CLINTON, S.C. – The Presbyterian College baseball team wraps up the regular season this weekend in a road series at Gardner-Webb. The two teams play on Thursday and Friday at 6 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m.
All three games will be streamed on the Big South Network presented by State Farm and live statistics will also be available.
PC (24-29, 10-11 Big South) will aim to sew up a spot in next week's Big South Conference Baseball Championship at Liberty University. Gardner-Webb (25-25-1, 9-11 Big South) sits a half a game behind the Blue Hose for eighth place and the final tournament spot. One PC win would also give the Blue Hose the most wins in a Division I season, eclipsing the 24 games won in 2011 and 2012.
The Blue Hose will likely start LHP Beau Dees (5-6, 2.73 ERA), RHP Chandler Knox (5-5, 4.92 ERA) and RHP Bud Jeter (5-6, 2.76 ERA) while the Runnin' Bulldogs will likely counter with RHP Matt Fraudin (6-5, 3.09 ERA), RHP Andrew Barnett (4-2, 3.16 ERA) and LHP Erik Heiligenstadt (4-3, 3.14 ERA). PC ranks sixth in the league in team ERA and Jeter and Dees rank first and in third in innings pitched per game, respectively, and 10th and nine in ERA. Jeter also ranks third in strikeouts, with 76, and Knox has won his last three Big South starts.
PC dropped its last game on Tuesday night at No. 12 South Carolina in a narrow defeat that saw the Blue Hose cut the Gamecocks' lead in half in the top of the ninth. Jay Lizanich (Greer, S.C.), Jacob Midkiff (Rock Hill, S.C.) and Ryan Hagan (Sugar Hill, Ga.) each picked up an RBI in the effort.
Brandon Paul (Augusta, Ga.) continues to pace the squad with a .308 batting average while Brad Zebedis (Rock Hill, S.C.) holds the team lead in RBI with 30. Hagan holds the longest hitting streak at four games while Lizanich and Zebedis enter the series with a team-high 17 multiple-hit games. PC ranks third in the Big South in fielding percentage at .971.
Gardner-Webb has dropped three of its last four after falling to Furman at home on Tuesday night and losing two games to High Point last weekend. The Runnin' Bulldogs check in at third in team ERA (3.28) and are led by Benji Jackson's .304 batting average and three home runs. Gardner-Webb boasts a 17-10-1 record at home this season and will battle with PC and Charleston Southern for the final tournament entry.
