MT. PLEASANT, S.C. - The Presbyterian College baseball team (21-31, 6-18 Big South Conference) stay in the Charleston, S.C. area after their weekend series against Charleston Southern for a Tuesday night matchup against the College of Charleston Cougars (34-18, 17-10 Southern Conference) at 6 p.m. A live audio broadcast of the game from John Avery will be available in Laurens County on WLBG-AM 860 and worldwide on GoBlueHose.com.
PC dropped the first two games against Charleston Southern before mounting a ninth-inning comeback to take the final game of the series on Sunday, 5-4. The Blue Hose have compiled the best record in the Division I era, racking up a 21-31 record thus far. The team's March 30th win over Wofford broke the Division I win record of 15 that PC set last year and the team's May 8 win over Winthrop gave the team its first 20-win season since the Blue Hose went 25-30 in 2004.
Tuesday's game marks the first meeting between PC and the College of Charleston since each team restored its program–PC in 1988, College of Charleston in 1991. The Blue Hose enter the game with a 5-6 record against Southern Conference opponents and toppled the last SoCon foe they met, in a 9-4 win at Davidson on May 3.
College of Charleston checks in with a 34-18 record and a 17-10 marker in Southern Conference play. The Cougars took two of three from Applachian State over the weekend and have won 11 of their last 14. Local product Daniel Aldrich leads the team with a .381 average and ranks second in RBI, with 68. Likely starter Jake Zokan has 18 appearances on the year and opponents have hit at a .260 clip against the lefthanded sophomore.
PC will likely start freshman righthander Bud Jeter against the Cougars, marking his 13th start of the year. Jeter has gone 5-6 this year and started last Tuesday's game against No. 3 South Carolina, taking a loss after allowing four runs on as many hits in four innings. Jeter ranks second on the team in wins and is tied for the team lead in strikeouts, with 39.
Last week, shortstop Andrew Williams recorded his 146th assist this season, tying him with Evan Sowell for the fourth-best modern season in that category, set in 2005. He stands six shy of catching Gene Gobbel's third-highest mark of 152. Williams also recently captured Capital One/CoSIDA Academic All-District III Second Team honors for his work in the classroom, maintaining a 3.96 grade point average as a psychology major.
Freshman C/1B Brad Zebedis also acheived a milestone in the Charleston Southern series, recording his 21st double to tie him for the second-best season in that category, matching Rogher Foltynowicz and Clay Hall. He needs just one more to tie the single-season record, set by Lance Howard in 2005. According to the Big South Conference, Zebedis could become the first freshman in Big South history to lead the Conference in batting average and home runs in the same season. The last freshman to lead the league in hitting was Liberty's Keith Butler in 2000, while the last freshman to lead the Big South in homers was Winthrop's Daniel Carte in 2003.
Senior outfielder/infielder Mack Hite enters Tuesday having started in PC's last 119 games, the longest streak of any player on the Blue Hose roster. The stretch began on April 24, 2009, in a start against Coastal Carolina and the senior is one of four players to start every game so far this season. Hite's sacrifice fly against Liberty on April 17 marked his 33rd career sacrifice, the modern-era (since 1988) career record at PC. He enters Tuesday's game with 39 after setting the single-season record in 2009 and 2010, with 14 each year. Hite has also hit safely in the last nine games, the second-longest current streak on the team.
The Blue Hose wrap up the season with a three-game series against UNC Asheville in Asheville, N.C. The series kicks off on Thursday at 1 p.m. and continues through Saturday.
