HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. – Northern Kentucky baseball hits the road for a pair of midweek games this week beginning with a 3 p.m. game at Eastern Kentucky on Tuesday in Richmond, Kentucky. NKU then turns around to travel to Miami (Ohio) for a 3 p.m. first pitch on Wednesday.

Live stats and live video will be available for Tuesday's game at EKU. Live stats and audio are available for Wednesday's game.

Gameday Information
Northern Kentucky Norse (6-10, 3-0 Horizon)
at Eastern Kentucky Colonels (12-9, 1-2 OVC)
Tuesday, March 21 – 3 p.m.
Richmond, Ky. | Turkey Hughes Field
NKU: Jr. RHP Brody Basilone
EKU: Jr. LHP Casey Collins

Northern Kentucky Norse
at Miami (Ohio) RedHawks (4-13, 0-0 MAC)
Wednesday, March 22 – 3 p.m.
Oxford, Ohio | McKie Field at Hayden Park
NKU: TBA
Miami: TBA

LAST TIME OUT: Northern Kentucky opened Horizon League play with a three-game sweep of Milwaukee in NKU's home-opening weekend. The Norse stormed back from a 5-0 deficit to take the opener, 13-9. In game two, Norse starter Jean-Francois Dionne held the Panthers to just one run across the first five innings as the offense got out to a 5-1 lead to eventually win, 7-4. In the finale, NKU scored two runs with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to overcome a 5-3 deficit and win it, 6-5.

BATTER OF THE WEEK: The Horizon League named Jake Richmond the Batter of the Week after the junior infielder batted .500 with six RBI, two home runs and four runs scored in the sweep of Milwaukee this past weekend. Richmond was 7-for-14 with a .929 slugging percentage and .533 on-base percentage. He was 2-for-2 in stolen bases and never struck out. The Cincinnati native is on an 11-game hitting streak and has reached base in all but one of NKU's 16 games.

ONE MORE WIN: Northern Kentucky head coach Todd Asalon is just one win away from his 500th at NKU. Asalon owns a 499-434-1 record in his 17th season at the helm of the program. He is in his 23rd year overall as a head coach and boasts a 643-526-1 career record.

OFFENSIVE SURGE: Northern Kentucky has won five of its last seven contests behind .333 hitting as a team in that span. Seven Norse are hitting .345 or better in the last seven games, led by Dominic Mercurio who is batting .423 (11-for-26) with four RBI. Mercurio leads the team with a .367 season average. Richmond is batting .393 while Kyle Colletta and Mike Moffatt are both batting .348 dating back to a March 5 win at Georgia State. Nine of Colletta's 10 RBI have come in the last seven games. As a team, NKU has 10 doubles and five homers as the squad is slugging .433 in that span.

SCOUTING EKU: Eastern Kentucky (12-9, 1-2 OVC) enters the week averaging 8.0 runs per game, which ranks 22nd in the NCAA. EKU has scored 10 or more runs in each of the last five games. The Colonels are winners of four of their last five and most recently won 2-of-3 games against Chicago State. All 12 of their victories have come at home.

The Colonels are batting .307 with a 7.23 team ERA while opponents are batting .309 against the EKU pitching staff. Daniel McFarland has appeared in 16 of EKU's 21 contests and leads with a .431 average (28-for-65). Ben Fisher was named a Collegiate Baseball Player of the Week on Monday after clubbing five home runs with 15 RBI across five games last week. He is batting .410 on the year with eight of EKU's 18 total home runs. He has 31 total RBI in 21 games, which ranks fourth in the NCAA. Casey Collins, a junior southpaw is the anticipated starting pitcher. Collins has made three appearances this season, all starts. He owns a 5.84 ERA in 12.1 innings pitched.

SCOUTING MIAMI: Miami enters the week with a 4-13 overall record. The RedHawks are batting .205 while opponents are averaging .287 against their pitching staff, which owns a 6.56 ERA. Miami has won one of its last seven contests with the win coming last Saturday in a series opener against East Tennessee State. Adam Yacek is the lone batter averaging over .300. Yacek owns a .358 average and is tied with Ross Haffey for the team lead in RBI with seven. The offense scores 2.8 runs per game while opponents are averaging 7.1 runs per contest.

SERIES HISTORIES: Eastern Kentucky owns a slight edge in the all-time series against NKU at 15-12-1. The series dates back to NKU's first season of baseball in 1972 when EKU won two games against the Norse. NKU head coach Todd Asalon is 2-2 against Eastern Kentucky as the teams have met four times since 2014 with NKU winning the most recent match-up, 5-2, on April 8, 2015 at Bill Aker Baseball Complex.

Northern Kentucky is 2-15 against Miami (Ohio) and won the most recent match-up, 5-1, on April 5 of last season at NKU. Despite being separated by just 50 miles the teams have only met two times since 2004. Last season's match-up was the first between the two squads since NKU transitioned to Division I.

ON DECK: Northern Kentucky takes on crosstown foe Cincinnati in the final nonconference weekend series of the 2017 slate this weekend. The Bearcats will host the first two games at 5 p.m. on Friday at 1 p.m. on Saturday. NKU will host the finale at noon on Sunday at Bill Aker Baseball Complex.