SPORTS

 

The Davidson baseball team returns to Wilson Field Friday to begin a three-game set against Toledo.

The Wildcats are 4-2 following two games earlier this week: an 8-0 win at N.C. A&T on Tuesdsay and a 9-7 home loss to USC Upstate Wednesday.

In its most recent action, Toledo (3-3) split a doubleheader at Belmont Feb. 24. The Rockets won the first game 10-7 and lost the second 5-2.

Hot bats
Sophomore Ruben Fontes was a tough out during the preseason scrimmages, and the sophomore from Bonita, Calif., has carried that momentum into the season as the team’s designated hitter.

Fontes is hitting .292 (7-for-24) and leads the team with two triples, two home runs, nine RBI and 17 total bases. In the Feb. 16 doubleheader with Towson, he was 3-for-7 with a triple, a home run and six RBI. He hit his second home run of the season against USC Upstate Wednesday night.

Catcher Zach Nussbaum is known more for his defense, but he’s 6-for-15 (.400) at the plate so far. He went 3-for-4 in the season-opening win over Towson Feb. 15. That included a home run to left field in the seventh.

Infielder Brett Centracchio is hitting .333 with team-highs in at-bats (27) and hits (9).

That includes a 6-for-9 day in the doubleheader with Towson Feb. 16, when he had three hits in each win. Then he drove in all three runs in Davidson’s 7-3 loss to Duke Feb. 19, including one on a sacrifice fly in the sixth inning and two on a double to left center in the eighth.

Eric Jones is hitting .304 (7-for-23). He has three two-hit games, including both games this week.

A half dozen homer hitters
Six Wildcats have combined to hit seven home runs the first six games, with all homers but one being solo shots.

Jones began a four-homer barrage in the Feb. 15 season opener against Towson with a solo shot to center in the fourth inning. Justin Lebek and Alex Mardiney hit back-to-back solo homers in the sixth, and Nussbaum had a solo shot in the seventh of the 13-5 win.

The next day, Fontes hit a solo shot in the sixth inning of the first game of a Saturday doubleheader. Later in that inning, freshman Trevor Candelaria hit a grand slam to left on his second career hit.

Fontes became the first Wildcat to hit multiple home runs this year when he led off the sixth inning against USC Upstate Wednesday with a bomb to right.

Veteran arms
Davidson’s weekend pitching starters are off to a good start in their senior campaigns.

Right-handers Casey Sutherland, Allen Barry and Josh Hudson are a combined 4-0. In 24 innings, they have struck out 26 while walking two and allowing two earned runs and 13 hits.

Debut win(s)
First-year head coach Rucker Taylor won his first three games as Wildcats’ head coach.

After six seasons as a Davidson assistant, including the last four as associate head coach, Taylor led the Wildcats to a three-game home sweep of Towson Feb. 15-16.