CLINTON, S.C. – The Presbyterian College baseball team will host Longwood in its last home series of 2013 this weekend in a three-game set that begins on Friday afternoon at 3 p.m. The team will also honor its five seniors prior to Saturday's 2 p.m. game.
All three games will be video streamed on the Big South Conference Network presented by State Farm.
PC (23-26, 9-9 Big South) will look improve on its second-place position in the Big South Conference's South Division while Longwood (22-24, 10-11 Big South) hopes to make up some ground in the crowded North Division.
The Blue Hose will likely start LHP Beau Dees (5-5, 2.52 ERA), RHP Chandler Knox (4-5, 5.45 ERA) and RHP Bud Jeter (5-5, 2.16 ERA) while Longwood will counter with Kyler Morgan (4-5, 3.97 ERA) and LHP Brandon Vick (4-5, 3.36 ERA) and a third starter to be determined. In conference-only statistics, PC boasts the league's fifth-best team ERA (3.35) and Bud Jeter ranks second in strikeouts (39) and complete games (four in six starts). Brandon Vick's four league wins puts him second in that category and the Lancer also ranks second innings pitched (49.1) and complete games (two, along with Beau Dees).
A win on Friday would put the brakes on a five-game PC losing streak, the team's longest of the season. The Blue Hose battled back against the nation's top team on Wednesday night at Vanderbilt by engineering a ninth-inning rally that fell three runs shy in a 5-2 defeat. Brandon Paul (Augusta, Ga.) posted two hits and Robby Swab (Kernersville, N.C.) drove in a pair of runs in the effort.
Paul leads the Blue Hose with a .313 batting average and is one of three Blue Hose with at least 20 RBI along with Aaron Preston's (Goose Creek, S.C.) 23 and Brad Zebedis' (Rock Hill, S.C.) team-leading 29. Swab's three-game hitting streak leads the team while Paul, Zebedis and Jay Lizanich (Greer, S.C.) each enter the weekend with 15 multiple-hit games. In conference games, PC ranks fifth in batting average (.273) and sixth in on-base percentage (.336).
Seniors Ryan Morris (Jamestown, R.I.), Tim Corbin (Murrells Inlet, S.C.), Kelly Wright (Myrtle Beach, S.C.), Aaron Preston (Goose Creek, S.C.) and Robby Swab (Kernersville, N.C.) will play their final home games this series and the team will honor them in a Saturday ceremony.
The weekend series marks the first meetings between the two teams.
Longwood snapped a three-game losing streak on Tuesday with a 3-2 home win over Richmond and Wednesday's game against Norfolk State was canceled. Radford swept the Lancers in last week's final home series for Longwood. The squad swept Gardner Webb in late April and Scott Burkett leads the team with a .315 batting average. In conference games, Longwood ranks 10th in average (.249) and team ERA (4.43).
Following this weekend's series, PC will travel to perennial national championship contender South Carolina on Tuesday evening at 7 p.m.
