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Feb. 21-23
San Diego, Calif. – Folwer Park (3,000)
NKU (1-3) vs. San Diego (2-1)
Series Record: First meeting
HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. – The Northern Kentucky University baseball team travels to the west coast this weekend for a four-game series against San Diego, beginning Friday night at Folwer Park in San Diego.
First pitch on Friday is scheduled for a 9 p.m. Eastern start time. Saturday will feature a doubleheader between the two teams starting at 4 p.m., and Sunday's conclusion is also slated for 4 p.m. Links to live stats, video and John Asalon's audio broadcast will be available at nkunorse.com.
NKU began the season with a 1-3 record last weekend at Troy. After dropping the first two contests of the four-game series to the Trojans, 7-0 and 6-2 respectively, the Norse held on for a 6-5 victory over Troy in the nightcap of a doubleheader on Saturday. Troy then concluded the opening series with a 14-4 win.
Sophomore
Logan Spurlin led the NKU offense by going 6-for-11 with his first home run of the season, while freshman
Jake Shaw made a positive first impression in his first outing after striking out six of the 11 batters he faced to help the Norse capture their first win of the season.
San Diego, which was chosen as the favorite to win the West Coast Conference, enters the weekend 2-1 on the year. The Toreros captured their first win of the season with a 6-4 victory over New Mexico in a game that spanned two days. The contest began Friday night before it was suspended due to heavy fog in the bottom of the third inning and was concluded on Saturday afternoon. San Diego dropped the second game, 3-2, but cruised to a 17-2 victory on Sunday to claim the series.
The Toreros, the defending West Coast tournament champions, are currently led by junior third baseman Andrew Daniel, who batted .462 with one home, six RBIs and four runs scored in the season-opening New Mexico series. He also successfully stole three bases in as many attempts on the weekend. Louie Lechich recorded a 1.59 earned run average in his first start of the season in the final game of the series. The lefty only allowed one run on seven hits over 5.2 innings of work, while striking out two batters and walking a pair.
NKU and San Diego have never met in baseball.
AGAINST THE WEST COAST CONFERENCE: NKU has never played a team from the West Coast Conference in its 42-year history. The Norse will, however, face a second member later this season. NKU will travel to Los Angeles March 7-9 to begin its spring break with a three-game series against Loyola Marymount.
IMPRESSIVE DEBUTS: The NKU roster features 17 new faces this season with 10 making their Norse debuts in the season-opening series at Troy. Offensively,
Jordan Procyshen began the season by recording the first hit of the year for NKU in the first inning in Friday's matchup. The junior catcher from Okotoks, Alberta, collected five hits on the weekend, including one double and the first Norse home run of 2014, and scored three times for the Norse.
Freshman
Kyle Colletta started the first three games of the series at shortstop before being named the starting pitcher in the final game against the Trojans. He amassed a .400 batting average and a .600 slugging percentage with two of his four hits being doubles, and Colletta scored twice and drew one walk.
On the mound, two Norse hurlers made immediate impacts. Right-hander
Wendell Wright made appearances in both games of the doubleheader on Saturday. He combined for a total of 2.2 innings of relief and did not allow an earned run on three hits. The junior from Utica, N.Y., struck out three batters in his debut in Game 1 and only walked one in the nightcap.
Freshman
Jake Shaw recorded the first save of NKU's season in Game 2 on Saturday. In his collegiate debut, Shaw pitched 2.2 innings of relief and only surrendered one hit while striking out six of the 11 batters he faced. The freshman from Grand Bay-Westfield, New Brunswick, came in the game with a bases-loaded situation and recorded his first two strikeouts to get the Norse out of the seventh inning without allowing a run.
CONTINUING 2013 SUCCESS: Sophomore first baseman
Logan Spurlin is continuing the success he achieved during his first season with NKU. He started the year batting .545 with four RBIs and one run scored against Troy, and he safely reached base in each of the first four games of the season.
Spurlin collected two-hit games twice against the Trojans and recorded his first home run of the season in Sunday's conclusion. To begin the season, he boasts a .688 on-base percentage after drawing four walks in addition to his performance at the plate and a 1.091 slugging percentage with three doubles and one home run.
STARTING STRONG: Junior
Cody Cooper received the starting nod to begin the season on the mound for NKU against Troy on Friday. The southpaw from Grafton, Ohio, saw seven innings of work and only allowed two earned runs on seven hits. He finished his first outing of the year with a 2.57 ERA, which was the best out of the Norse starters, and collected one strikeout.
DOUBLE TROUBLE: Through the first four games of the season, NKU hitters have recorded 11 doubles, which ranks second in the Atlantic Sun after the first weekend of play. Florida Gulf Coast leads the conference with 12, and South Carolina Upstate and Lipscomb are tied for third with eight each. The Norse recorded two doubles in the opening game and three in each of the final three contests of the series.
Of the 11 doubles hit by Norse batters, seven eventually led to runs scored. Three players hit doubles and ended up scoring in the same inning, while the other four two-baggers brought runs home for NKU.
Last season, the Norse did not record its 11th double until its 10th game of the season when NKU recorded four against Texas State on March 3. The most doubles the Norse have recorded in a single game since beginning the transition to the NCAA Division I level is eight, which they achieved against Bowling Green on May 14.
COLLECTING THE K'S: The NKU pitching staff has collected 30 strikeouts to begin the 2014 season, including 16 in the 6-5 victory over Troy in Game 2. The Norse total is only five less than preseason Atlantic Sun favorite Mercer, which has recorded 35 over its first four games.
NKU's 16 strikeouts against Troy was the most ever for the Norse since transitioning to the NCAA Division I level.
Aric Harris punched out eight batters in four innings in the start, while
Alex Bolia added a pair in two innings of relief to earn his first career win.
Jake Shaw's six strikeouts over 2.2 innings gave the freshman his first collegiate save.
The previous Division I high for the Norse was 12, which was set against Eastern Michigan on March 16. Starter
Brett Cisper recorded five strikeouts, while
Brett Loeding punched out one.
Bela Perler struck out two batters, and
Chuck Calhoun added four to the NKU total.
REACHING MILESTONES: Saturday's 6-5 victory over Troy gave NKU its 1,250th win as a program, which began in 1972 under the leadership of American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame coach Bill Aker. Aker's 1977 team set a school season record with 49 victories. In 2001,
Todd Asalon became only the second head coach in NKU's history, and his 2010 team won 43 games, the most victories during his 13-year career with the Norse.
