CLINTON, Miss. --- Due to inclement weather in the Jackson, Tenn. area this weekend, the Mississippi College baseball team will play their Gulf South Conference home opener a week earlier than expected as they will host Union University for a three-game series at Frierson Field this weekend.
The two teams will play a doubleheader on Thursday beginning at 2:00 p.m. They will wrap up the series on Friday with a single game at 1:00 p.m. The series had previously been scheduled to be played at Union on Saturday and Sunday, but weather forced a change of date and venue.
The Choctaws are led by head coach
Brian Owens, who is sitting on 199 career wins in his 9th season at the helm. The Bulldogs are led by head coach Lee Driggers, who is in his first season at Union after coaching for two years at East Texas Baptist, an American Southwest Conference team.
MC is coming off their first Gulf South Conference games since the 1996 season as they traveled to Memphis to face Christian Brothers in a three-game series. The Choctaws opened with a 3-2 win after
Brooks Fortenberry held the Bucs to just six hits and two runs over 7.0 innings. CBU responded with two big wins on Saturday, however.
Fortenberry is now 2-0 on the season with a 3.00 ERA and 14 strikeouts in 12.0 innings. He has 14 K's to just two walks on the year.
Taylor Olsen (1-1, 3.48 ERA) and
Kyle Cumlander (1-1, 9.95 ERA) are also expected to start this weekend.
Tyler Scholl, who is the all-time saves leader at Northwest MS CC, earned his first save of the year on Friday in the victory. Senior
Andy Olmsted has yet to give up a run in 4.0 innings on the mound.
Colton Caver (.469) is the team's leading hitter this season with four doubles and five RBI in the cleanup spot. He has gotten at least one hit in every game this season and has struck out just once.
Akiko Thompson (.400) is third on the team in hitting and leads the way with two doubles and two triples.
Freshman
Colton Johnson has scored a team-high 14 runs on the year, while
Hunter Bolin and
Hunter Hall are tied for the the team-lead with 10 RBI.
Caleb Upton has earned 10 walks this season and
Garrett Odom and
Marty Stringfellow have each homered.
The Bulldogs are coming off being swept in a three-game series by Lee University on the road this weekend, but each game was decided by two runs or less. Union only allowed eight runs in the three games, but only scored three themselves.
Caleb Warnimont (.367) is the team's leading hitter this season, while Chaz Wilson (.214) leads the way with four doubles. Jim Martin (.355) and Hunter Smith (.190) have each driven in a team-high five runs on the year.
Teddy Christie leads the team with 14 strikeouts on the mound, going 0-1 with a 4.50 ERA. Marty Coursey (0-2, 5.65) and Skyler Harrison (0-1, 6.40) have also earned starts.
A CLOSER LOOK AT THE SERIESThis will be the first-ever meetings between the two schools. Union is playing their first year in the Gulf South Conference as a full member, while MC is scheduled to be a full member in the 2016-17 academic year.
RECORD WATCHHead coach
Brian Owens is on the verge of a major milestone as he is just one win away from 200 in his career. After opening his career with the big win over Tougaloo, the former Mississippi State reliever has had a succesful run with the Choctaws. In 2010, he led MC to a 39-11 record and got the team within one game of the Division III World Series. His 100th career win came on April 20th of that season, a come-from-behind victory over Millsaps, 7-6.
Fortenberry has been a part of the starting rotation for the past two seasons and is climbing the lists in the record books at MC. With 158.0 career innings pitched, he is just 14 away from breaking into the top 10, while his 140 career strikeouts is tied for 10th in school history with Josh Simpson (1999-00).
