-17, 9-5 MEAC) has won its last six divisional matchups after sweeping Florida A&M at home on March 21-22 and North Carolina A&T on the road on April 3-4 to move within striking distance of the division leaders. If the Eagles sweep B-CU, they will move into sole possession of first place in the Southern Division.
Freshman outfielder
Mitchell McCrary (Mills Creek, N.C.) has picked up the pace recently for NCCU now hitting .327 for the season with 16 RBI and a slugging percentage of .538. His hitting along with the rest of the order has made the job a bit easier for the Eagle pitching staff, including rookie starter
Devin Sweet (Greensboro, N.C.).
Sweet in his last start breezed past eight Aggies through six and one-third on his way to a 13-4 win over NC A&T, his third of the season. He will enter the weekend with 32 punchouts, which not only leads the Eagle pitching staff, it also slots him tied for eighth in the conference with two others, including B-CU starter Alex Seibold (Lauderhill, Fla.).
Alex Dandridge (Arlington, Texas) currently owns a conference best ERA of 1.72 over eight appearances and is also tied for the league lead in wins with his 4-0 record. That ERA helps push the total for the Eagle staff down to 3.68, which is still tops in the MEAC.
B-CU (14-23, 11-4 MEAC) has strong pitching of their own with three pitchers within the top 10 in the conference as far as strikeouts are concerned including Seibold and Tyler Norris (Coral Springs, Fla.) who is fifth with 38.
The Wildcats will bring Mijon Cummings (Lutz, Fla.), the reigning conference Rookie of the Week, with them this weekend as he'll look to continue his solid run. Through the week of play stretching March 30-April 5, Cummings batted .462 against Florida International and FAMU while also hitting his first collegiate home run.
All games this weekend will be aired live on the NCCU Sports Network, available at NCCUEaglePride.com. Live game updates will also be available on the official NCCU Athletics twitter feed, @NCCUAthletics.
