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!