The #7/8 Emory University baseball team closes out the 2016 regular season with a three game against regional foe Piedmont College. The Eagles come into play carrying an overall record of 28-9 while the Lions are 20-17.
The middle game of the series on Saturday will take place at Chappell Park beginning at 3:00 PM. Starting at 2:30 PM, Emory will have a pregame ceremony to honor the graduating class of 2016: David Coble, Dylan Eisner, Jack Karras, Paul Merolla, Chris Slivka and Ben Vizvary. The ceremony will be broadcasted on emoryathletics.com prior to the live stream of the contest.
Coverage
Friday night (7:00 PM) and Sunday afternoon (2:00 PM) at Piedmont will feature both live stats and video courtesy of Piedmont Athletics. Both links can be found here and here. Emoryathletics.com will provide coverage for the home finale with live stats and video stream. The video stream will be free to view in standard definition with an upgrade to high quality available for $7.00.
#7/8 Emory University Eagles (28-9)
The Eagles will be looking for their 12th 30-win season in program history and third straight campaign with at least 30 victories as play begins on Friday. As a team, Emory is batting .279 for the season with 13 home runs, 187 RBI and 87 stolen bases. The 13 long balls represent the most by an Emory team since the 2010 season when that squad had 21 round-trippers. Junior Philip Maldari has been red-hot at the plate for the Eagles lately and carries an eight-game hit streak into the series, the longest such streak by an Eagle this season. Over the last eight games, Maldari is hitting .452 (14-for-31) with five multi-hit games to raise his average from .222 to .281 on the year. The Brooklyn, NY native has driven in nine of his 17 runs during the streak and just collected his first three-hit game of the season in Tuesday's 10-1 drubbing over Oglethorpe.
Also heating up at the plate is senior outfielder Chris Slivka and junior catcher Chris Young. Slivka is also hitting at .450 clip over the last eight games with a .700 slugging percentage and a .586 on-base percentage to go along with one home run and seven RBI. Young brings a six-game hitting streak into play on Friday. Young has risen his average by 40 points from .192 to .232 over the course of the streak, hitting .381 (8-for-21) with at least one RBI in each contest, totaling seven runs batted in.
Emory still owns a sparkling 2.43 earned run average which ranks among the best in the nation thanks to junior Jackson Weeg and sophomores Mack Wilkins and Danny Kerning not allowing an earned run over nine innings in Tuesday's win over the Stormy Petrels. Weeg joined the 200 strikeout club with career-high tying 10 punch outs on Tuesday, giving him 204 in his career, good for 10th most all-time. Weeg has now won 14 straight decisions spanning his last 21 appearances (20 starts).
Piedmont College Lions (20-17)
The Lions enter the series three games above .500 at 20-17 but with only two victories in their last five times out. On offense, Piedmont is batting a collective .287 in 37 ballgames with four members of the starting lineup hitting over .300. Senior Breck Davidson leads the team with a .336 clip, also topping the Lions in doubles (16), home runs (4) and RBI (34). Fellow senior Evan Gresham is another bopper in the middle of the Piedmont lineup, hitting .324 on the year with nine doubles, two triples, three home runs, 29 RBI and leads the team with 36 runs scored.
On the mound, the Lions are pitching to a below-average .466 earned run average. Freshman Max Bening leads all starters with a 3.71 ERA in seven starts, going 2-2. In 31.1 innings pitched, Bening owns a 25:12 strikeout-to-walk ratio. The Lions feature three top arms out of the pen and will call upon them frequently. Senior Allen Tokarz is the NCAA active leader in relief appearances with 90 and this year leads the country with 25 appearances out of the pen, pitching to a 5-1 record and a 2.12 ERA in 51.1 innings pitched with 39 K's. Freshman Matt Vonderschmidt and senior Josh Thomas have seen action in 19 and 18 games, respectively, with the former compiling a 3.12 ERA in 34.2 innings pitch. Thomas is the go-to option at the end of games for Piedmont with 11 saves this season with a 24 strikeouts and a 3.60 ERA.
The Lions are led by Jim Peeples who is in his 15th season with the program. At Piedmont, Peeples owns a 359-296 record, good for a .548 winning percentage.
Dueling Closers
Something to watch for during this series is the backend of the bullpen for both ballclubs. Emory's Kyle Monk and Piedmont's Josh Thomas are two of the top closers in all of Division III with both arms ranking No. 1-2 on the NCAA Division III active list in career saves. Monk comes into play with 29 in his three-year career while Thomas owns 21 to his credit. In 2016, Monk and Thomas share the nation's lead in saves with 11 apiece.
All-Time Series
The Eagles and Lions have met on the diamond 57 previous times with Emory holding a 34-23 edge. The Eagles and Lions split the four-game season series last year with Emory taking the last two meetings by 9-8 and 6-4 scores.