Baseball Set for Kennel Club Classic

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The University of North Florida baseball team will look to remain hot as they take their two-game winning streak into Harmon Stadium over the weekend for the Kennel Club Classic. The Ospreys will face James Madison on Friday, March 5, at 7 p.m., Alcorn State on Saturday, March 6, at 1 p.m. and close out the weekend on Sunday, March 7, with an 11 a.m. game against Alcorn State, followed by a 3 p.m. game against Wagner.

The University of North Florida Department of Athletics announced that the baseball field at Harmon Stadium will be named after ABCA Hall of Fame head coach Dusty Rhodes. The new official name of UNF's baseball complex will now be called Dusty Rhodes Field at Harmon Stadium. The field will be dedicated at North Florida's home baseball game on Saturday, Mar. 6, against Alcorn State.

Rhodes started UNF's program from scratch at the NAIA level in 1988. He took that opportunity and built it into a national powerhouse en route to becoming one of the most successful coaches in college baseball history.

Rhodes has guided UNF to 16 postseason appearances, including five trips to the College World Series (two in NAIA and three in NCAA Division II). In January of 2009, he was chosen by his peers to be inducted into the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

North Florida is currently 3-5 on the season after sweeping a pair of midweek games against Georgia Southern and on the road at UCF. The Ospreys started the week with a 14-3 victory over the Eagles, before taking down the Knights 13-6 in Orlando.

Offensively, North Florida is led by Andrew Hannon and Andrew Karmeris. The duo are batting .452 on the season, going 14-for-31 each. Hannon has six doubles with seven runs scored and seven RBI, while Karmeris has a double, four RBI and a team-best nine runs scored.

James Madison's McKinnon Langston's game-winning single in the bottom of the ninth capped a James Madison rally from a 9-2 deficit to record an 11-10 win over Longwood in the first game at brand-new Veterans Memorial Park on Wednesday evening. JMU picked up its first win of the season to improve to 1-3 and give head coach Spanky McFarland his 550th career victory.

Alcorn State enters the weekend with a 4-4 record. The Braves opened the season with a win at Louisiana Tech (W, 1-0), but dropped the next two to the Bulldogs. Alcorn State then fell to Northwestern State, but collected three consecutive wins against Jarvis Christian (W, 18-4), Concordia College (W, 23-6) and Arkansas Monticello (W, 10-3). The Braves fell to Arkansas Monticello in their final game before the Kennel Club Classic.

After giving Big South power Winthrop all it could handle last weekend, Wagner was rewarded with the Northeast Conference (NEC) Akadema Player and Pitcher of the Week Awards. Senior Vin Avella earned Player of the Week accolades while classmate Matt Watson was cited as the Pitcher of the Week.

Next Event

Footer