DURHAM, N.C. – The North Carolina Central University baseball program returns to the Durham Athletic Park to play a three-game series with East Tennessee State that will begin on Friday, March 12 at 4:00 p.m. The series will conclude with a doubleheader on Saturday, March 13, with the first pitch scheduled for 1:00 p.m.
This is the first meeting between the Eagles and Buccaneers since 2008, when ETSU won both games of a two-game set in Johnson City, Tennessee. All games will be broadcast live on the NCCU Sports Network, and live stats will be available at NCCUEaglePride.com.
SERIES DETAILS:
Friday, March 12: 4:00 p.m.
Saturday, March 13: 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 P.M.
Radio: https://nccueaglepride.com/watch
Live Stats: https://nccueaglepride.com/sidearmstats/baseball/summary
Games will be open to the public with limited capacity.
Scouting the Eagles:
NCCU currently has a 7-3 record, and is on pace to match its best start to the season when the squad got off to a 12-3 start in 2018. The Eagles have also started receiving votes in the NCBWA Top-30 poll for the first time since 2018. The Eagles as a team lead the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference in batting average (.279), slugging percentage (.414), and on-base percentage (.432), and are also ranked 16th in NCAA Division I in on-base percentage.
Sophomore
Ryan Miller (Blandon, Pa.) enters the weekend after being named MEAC Pitcher of the Week for the second consecutive week after throwing back-to-back seven-inning complete game shutouts. He's also thrown 18 consecutive innings without allowing a run, and sits second in the league in strikeouts with 23, behind teammate
Austin Vernon (Raleigh, N.C.) with a conference-high 27.
At the plate,
Luis DeLeon (Providence, R.I.) leads NCAA Division I with three triples, and also tops the MEAC in hits (14), runs batted in (14), slugging percentage (.667) and on-base percentage (.583). He also stands second in batting average (.424), and is currently on a 10-game hitting streak to start the season. He now has a 12-game streak stretching back to last season.
Scouting the Buccaneers:
ETSU is off to a hot start to the season just like NCCU, as the Buccaneers are 8-4 after a 6-0 shutout win over Radford on Tuesday, March 10. This will be ETSU's first road series of the season, and have played just one road game so far this year when it fell to Clemson, 7-3 on March 2.
Offensively, ETSU currently leads the SoCon in home runs with 16, and senior Ethan Cady (Soddy Daisy, Tenn.) leads the squad with four round-trippers, and leads the league in slugging percentage (.814). The Buccaneers also feature Buster Posey Catcher of the Year Watchlist member, Kyle Richardson (Zionsville, Ind.), and he's currently batting .323 with a .677 slugging percentage, and he hasn't committed an error behind the plate with 45 putouts and six assists.
The Buccaneers also lead the SoCon in team ERA (3.33), and have the second-most strikeouts in the conference (117). Sophomore Hunter Loyd (Knoxville, Tenn.) leads the league in opposing batting average (.175) and is tied for second in strikeouts (21) over 16.0 innings pitched.
