NEWS
Baseball Welcomes Marist to Town This Weekend
Will Schomberg on the mound in a game vs. NJIT in February. He is slated to start the Friday game vs. Marist.
Davidson baseball’s string of four straight home weekends continues Friday when the Wildcats welcome Marist to Wilson Field for a three-game series.
It’s the Wildcats’ fourth home series of the year and the second of the four straight home weekends. After hosting Bryant March 10-11, the Wildcats are scheduled to host Tennessee Tech (March 24-26) and Fordham (April 1-2).
LATEST ON THE ‘CATS
Davidson, now 7-9, had to endure some chilly weather and a late Western Carolina push Tuesday, but the Wildcats got back in the wins column with a 6-5 victory over their former Southern Conference rivals at Atrium Health Ballpark in Kannapolis.
The Wildcats scored four runs in the third, including two on a Jake Wilhoit pinch-hit single, to take control, and Jack Cotrone’s RBI-triple and Nick Calero’s sacrifice fly helped pushed the lead to 6-1. After Western climbed within a run, Nick Shedleski locked up the final five outs and his first save.
WILSON!
Ryan Wilson only logged one official at-bat Tuesday, but the junior reached base three times, all on hit-by-pitches. Wilson entered the season tied with 2022 graduate Trevor Candelaria for the program’s career lead with 34 HBPs, and he’s now sitting at 45 with a Atlantic 10 Conference-best 11 in 16 games. That’s well ahead of the pace that saw him hit 17 times in each of his first two seasons.
Wilson is also riding a 16-game reached-base streak and leads the Wildcats with six multi-RBI and seven multi-hit games. Wilson is hitting .382, second only to Michael O’Shaughnessy’s .429 mark, and leads the Wildcats with a 1.368 OPS, 21 hits, 22 runs scored, four doubles (tied with Jacob Friend), seven home runs, 18 RBIs and six steals. He’s tied for the A-10 lead in runs and home runs.
O’Shaughnessy is the A-10 leader with a .556 on-base percentage.
ON THE MOUND
Friday starter Will Schomberg is setting the standard for the Wildcat pitching staff so far. He’s 1-1 with a 2.66 ERA, 23 strikeouts and seven walks in 20.1 innings. He’s holding opposing hitters to a .155 average and leads the A-10 with an 0.89 WHIP and 4.87 hits per nine innings. A right-hander, Schomberg is once again slated to open the series, followed by Ryan Feczko (LHP) on Saturday. Sunday’s starter is yet to be determined.
Wildcat Bennett Flynn is the league leader with 14.06 strikeouts per nine innings. He’s coming off a three-inning, scoreless, one-hit, five-strikeout performance in the win over Western.
SERIES NOTES
The Wildcats and Red Foxes have met just once on the diamond, and it was a Wildcat win.
In the 2016 season opener, Davidson edged Marist 4-3 after Jake Sidwell’s two-RBI single in the eighth inning.
SCOUTING THE RED FOXES
Marist is 2-13 and coming off losses to Towson on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Infielder Bayram Hart (.354, 17-for-48) and outfielder Colin Mackle (.352, 19-for-54) are the top hitters by average, while catcher Niko Amory is hitting .320 with four home runs and 11 RBIs. Outfielder Brian Hart has also hit four homers and leads the team with 13 runs driven in.
The Red Foxes plan to start Brian Yetter (RHP), Jack Bowery (LHP) and AJ Thomas (LHP) this weekend.