Elon Baseball Opens CAA Championship Against UNCW

ELON, N.C. – Top-seeded Elon University baseball opens the 2019 CAA Championship this Thursday, May 23 against No. 5 UNCW, with first pitch at Veterans Memorial Park scheduled for 3 p.m.

All-session tournament passes are $25, while single-day tickets can be purchased for $10. Students from participating institutions are admitted free with a valid student ID.

COVERAGE
Fans can listen to the 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 and on the TuneIn app. Live stats will also be available.

The first nine games of the 2019 CAA Baseball Championship will be video-streamed live for free in high definition on CAA.TV and are also available on OTT platforms Roku, AppleTV, Amazon Fire TV and Android TV. The CAA championship game will be streamed for free on CollegeSportsLive.com.

For more information, check out CAA Baseball Championship Central on the web at caasports.com/baseball.

POTENTIAL STARTERS
Elon
Jr. RH Kyle Brnovich (6-3, 3.81)
Jr. RH George Kirby (8-1, 2.07)
So. LH Jared Wetherbee (6-4, 2.70)

THE SERIES
Elon closed out the regular season at home against the Seahawks (29-28), with the visitors taking two of three at Latham Park. After UNCW came back to take the series opener 7-5 on Friday, May 10, inclement weather the next day forced the teams to play a doubleheader on Sunday, May 12. The visitors took Game One 2-1 and held a narrow 1-0 advantage into the bottom of the ninth in Game Two, but Anthony Galason smacked a 3-1 pitch back up the middle to score the tying run from second. The Colts Neck, N.J. native then came through in the clutch again with a walk-off double down the right-field line in the home half of the 11th.

UNCW holds a 40-30 advantage in the all-time series. Last season’s tournament champion, the Seahawks bested the maroon and gold 11-3 on May 25 to snap Elon’s eight-game winning streak.

ABOUT UNCW
The Seahawks ended their season with a 2-1 series win over James Madison on May 16-18 in Wilmington, N.C. The teal, gold, and navy opened the CAA tournament earlier today with an 8-6 victory over No. 4 Northeastern in 11 innings. With two away, Cole Weiss plated the go-ahead run with a double to right, and Doug Angeli added some insurance with a single through the left side.

Greg Jones, the league’s Player of the Year, has a .337 batting average to lead the team. Following him are Weiss (.313) and Angeli (.294). Luke Gesell tossed Wednesday’s game, which means Elon could see Landen Roupp (5-2, 3.26 ERA) or Zarion Sharpe (2-3, 4.57 ERA).

POSTSEASON HONORS
The CAA announced its 2019 postseason honors on Tuesday, with head coach Mike Kennedy being named Coach of the Year and George Kirby the Pitcher of the Year. Joe Satterfield joined Kirby on the First Team, while Cam Devanney, Galason, and Jared Wetherbee were named to the second team. Ty Adcock and Kyle Brnovich were third team selections, and Galason added All-Rookie Team honors.

This was Coach Kennedy’s fifth career Coach of the Year honor and fourth during Elon’s DI era. He was selected the SoCon’s Coach of the Year in 2006, 2008, and 2009. Kennedy was also chosen as Coach of the Year in 1997 when Elon was in its final year in the South Atlantic Conference. Kirby is the first Pitcher of the Year for the Phoenix (30-22) since John Brebbia earned the distinction in 2011 when Elon was in the SoCon.

CURRENT ELON STREAKS
Devanney looks to extend his 20-game hit streak, Elon’s longest during its CAA era. The Amherst, N.H. native as also reached base in 25 consecutive games and leads the team with 19 multi-hit games and 17 multi-RBI games.

ELON IN THE RANKINGS
As of May 20, Elon is ranked 19th in the nation with five shutouts and is ranked 16th with 9.9 strikeouts per nine innings.

Kirby is the national leader in both strikeout-to-walk ratio (17.50) and walks allowed per nine innings (0.65). He is also fourth in WHIP (0.82) and ninth in complete games (3). Devanney ranks 12th in the country with seven sacrifice flies, while Brnovich leads the CAA with 11.88 strikeouts per nine innings.

UP NEXT
Thursday’s winner will play again Friday at 7 p.m. and will face the winner of the Game Five matchup between No. 2 Charleston and No. 3 William & Mary. Should Elon lose, the Phoenix would play the winner of Game 6 on Friday at 3 p.m.