Georgia State Baseball Hosts CAA Opponent VCU

The 19-4 Panthers are hosting the 7-12 VCU Rams Friday through Sunday. The Panthers are 3-0 in CAA play after sweeping Towson and the Rams are 1-2 after a close series with James Madison. The Panthers are coming into the series on a hot-streak, both at the team level and individual level. The current 10-game winning streak and 19-4 record are good for a school record and the team is tied for the NCAA's third longest winning streak. Only four teams in college baseball have more wins than the Panthers.

Who: The VCU Rams are CAA conference mates of the Panthers and 2010 defending CAA Champions. Coach Frady is 9-3-1 against VCU and 4-2 at home, the Rams defeated GSU in the first game of the 2010 CAA tournament.

VCU at the Plate: The Rams are batting .284 as a team and scoring 5.3 runs per game. They have scored over their average only 6 times, 42 of their 100 runs have come in 3 games against Holy Cross (1) and Princeton (2). Removing those 3 games, they're averaging only 3.6 runs per game. Senior outfielder John Lenherr leads by large margin at the plate with a .419 batting average and slugging near .600. John doesn't have any home runs but he has 6 doubles and 3 triples on the year and he accounts for almost 30% of their stolen bases being 9-for-11. Hitting in the 2nd spot in the lineup, John is the guy you want to keep off base as he can get in scoring position very quickly on you. Utility man Taylor Perkins is hitting .300 and leads the team with 17 RBI's. Taylor has started every game for the Rams. VCU has not shown much power with only 3 home runs and slugging .371 as a team with three different players accounting for the home runs.

VCU on the Mound: The Rams have a team ERA of 4.26 and has been a decent squad this season. They're allowing an average of 5.8 runs per game and have allowed more than 6 runs only 4 times. Half of their 12 losses have been by 2 runs or less so their pitching staff has kept them in games. This leads me to say VCU is a better team than their 7-12 record shows. All three starters to face have good strike-to-walk numbers at or better than 3:1. Starters as follows:

Seth Cutler-Voltz (Jr., RH) will pitch on Friday. He is 1-1 with a 5.17 ERA after 5 starts. WHIP of 1.5 and batters are .312 against him. He was an innings eater in 2010 and is averaging just over 6 innings per start this season. Seth is a power fastball pitcher.

Kyle Haynes (So., RH) gets the start on Saturday. Kyle is 2-3 after 5 starts with a 3.81 ERA. Kyle has had some tough luck getting little help from the offense with 2 losses coming from scores of 1-3 and 3-4. WHIP of 1.3 and batters are hitting .267 against him. Kyle made 12 starts as a freshman and ended the season with a 5.60 ERA.

David Benson (Sr., RH) is a VCU newcomer and gets the ball on Sunday. He is 1-1 with a 2.25 ERA after 4 starts and 1 relief appearance. David has 30 strikeouts in 24 innings pitched and batters are hitting .250 against him. One of his no-decisions came in a 6 inning outing against Longwood where he allowed only 3 hits, no runs, 1 walk and 9 K's. His only loss came against James Madison where he went 6 innings and allowed only 2 runs off 7 hits and 2 walks. David seems to be the most talented starter the Panthers will face.

The Rams have a steady group of relievers in the fact that none of them have had a mound meltdown this season. About half the group has given up around an inning per outing, a quarter given up more and the other quarter given up less. They can throw some good pitchers out but none have proven to be shut down pitchers so runs can be scored late. Chris Shaklee is the exception here. He has 9 appearance with 15.1 innings pitched and he's allowed 4 runs (2 earned) off 12 hits and 7 walks. He has a WHIP of near 1.3. (This brings me back to my point about Will Campbell having a very low WHIP for a starter)

GSU at the Plate: The Panthers come into the series batting .317 with most starters above the .300 mark. Over the winning streak, the team BA has raised by 45 points from .272. Brett Maxwell and Brandon Williams are over the .400 mark at .429 and .407 respectively. Ryan Fleming continues to be the home run (5) and RBI (26) leader. Most of the lineup is hot right now so they'll be a good test for VCU's pitching staff. The team is scoring 7.6 runs per game. (I'm keeping this section short going forward since it's typically covered several times per week and I repeat most of what's said here.)

GSU on the Mound:


Aidan Francis (Sr., LH) gets the start in the series opener with a 3-0 record and a 4.91 ERA. Francis has faced some high-powered offenses with success against Mercer, Georgia Tech and Murray State so I don't expect him to have many issues against VCU. He's given up 5 of the staff's 8 home runs but considering who he has faced, it's not a concern in this game given VCU's lack of power. He's pitched 25.2 innings in his 5 starts and batters are .277 against him. He has allowed 9 walks and recorded 20 strikeouts. WHIP of 1.4.

Charley Olson (Sr., RH) will oppose Kyle Haynes on Saturday. Charley is 2-2 in 4 starts with a 3.51 ERA. Charley has an almost identical stat line as Francis beyond the record and ERA. Same innings pitched 25.2, same batting average against at .277, same WHIP at 1.4 and he has 2 more strikeouts on the season with 22. His last start came against Murray State where he pitched 6 innings and allowed only 2 runs.

