Elon Baseball Hosts UNCG Tuesday, N.C. A&T Wednesday

ELON, N.C. – Elon University baseball plays two non-conference games in as many days this week as the Phoenix (24-16) hosts UNCG on Tuesday, April 23 and North Carolina A&T on Wednesday, April 24. Both games are set for 6 p.m. starts at Latham Park.

COVERAGE
Fans can listen to Tuesday’s game on the Elon Sports Network from Learfield/IMG College as Taylor Durham will provide play-by-play action. The pregame show begins 15 minutes prior to first pitch. The radio broadcast can be heard at elonphoenix.com/live as well as on the TuneIn app. Additionally, both games will be streamed live on Phoenix All-Access through elonphoenix.com/live. Live stats will also be available.

PITCHING MATCHUP

Elon                                         UNCG
Sr. RH Brandon Justice (1-0, 4.85 ERA)       Fr. LH Maddux Holshouser (0-1, 4.95 ERA)

Elon                                         North Carolina A&T
TBD                                          TBD

THE SERIES
Elon holds a 36-20 lead in the all-time series with the Spartans (22-15). The teams last met on March 12 of this season. The maroon and gold held a 3-1 advantage through seven and a half innings, but UNCG scored three runs in the bottom half of the eighth to take the first game in the home-and-home series.

The Phoenix is 49-7-1 all time against the Aggies (20-18), including 26-4-1 under head coach Mike Kennedy. Elon has won two in a row, including a 5-4 result on April 18 last season. The teams were scheduled to meet back in Greensboro back on Feb. 20, but the game was postponed due to weather.

ABOUT UNCG
UNCG has dropped four in a row and was swept at Samford last week. Greg Hardison is batting .319, followed by Josh Madole at .314 and Caleb Webster at .291. Webster leads the Spartans with 28 runs, 11 doubles, and 22 RBIs. Jacque Koonce (.260) is the threat on the basepaths and has stolen successfully in 13-of-15 attempts. As a team, UNCG is hitting .275.

Maddux Holshouser is expected to get the start on Tuesday. The freshman left-hander is 0-1 with a 4.95 ERA across 13 appearances and three starts. In 20.0 innings pitched, he has allowed 11 earned runs on 23 hits and 17 walks while fanning 16. As a team, the Spartans own a 4.90 ERA with opposing hitters batting .256.

ABOUT N.C. A&T
N.C. A&T is coming off of a 2-1 series loss at Liberty last week. The Aggies took the series finale 8-2 on Saturday. Brandon Melendez batted 3-for-4 with a double and an RBI and James Rorie finished 2-for-5 with a double, three RBIs, and a run scored. Leon Davidson struck out one batter and gave up one hit in 0.2 innings to secure his first win of the season.

Dustin Baber leads the team with a .323 average, 26 runs, and 12 swiped bags. Following him are Jason King (.303) and Melendez (.288). Dawnoven Smith (.257) has driven in the most runs with 24 RBIs and leads the team in extra-base hits with 11 doubles and five long balls. N.C. A&T is batting .246 as a team.

The Aggies pitching staff owns a 3.73 ERA across 333.0 innings. Tim Luth is 5-2 with a 3.39 ERA in 12 appearances and 10 starts. Evan Gates is 4-1 with 3.86 ERA through 12 appearances and eight starts and has team-high 47 strikeouts, while Michael Johnson is 4-4 with a 2.95 ERA in 11 appearances and 10 starts. Leon Hunter has picked up six saves to go along with a 2-1 record and a 3.38 ERA.

DEVANNEY EARNS CO-PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Cam Devanney was named the CAA’s Co-Player of the Week on Monday afternoon. A native of Amherst, N.H., he batted 7-for-18 (.389) last week with a home run, two triples, three doubles, seven RBIs, four runs, and two walks. He added a .944 slugging percentage and a .429 on base percentage. Entering the week batting .299, he collected a hit in all four of Elon’s games to raise his average to .310 for the season. The redshirt-junior led the maroon and gold in the series opener against William & Mary with a 3-for-5 effort as he tripled, doubled twice, drove in three runs, scored once, and drew a walk. He then went 2-for-6 with a triple and two RBIs in the series finale. On defense, he posted a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage on the week with four putouts and eight assists in 12 chances. He also helped turn four double plays.

ANOTHER SWEEP
With its 11-2 win at William & Mary on Sunday, the Phoenix picked up its fourth sweep of the season and third in conference play. Elon opened the season with three wins against Lafayette on Feb. 15-17. The team then swept James Madison at home on March 29-31 and took three games from Delaware on April 13-14. It was also the second sweep of the Tribe in as many seasons. Elon won all three of its games against the green, gold, and silver to close out the 2018 regular season.

…AND ANOTHER COMPLETE GAME
In the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader, George Kirby held the Tribe to two runs, one of them earned, on six hits. He did not issue a walk and reached double-digit strikeouts with 11. It marked the third complete game for him this season. He threw the first of his career in a one-hit complete game shutout of Bryant on March 10. He then held James Madison to one unearned run on four hits as the Phoenix defeated the Dukes 3-1 on March 30. It was the fourth time this season the junior has recorded double-digit strikeouts and he retired 13 consecutive batters.

ELON SETS PROGRAM RECORD
Sunday’s win at W&M also set a new program record. Elon’s 13-2 start to conference play is the program’s best start in its Division I era. The 2008 squad went 12-2 when the Phoenix was a member of the SoCon.

ELON IN THE RANKINGS
Through Sunday, Elon ranks 23rd in the nation in hit by pitch (61) and leads the CAA in home runs (33), home runs per game (0.85), on base percentage (.370), runs (247), sacrifice flies (21), and scoring (6.3).

Kirby is the nation’s leader in strikeout-to-walk ratio (15.20) and is also third in walks allowed per nine innings (0.70), fourth in complete games (3), 10th in victories (7), and 22nd in WHIP (0.88). Devanney is fourth in the nation in sac flies with seven. Tyler Stanley is 12th in hit by pitch (15) and 15th in hit by pitch per game (0.41).

CURRENT ELON STREAKS
Devanney has reached in 13 consecutive games and Ty Adcock is close behind with 11 games. Adcock has a nine-game hit streak and Devanney is right behind with an eight-game hit streak.

UP NEXT
Elon continues its six-game home stand with a CAA series versus Northeastern this weekend, April 26-28. The teams will play at 6 p.m. on Friday, at 4 p.m. on Saturday, and at 1 p.m. on Sunday.