LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Bellarmine University baseball team is set for four road games this week, as the Knights will play at 2:30 p.m. (ET) Wednesday at Dayton before a three-games series Friday-Sunday (5 p.m., 4:30 p.m., 1 p.m.) at Charleston Southern in South Carolina.
The contest with Dayton (2-5) was originally scheduled to unfold at Knights Field. The teams are playing twice inside a week and have swapped venues, with Bellarmine (0-6) now hosting the Tuesday, March 4, matchup at 2 p.m.
ABOUT DAYTON
Dayton is playing today at Northern Kentucky, which just faced Bellarmine in a three-game series. The Flyers suffered a one-sided sweep at the hands of No. 10 Florida last weekend but preceded that with a doubleheader sweep of Western Michigan. Dayton was picked sixth of 12 in the Atlantic 10 preseason coaches' poll after posting a 33-22 record last season.
ABOUT CHARLESTON SOUTHERN
Charleston Southern is off to a 6-1 start heading into Wednesday's road outing at Georgia Southern. Last weekend, the Buccaneers swept Manhattan in convincing fashion, triggering the run-rule in each victory while amassing 48 runs in the three games. Eight players with at least 15 at-bats are hitting .310 or higher. In seven games, Chandler Tuupo has piled up 16 RBI and Kaden Smith has tallied 14. AJ Martin has went deep three times and collected 10 RBI for the Bucs, who are averaging nearly 13 runs per game.
LAST WEEKEND
Bellarmine met former GLVC rival Northern Kentucky at Choccolocco Park in Oxford, Alabama, with the series shifting sites due to inclement weather. The Norse captured wins of 13-7, 12-5 and 17-12. The Knights' best offensive performance of the early season came in the finale, as their 12 runs and 12 hits — as well as their three home runs — were all season highs. Nothing came cheaply — each of the dozen runs came via RBI.
BELLARMINE NOTES
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Eli Watson led Bellarmine in the Northern Kentucky series with a .417 batting average (5-for-12). The junior outfielder had a double, triple and four runs scored. Watson went 3-for-5 in the series finale, his second three-hit game of the season. He's hitting .348 through six games.
• In the series finale against NKU,
Casey Sorg went 3-for-5 with a homer, double and three RBI. The senior 1B/OF was named to the Preseason All-ASUN Team while also being cited by D1Baseball among its top 100 outfielders in the nation in the preseason (#84).
• Freshmen
Landon Akers and
Christian Kiper both smacked their first collegiate home runs in the NKU series, while senior
Seth Sweet-Chick's grand slam in the finale marked his first round-tripper in a BU uniform.
• In the series opener against NKU, sophomore right-hander
Chase Carver posted career highs with 5.0 innings pitched and eight strikeouts. He struck out the side in the fourth and fifth innings.
• Senior right-hander
Cooper Hellman made two appearances in the NKU series and allowed one run over 3.0 innings pitched while striking out three.
• Senior right-hander
Mike Sokol tied a career high with four strikeouts in just 2.0 innings pitched in Game 2 against NKU.
• Junior right fielder
Joey Milto is hitting a team-leading .474. In the season-opening Troy series, he batted .636 (7-for-11) with two doubles, a homer and a triple. Milto also had a triple in the NKU series.
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