Elon Baseball Travels to Williamsburg This Weekend

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – Elon University baseball is on the road this weekend as the team travels to William & Mary for a CAA meeting with the Tribe (22-14, 5-7). Friday’s series opener is scheduled for a 6 p.m. first pitch at Plumeri Park. Game Two is set for 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday’s finale will begin at 1 p.m.

COVERAGE
The weekend series will be streamed on CAA.TV and live stats will be available.

PITCHING MATCHUPS

Elon                                    William & Mary
Jr. RH Kyle Brnovich (4-3, 3.05)        Jr. RH Wade Strain (3-3, 3.78)
Jr. RH George Kirby (6-1, 2.91)         Sr. LH Bodie Sheehan (3-1, 2.73)
So. LH Jared Wetherbee (4-3, 3.14)      Fr. LH Zach Tsakounsis (4-1, 2.80)

THE SERIES
The Phoenix (21-16, 10-2) holds a slight 12-11 lead in the all-time series and swept the Tribe at Latham Park on May 17-19 last year to wrap up the regular season. Elon won seven straight to secure its best finish since joining the conference and earn the number two seed in the CAA Tournament. The series also marked 25 home wins for the maroon and gold, the most under head coach Mike Kennedy.

ABOUT WILLIAM & MARY
William & Mary dropped a series 2-1 to James Madison last weekend and is coming off a 2-1 walk-off win over George Washington on Wednesday night. Knotted at 1-1 in the nine, the Tribe loaded the bases on three straight walks. With one out, senior Zach Pearson scored the decisive run on a Matt McDermott grounder to short.

Pearson leads the green, gold, and silver with a .320 batting average. Hunter Smith follows with a .314 clip and is the deep threat with a team-high nine home runs. Hunter Hart (.282) has stolen on 7-of-9 attempts and McDermott (.223) 6-of-8. As a team, W&M is hitting .249 with a .362 on base percentage.

The Tribe’s pitching staff owns a collective 3.82 ERA with opposing teams batting .247. Wade Strain, who was named the CAA’s Pitcher of the Week on Monday, is 3-3 with a 3.78 ERA and is expected to start the series opener. The junior leads the team with 45 strikeouts across nine starts and 52.1 innings. Bodie Sheehan (3-1) will get the nod on Saturday, and Zach Tsakounsis (4-1) will pitch Sunday’s finale.

ADCOCK NAMED PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Adcock received his first career weekly honor on Monday afternoon as the conference office selected him Player of the Week. The The Oxford, N.C. native batted 6-for-15 (.400) with two home runs, a double, nine RBIs, two runs, and a walk as Elon went 3-1 last week. He collected a hit in all four games and finished 3-for-4 with a three-run home run, a season-high six RBIs, and a run scored in the series opener versus the Blue Hens, driving in half of Elon’s runs. He also went 1-for-5 with a late two-run home run last Tuesday against Campbell. Including a long ball in the series finale at Towson on April 7, it marked three consecutive games with a homer.

Adcock also pitched one inning of relief in the first game of Sunday’s doubleheader. He secured his fifth save of the season, striking out a pair of Blue Hens and issuing two walks without giving up a hit. Defensively, he set a season high with six putouts in the series finale. Adcock posted a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage on the week with nine putouts in as many chances.

MCCARTHY SETS CAREER HIGHS
Dean McCarthy struck out six ECU batters and threw 3.0 complete innings of relief on Tuesday, both career highs for the junior out of White Plains, N.Y. He allowed two runs on three hits and two walks on the outing.

CURRENT ELON STREAKS
Adcock is on a six-game hit streak and Devanney brings in a five-game hit streak. Devanney has also reached safely in 10 straight games.

ELON IN THE RANKINGS
As a team, Elon enters the weekend ranked 24th in the nation in sacrifice flies (21) and 25th in hit by pitch (57). The maroon and gold also leads the league in fielding percentage (.977), home runs (31), home runs per game (0.84), runs (228), scoring (6.2), and strikeouts per nine innings (9.5).

Kirby is the nation’s leader in strikeout-to-walk ratio (13.00), is sixth in walks allowed per nine innings (0.81), is tied for 10th in complete games (2), and is tied for 22nd in victories (6). Cam Devanney ranks third with seven sacrifice flies, and Mason Daniels is seventh with 10 starts. Tyler Stanley is 16th in hit by pitch (14) and 20th in hit by pitch per game (0.40). Kyle Brnovich places 18th in the NCAA in strikeouts (74) and leads the CAA in strikeouts per nine innings (11.89). Satterfield is atop the CAA in batting average (.388), hits (54), and hits per game (1.46).

UP NEXT
Elon has a pair of midweek games at home next week as the Phoenix hosts UNCG at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, April 23. The maroon and gold then plays a second game in as many days as the team welcomes North Carolina A&T to Latham Park for a 6 p.m. tilt.