Week Preview: The No. 20 University of North Georgia baseball team returns home to Bob Stein Stadium at Cottrell Park this weekend to start an eight game homestand against No. 8 Georgia College this weekend.
Probable Starters: Friday - Cade Heil vs. Kyle King; Saturday - Steven Bower vs. Harrison Veldsma; Sunday - Parker Morrison vs. Brennan Crooms. Probable starters are based upon the last completed series for both teams.
Rankings: North Georgia is ranked No. 20 in the Collegiate Baseball Top 30 Poll, released Monday, while receiving votes in the NCBWA Top 25, released Wednesday. UNG is ranked fifth in the NCBWA Southeast Region Poll.
Nighthawks on the Web: Nighthawk fans not able to make it to Bob Stein Stadium at Cottrel Park this week can follow along through streaming on YouTube and Facebook, local cable television (Windstream cable channels 78.12 and HD channel 890), live statistics on UNGAthletics.com and on all social media platforms. Links to all road games can be found on the baseball schedule page of UNGAthletics.com. Fans can also follow the action through Twitter by following the baseball team (@UNGBaseball).
Last Week: The Nighthawks went 3-0 at Francis Marion a year ago, winning by a combined score of 24-7.
Scouting Georgia College: Georgia College is 8-1 on the year and 4-1 in Peach Belt Conference play. The Bobcats are ranked No. 8 in the Collegiate Baseball Top 30 and No. 24 in the NCBWA Top 25. GC has not played a competitive game since February 15 after having their last seven games either cancelled or postponed. The Bobcats were slated to play Savannah State, Shorter and No. 20 Mount Olive in non-conference play and also lost three conference games: the series finale with Francis Marion and the three-game set with Claflin, which was rescheduled to the first weekend in May. At the plate, Cam HIll leads the way for the Bobcats at .500 with four doubles, a triple and nine RBI. GC has hit 10 homers on the year, two each for Cal Gentry and Cassius Young. As a team, the Bobcats are hitting .365 with 84 RBI and 34 total extra base hits. They also have reached base 42.5 percent of all plate appearances. On the bump, the Bobcats sport a 3.89 team ERA with 83 strikeouts to just 43 free passes. Kyle King leads the staff with 18 innings of work and a 0.50 ERA, fanning 23 while giving up just four walks, 10 hits and a single run in three appearances. All three projected starters sport a 2-0 record coming into the weekend series. Georgia College leads the storied series against North Georgia, 26-18, but UNG has won two straight. The two teams have only played one series at The Steiner since 2015, seeing the Bobcats take two of three from UNG two years ago. The two teams have played each other in postseason play six times over the course, playing at least once each year since 2015. North Georgia holds a slight 7-6 advantage in Dahlonega.
Team Stats: North Georgia leads the Peach Belt Conference in earned run average (3.23), hits allowed per nine innings (5.85) and strikeouts per nine innings (11.4). UNG rankes ninth in the nation in hits allowed per nine innings, ninth in total runs (116), 10th in scoring (9.7 runs/game) and 10th in shutouts (2).
Individual Stats: Crews Taylor leads the nation in walks drawn with 21. He is also fourth nationally and tops in the PBC in walks drawn per game at 1.75. Andres Perez and Crews Taylor rank second in the league and fifth nationally in homers with six each. Perez is second nationally in homers per game at 0.67, while Taylor is 11th nationally and second in the league in the stat at 0.50. Taylor also leads the league in runs scored with 22 and runs scored per game at 1.83. He is fourth in the league in slugging percentage at .756. Bill LeRoy is the second hardest batter in the league to strikeout, fanning once in every 49 at bats. Steven Bower leads the league and is fourth nationally in strikeouts with 38, while Cade Heil is fourth in the conference in the stat with 32. Heil is also second in the league in WHIP at 0.71 and fourth in the Peach Belt in walks allowed per nine innings at 0.91.
