NEWS

 

One three-game series remains on Davidson’s regular season baseball schedule, and it starts Thursday afternoon at Richmond.

The Wildcats, now 29-19 overall and 15-5 in the Atlantic 10, enter the weekend atop the conference standings, a half-game ahead of Saint Joseph’s.

Davidson has won four straight games, including a sweep of A-10 foe Saint Louis last weekend.

LATEST ON THE ‘CATS
• With one more victory, the Wildcats would secure their fourth 30-win season, following win totals of 43 (2022), 35 (2017) and 33 (2018).
• The Wildcats are also trying to secure their second straight outright A-10 regular season title.
• Davidson has won nine series this season, including sweeps of Tennessee Tech and A-10 foes UMass and Saint Louis.
• Also in A-10 play, the Wildcats went 2-1 against Fordham, Dayton, Rhode Island and VCU and 1-1 against George Washington, with one rainout.
• The Davidson offense continues to flourish. The Wildcats lead the league with 85 home runs, a .417 on-base percentage, a .514 slugging percentage and 107 hit-by-pitches. Davidson ranks second with 8.1 runs scored per game, second with 259 walks and fourth in team average (.292).
• Freshman first baseman Michael O’Shaughnessy was named A-10 Rookie of the Week on Monday after hitting .545 with three home runs and nine RBIs against Saint Louis. O’Shaughnessy is now second on the team with a .323 average.
• Sophomore catcher/DH Jacob Friend also had a big series against the Billikens. He hit .500 with three homers and nine driven in. He’s hit six home runs in the last six games.
• Senior pitcher Bennett Flynn was named A-10 Pitcher of the Week Monday after throwing five innings of one-hit baseball against the Billikens. Flynn leads the A-10 with a 3.19 ERA. 
• Senior pitcher and Friday starter Will Schomberg (7-2) ranks second in the league with a 3.55 ERA and has held opposing hitters to a league-low .207 average.

WILLLSSONNNNN!
• Junior outfielder Ryan Wilson continues to set the standard at the plate.
• He leads the A-10 with 17 home runs, 67 runs scored, 133 total bases, a .526 on-base percentage, a .769 slugging percentage, a 1.295 OPS and 28 hit-by-pitches.
• Wilson is also third in the league with a .382 batting average and fourth with 52 RBIs.
• He has reached base in all 48 games this year, six shy of the school record set by Will Robertson in 2017.
• Wilson ranks second nationally in HBPs and is the program’s career (62) and single-season recordholder.
• He is also the team leader with 21 multi-hit games and 14 multi-RBI games. 

MIKE IS BACK!
• Junior Michael Carico returned to the lineup in early May after a two-month injury absence (hand) and has also returned to form.
• In six games since retuning, the reigning A-10 Player of the Year and Rawlings Gold Glove catcher is hitting .435 (10-for-23) with three doubles, three home runs, eight runs and seven RBIs. He’s been walked four times and hit five times.
• This month, Carico has been the designated hitter in five games, and he caught one game of last weekend’s doubleheader.  

SERIES HISTORY
• The Wildcats and Spiders have met 56 times on the diamond, dating to 1907.
• Richmond has won 31 of those contests, including a 12-9 win in an Atlantic 10 Tournament semifinal last season.
• Prior to that, the Wildcats had won the previous four meetings, including three in Davidson last season.

SCOUTING THE SPIDERS
• Richmond enters the weekend 23-26 overall and 11-9 in the A-10.
• The Spiders, who reached last year’s A-10 Tournament final, are sixth in the league, a half-game ahead of VCU for the final A-10 Tournament berth.
• Outfielder Johnny Hipsman hits a team-best .371, which ranks fifth in the A-10. He’s also third with 124 total bases and is tied with teammate Jordan Jaffe for second with 19 doubles.
• Jaffe (.636), Hipsman (.629) and Spider Jared Sprague-Lott (.625) rank 3-4-5 in slugging percentage.
• Sprague-Lott is fourth in the league with 52 runs.
• Friday starter Brock Weirather is first in the league with 1.74 walks per nine innings and third with a 4.07 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
• Pitcher Esteban Rodriguez is second in the A-10 with a 4.12 strikeout-to-walk ratio.