Baseball | 3/23/2017 5:11:00 PM
JACKSONVILLE -- The North Florida baseball team hosts Dallas Baptist for a three-game series at Harmon Stadium beginning Friday at 6 p.m. The teams will also play Saturday at 1 p.m. and close Sunday with 12 p.m. first pitch.
UNF Game Notes (PDF)
GAME DAY CENTRAL
WHAT: North Florida (15-8) vs Dallas Baptist (13-7)
WHERE: Dusty Rhodes Field at Harmon Stadium (3,600)
WHEN: Friday, Mar. 24 (6 p.m.) | Saturday, Mar. 25 (1 p.m.) | Sunday, Mar. 26 (12 p.m.)
THE SERIES: UNF leads 4-0
LAST MEETING: Ospreys and Braves have meet four previous times with UNF claiming victory in each of earlier contests. The pair last met for a two-game set on Feb. 27-28, 2003 with North Florida earning the sweep in scores of 6-5 and 3-1.
Special Promotions: none
FOLLOWING THE ACTION
LISTEN: 1010XL AM
LIVESTATS: UNFOspreys.com
TICKETS: Purchase Tickets
MOUND MATCH-UPS
Friday
UNF - Austin Drury (LHP, 3-1, 1.69 ERA, 26.2 IP, 9 BB, 22 K)
DBU - Ray Gaither (RHP, 4-0, 1.44 ERA, 25.0 IP, 8 BB, 23 K)
Saturday
UNF - Frank German (RHP, 4-0, 0.88 ERA, 30.2 IP, 9 BB, 33 K)
DBU - Trevor Conn (RHP, 1-2, 5.95 ERA, 19.2 IP, 7 BB, 9 K)
Sunday
UNF - TBA
DBU - Jordan Martinson (LHP, 3-1, 5.01 ERA, 23.1 IP, 12 BB, 27 K)
NOTEWORTHY
- The first meeting between UNF & DBU came on May 26, 1989 in the NAIA World Series with the Ospreys posting a 6-5 victory
- Ospreys open the 2017 season with 26 of first 32 games at home with the Dallas Baptist series marking the sixth of seven consecutive weekends of home series
- UNF has not lost a weekend series this season including a series sweep of Penn (Mar. 3-5)... The Ospreys split both of their four-game series against Northeastern and Rutgers
- North Florida has claimed the opening game in 4 of their 5 weekend series so far this year
- The Ospreys are 12-6 at home this season with wins in 3 of their last 4 games at Harmon Stadium
- North Florida snapped a two-game losing skid with an 7-2 midweek win over Savannah State on Wednesday night... The game marked the Osprey's first midweek home game of the season
-As a team, North Florida ranks first or second in the ASUN in several offensive statistical categories: Batting Avg (1st), Slug% (2nd), Runs (1st), Hits (1st), RBI (1st), Doubles (1st), HRs (2nd) and Total Bases (1st)
- The UNF pitching corps has also been strong, ranking 2nd in the ASUN for ERA
- North Florida owns the league's best fielding%, committing a conference low 18 errors
- A trio of Ospreys are ranked among ASUN Top 10 in batting average:
Tanner Murphy (2nd),
Yahir Gurrola (4th),
Chris Thibideau (7th)
- Newcomer
Yahir Gurrola tops the league lists for Runs (29), Hits (39), Doubles (11) and Total Bases (66)...
Chris Berry is tied for the conference lead in On Base% (.481)
- Weekend starters
Frank German (1st / 0.88) and
Austin Drury (4th / 1.69) rank among the ASUN's Top 5 in ERA
- UNF has been most explosive in the 2nd inning (26 runs) and 7th inning (25 runs)... Ospreys are outscoring opponents 49-36 over the final three innings of games
- Ospreys have held 11 opponents under 3 runs scored, owning an 10-1 record when accomplishing that feat
- UNF is 12-1 when scoring first and own a 7-2 record when tallying runs in their first at-bat
SCOUTING DALLAS BAPTIST
Roster | Schedule | Statistics
- Dallas Baptist entered the season as one of only 23 teams in college baseball to advance to NCAA Postseason in at least 5 of the past 6 years
- Patriots won both the Missouri Valley Conference regular season and tournament titles last year and advanced to the championship game of the Lubbock Regional... DBU returns 20 letterwinners from that squad
- DBU had five players sign professional contracts after last season including two All-Americans in Darick Hill and Colin Poche
- Among the Patriot's 20 returning letterman are five All-MVC performers including First-team honorees Seth Elledge and Dalton Higgins along with 2-time All-MVC selection Camden Duzenack
- Dallas Baptist brought in the No. 27-ranked recruiting class in the nation according to Collegiate Baseball
UP NEXT
North Florida will play a home-and-home midweek set with Bethune-Cookman. UNF visits the Wildcats on Tuesday (Mar. 28) before hosting BCC on Wednesday (Mar. 29).
