|
5/19/2009 - BASEBALL
Teams Ready for A-Sun Baseball Championship
|
Print
DeLAND, Fla. - Six teams descend to Melching Field with their aim set on securing a berth to NCAA Regional competition when the 2009 Atlantic Sun Conference Baseball Championship begins Wednesday afternoon.
ASun.TV, the official broadband channel for the Atlantic Sun Conference, will carry every game of the championship while Wednesday night’s match-up between No. 3 Stetson and No. 4 Belmont will be carried on the Bright House Sports Network on tape delay.
After a year in which the Dolphins missed the Championship, Jacksonville enters the 2009 edition as the top seed. The Dolphins have won their last four A-Sun Championship games, as they rallied from a day one loss in the 2007 Championship to win their third title. This year marks the second time Jacksonville captured the top seed. In 2006, again following a season in which they missed the six-team field, the Dolphins earned the top spot, but only earned one win at the Championship.
The 2008 Champions, the Lipscomb Bisons, won their first A-Sun Baseball title by surviving the longest title game in NCAA history, a 15-inning affair with Gardner-Webb. The champs started 2009 strong winning eight of its first nine conference games, but followed by dropping nine of 11 to fall to 10-10. The second-seeded Bisons closed with a flourish, winning each of their last three conference series to earn the second seed. Lefty Rex Brothers has dominated A-Sun hitters, holding them to a .220 average while fanning 98 in 71.1 innings. Overall, the junior enters the A-Sun Championship with 126 strikeouts, four shy of cracking the conference top 10 list. In his 13 starts, he has seven double-digit strikeout games and he has recorded more strikeouts than innings pitched in all but one start.
Despite dropping its final two games to FGCU, third-seeded Stetson enters the week having won 10 of its last 15 games. Jeremy Cruz, the A-Sun's Preseason Player of the Year, started slow out the gate, failing to homer in any of his first 12 games, but in his last 43, the senior blasted 18 while hitting .444 to raise his average to .397. The Hatters have twice emerged victorious on their home field, winning back-to-back titles in 2005 and 2006.
No. 4 Belmont's hopes for a first Atlantic Sun Baseball Championship may ride on the bat of senior slugger Derek Wiley. Earlier this season, he broke the A-Sun’s career home-run record - held previously by Stetson's Frank Corr’s 53 from 1998 to 2001 - Wiley has 58 entering the A-Sun Championship. Last year, Wiley hit .412 at the A-Sun Championship and clubbed three home runs with four runs scored and seven RBI.
Fifth-seeded Mercer extended its streak of A-Sun Championship appearances to four, the second longest among the field (Stetson, 10) and in program history (6, 1979-84). The Bears spent the entire season battling the .500 mark, reaching it four times, but only eclipsing it twice, at 4-3, and most recently at their current mark of 23-22. Mercer closed the season by winning six of eight, including a sweep of Belmont to close out the regular season.
ETSU earned a berth into the field for the first time since making a run to the final game of the 2006 Championship. That May, in their only previous A-Sun Championship appearance, the Buccaneers fell to the host Hatters in the final. This year, the sixth-seeded Bucs used a nine-game win streak from April 15th to the 26th to set get into position to make the A-Sun Championship. Among the six teams in the field, the Buccaneers own the highest batting average, .316; slugging percentage, .521; on-base percentage, .400; home runs, 72 and total bases, 952. Led by Paul Hoilman's .385 average, six Buccaneers own averages above .300.
The championship begins at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday as No. 1 Jacksonville and No. 6 ETSU open play.
The Atlantic Sun Conference is an 11-member league committed to Building Winners for Life. The A-Sun stands for achievement with integrity in both the academic and athletic arenas, with a focus on the balance between the two for our student-athletes. Headquartered in Macon, Ga., the A-Sun boasts six of the top eight media markets in the Southeast. The A-Sun includes a blend of the most prestigious and dynamic private and public institutions in the region: Belmont University, Campbell University, East Tennessee State University, Florida Gulf Coast University, Jacksonville University, Kennesaw State University, Lipscomb University, Mercer University, University of North Florida, University of South Carolina Upstate and Stetson University.