Justin Malone (Jr., RH) gets the series wrap-up on Sunday. He enters the game with a 4-0 record and a 3.00 ERA after 5 starts. Justin has a WHIP of 1.3 after 30 innings pitched and allowing 14 runs (10 earned) on 31 hits and 7 walks. As I said earlier, all three starters have a strike-to-walk ratio of 3:1 or better. Batters are hitting .279 against him which is virtually the same as Francis and Olson. Malone's last outing was against Murray State where he pitched 5.2 innings and allowed 4 runs on 8 hits.

The great thing about these 3 starters (and throw in Will and Nick for that matter) is you know what to expect when each one takes the mound. They have been consistently great all season for the Panthers. I really like the pitching match-ups here as I think it gives us the best chance for a 3-game sweep. VCU has relied upon their pitching to get to the record they have but they haven't faced pitching to our caliber yet. They played James Madison close and JMU has an inferior pitching staff to GSU and the gap isn't even close. The VCU batting lineup isn't dangerous enough to worry about any one of our starters allowing more than their typical run allowance unless one just has a bad day. We likely see the best pitching from VCU and the lowest scoring game from both sides on Sunday. I have all the confidence in the world right now in our relievers so it's tough to bet against us for a sweep unless the Panther offense falls out of their hitting streak (knocking on wood).

It looks like rain could be around Saturday and Sunday so let's hope that it stays away long enough to let us move to 6-0 in the CAA. GO PANTHERS!!!

Panthers Baseball Update, March 22nd

Coach Frady and the baseball team is rolling.

Photo Courtesy of GSU Sports Communications

Well we are now a little over a month into the season with 22 games in the books and the Panthers find themselves riding a school-record 9 game winning streak while sitting on top of the CAA standings. In addition, the team is now receiving votes in not one but two of the top college baseball polls, the USA Today/ESPN Top 25 Coaches' Poll and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Poll (NCBWA). This is the first time this season the Panthers find themselves gaining national recognition outside of the NCBWA poll.

The Panthers baseball team is currently 18-4 with key wins over Georgia Tech (currently ranked 12th in Division 1), Mercer, Iowa and a 3-game in-conference sweep over Towson. Three of the four losses are against power conference teams in Iowa (1) and Mississippi State (2). Delaware is currently in 2nd in the CAA with a 5-1 CAA record (10-10 overall) with wins over lowly George Mason and Hofstra and James Madison is holding down the 3rd spot with a 7-2 CAA record (15-5 overall) after defeating William & Mary, Hofstra and VCU.

Current CAA Player of the Week Mark Micowski has heated up at the plate and I don't think his hot streak coming at the same time of the team winning streak while average 10+ runs per game is any coincidence. The Panthers were averaging around 6 runs per game previous to this streak and at the time Mark was still batting below .300. He's known to be a slow starter and opposing pitchers ERA has benefited from it. Note to all opposing pitchers: Mark Micowski has started.

Congratulations to Coach Greg Frady for earning his 150th victory at GSU in last Sunday's win over Murray State!

Let's talk a little baseball statistics. The Panthers offense up until this past week has struggled to regain their post among the top offenses in the league as they were hovering near the upper 1/3 of the CAA. This has changed as the team is now batting .315 which is good for 2nd in the league. James Madison still leads the league with a .352 average however this is falling with each passing week as their offense faces better than terrible pitching. The GSU offense is also 2nd in runs scored per game at 7.7 which is up almost 2 runs over the recent winning streak. There are now only 2 Panthers starters with a batting average below .300 however on-base percentages of .386 and .474 make up for the .259 and .250 averages. Getting on base by walk is just as good as a single, you're standing on first at the end of both. Brett Maxwell and Brandon Williams are leading the team with a .443 and .390 average (respectively). Ryan Fleming and Mark Micowski are the team RBI leaders with 24 and 22. Fleming is proving to be the Panthers power threat with 5 home runs on the season.

Moving to the pitching game now, this is where we continue to see the Panthers strength on the season. The Panthers pitching staff has been great under new pitching coach Jason Arnold. His preaching of attacking the strike zone and being aggressive has paid dividends thus far. The Panthers pitching staff leads the CAA in runs allowed per game (4.5), team ERA (3.74), batting average allowed (.240) and walks & hits per inning (1.3). The Panthers pitchers are a huge reason why the team is 18-4 after having somewhat of a slow start at the plate. Justin Malone and Will Campbell are both 4-0 with 3.00 ERA's. The core starting group of Malone, Campbell, Charley Olson, Aidan Francis and Nick Squeglia are 15-3 with a 3.33 ERA.

Newcomers Sam Agnew-Wieland (freshman) and Jake Dyer (junior) have proven to be clutch out of the Panther bullpen. Sam has pitched 12.1 innings of relief and allowed only 2 runs and has 14 strikeouts. Jake is 2-0 from the bullpen after 13.1 innings of relief and only 3 runs allowed. Opposing batters are hitting an anemic .190 and .205 against them. Panthers fans have to be excited about the future outlook for Sam. I think Sam needs a nickname, since his initials are S.A.W., "Buzz SAW" sounds appropriate since he's setting down over 1 batter per inning by strikeout and hitters are under .200 at the plate against him!

To wrap this up, it's a great time to be a Panther baseball fan! I hope you all are taking the opportunity to get out to Panthersville to show the team, and the GSU administration, your support of the program. The Panthers make the short trip up I-75 tomorrow for a 6 PM first pitch with in-state rival Kennesaw State University and host VCU for CAA-play this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Get out to support your Panthers!