Thursday, February 24, 2011

Georgia State Baseball (4-0) vs Western Illinois (0-3)


Who: Western Illinois Fighting Leathernecks (we'll call them WIFL for short), compete in the NCAA D1 Summit League. The Leathernecks baseball team has not had much success in recent years due to Oral Roberts run of the conference. The team returns 7 of 9 starter position players and only 5 of 15 pitchers from last year and enters Friday's game with a record of 0-3 after being swept at Samford. This is the first matchup with Western Illinois.

Previous Season: WIFL finished the 2010 season with a 14-39 overall record finishing 8th (last) in the Summit League.

Western Illinois at the Plate: The Leathernecks are currently batting .204 as a team. They have not shown much offensive ability thus far as they've scored only 9 runs. The team has 7 extra base hits, 2 being HRs. They've walked 11 times and went down swinging 37 times through 103 at-bats. They do have a speed threat in outfielder Anthony Kaskadden who is 4 of 4 in stolen base attempts in his 3 games. Interesting note, all 4 stolen bases came in one game. I don't expect much luck for them against our pitching staff.

Western Illinois on the Mound: The starters are 0-3 and the team is enjoying an 8.62 ERA coming into Friday. I see this number being increased when the Leathernecks leave town Sunday. The starters (all rightys) are as follows:

Beau Below, Senior - Rough first outing for Beau. 0-1 with a 36.00 ERA after giving up 9 runs in his first and only inning of work. Batters hit .800 against him.

Ryan Wachholder, Junior - Ryan, also 0-1, gave up 5 runs on 8 hits in his 5 innings pitched. He does have 5 strikeouts and only 1 walk to go with it. Ryan is a new addition to the team and pitched well at his previous community college.

Alexander Zarate, Junior - 0-1. Gave up 6 runs on 5 hits in 4 innings pitched. Zarate is another community college transfer and was an effective pitcher in 2010. He didn't see much action in 2009.

Dustin Hunter, Junior - Has appeared in 2 games, pitching 1.2 innings of relief work and has been touched for 7 runs. Yet another community college transfer posting a 10-4 record in his first two years.

The Leathernecks have only 1 relief pitcher who has thrown 1 or more innings without giving up a run. Chris Fuchs had 1 clean inning of work allowing no hits and striking out 1.

Georgia State at the Plate: After the offensive breakout at Mercer on Tuesday, the Panthers are now batting .295 as a team. Improved but there's still room to grow especially considering Micowski is still trying to get going. Nothing wrong with a slow start (Mark Texeira anyone?) as long as you get going before the conference play, or preferably the GT game. Senior Brett Maxwell (OF) is currently leading the CAA in batting average at .727 and he's 3 for 4 in stolen bases. Rob Lind will look to continue his blasting efforts after hitting 2 out of the park at Mercer. The lineup should look the same as it did on opening day.

Georgia State on the Mound: Justin Malone, Nick Squeglia, Will Campbell and Charley Olsen will take the mound for the Panthers. All of these starters are 1-0 on the season and Campbell is the only one with an ERA above 0.00, at a cool 1.29. Justin gave up 7 hits in his 6 inning effort on opening day but kept the runs from crossing. Nick gave up only 3 hit in 5 innings with 3 K's. Will Campbell had a great first outing giving the bullpen some relief by going 7 innings and giving up only 1 run. Charley gave relief to Aidan Francis at Mercer and earned the win while going 4 innings giving up only 3 hits and 1 run. Charley sent away 7 batters by strikeout in his outing.


The Panthers outmatch the Fighting Leathernecks in all phases of the game. Georgia State will be looking to carry an 8-0 record into Russ Chandler Stadium for in-state showdown with Georgia Tech next Wednesday. Get out and enjoy the beautiful weather and what's sure to be an offensive attack on the Leathernecks pitching staff at Panthersville! GO PANTHERS!!!

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