PRINCESS ANNE, Maryland — Riding a three-game win-streak, all on the road, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore baseball team is taking a trip south to take on a strong University of North Carolina Greensboro squad for four games starting on Friday (March 6) at 4 p.m.
Last time the teams met The Shore dropped a three-game series in Greensboro.
It will be a test for the Hawks (4-6) as the Spartans sit at 7-4 and have already been through a gauntlet of top-30 squads in Coastal Carolina, Wake Forest and North Carolina – although no wins have come of the contests. The Spartans currently sit at 180 in NCAA RPI, the same spot Delaware was at before the Hawks defeated the Blue Hens on Tuesday (Mar 3).
Taking the bump over the weekend for the Hawks will be
Dwayne Marshall (Piscataway, New Jersey) and
Marty Tolson, Jr. (Stafford, Virginia) in the first two games. The weekend's third starter is up in the air, but
Keith Carpenter (Walled Lake, Michigan) is a frontrunner.
Caleb Walston (Princess Anne, Maryland) will get the start on Sunday.
The duo of Marshall and Tolson earned their first two wins over Mount St. Mary's this past weekend, both going five without giving up a run on the road — it was Tolson's first career win in the maroon and silver. Walston was one inning short of earning his first win of the season against Delaware but handed the game over to
Derrick Rabb, Jr. in the fifth where the senior picked up his first career win.
Starting pitching for the Spartans has been nothing but solid so far this season as Austin Koehn, Jake Lewis and Jeremiah Triplett combining for eight starts on the season with a cumulative ERA of under 2.60 in those games.
With a four-game series the Hawks will need to rely on their starters to stretch their starts but have reliability in the pen with
Cory Poulsen (Bel Air, Maryland) and
Riley Horner (Dames Quarter, Maryland) having a clean 0.00 ERA over a combined 9.2 innings.
Evan Niblett (Seaford, Delaware) has been the long man so far this season going 9 IP over his three appearances with a quality .78 WHIP.
It's a top-heavy lineup for the Spartans with six everyday players and catcher Ryan Caveness starting ten with an appearance in the other. Leadoff batters Greg Hardison and Caleb Webster are also the top statistically for Greensboro, each getting on base at over a .420 clip and have combined for over two-thirds of the teams runs.
The Hawks have steadily ramped up the offense this season themselves with five players getting on base over .360 and four batting over .300. Anchoring the squad has been
Blake Coleman (Woodbridge, Virginia),
Brian Cordell (Pasadena, Maryland) and
Dillon Oxyer (Pasadena, Maryland), having been on base each game this season.
Cleanup has been dominate in the lineup for The Shore thanks to
Matt Smith (Salisbury, Maryland) hitting .555 over the last three games with two home runs, nine RBI, a triple and three walks – with one being intentional by Delaware to load the bases.
After returning from North Carolina, the Hawks will welcome the United States Naval Academy to Arthur W. Perdue Stadium on Wednesday (Mar 11), it will be the 31
st meeting between the teams.