Kent State University
University of Pittsburgh
Baseball's Home Opener Wednesday at 6pm Against Pittsburgh
3/15/2016 11:17:00 AM | Baseball
Kent State (10-3) will host its first game of the season at Schoonover Stadium on Wednesday night when Pittsburgh (7-6) comes to town for a 6 p.m. first pitch.
COVERAGE:
• Live stats will be available at sidearmstats.com/kent/baseball
• The game will be aired live on Golden Flashes iHeart Radio
PROBABLE PITCHING STARTERS:
Kent State: #18 Connor Wollersheim (0-0, 4.26 ERA, 2 SO, 6 BB, 1 GS, 6.1 IP)
Pittsburgh: #19 RHP Sam Mersing (2-1, 7.04 ERA, 16 SO, 7 BB, 3 GS, 15.1 IP)
THE MATCHUP:
• Kent State is 37-25 all-time against Pittsburgh
• Last season, the Golden Flashes won 1-0 on the road in the only meeting that season
• The teams also met just once in 2014 with the Flashes winning that matchup 4-1
• The Panthers are coming off a three-game set at No. 6 North Carolina where they lost 14-2, 4-0 and then took the finale 5-0
• The team is hitting .313 this season with an ERA of 5.37
• This is the first time an ACC baseball program has ever played a game at Kent State
TERRIFIC TEN:
• A 10-3 start to the season is the best for the Golden Flashes since they also started 10-3 in 1992
• The best opening record for the program was in 1983 when the team went 27-3 in its first 30 games; the 26th and 27th wins were both over Pittsburgh
• Kent State has outscored its opponents 75-38 in the ten game stretch
• The team is batting .301 in the last ten games, led by a .474 average by Zarley Zalewski
• Seven hitters are batting .300 or better
• On the mound, the Flashes' arms have a combined ERA of 2.66 in the past ten games
• Four relievers have 0.00 ERAs and Eric Lauer has posted a 0.92 ERA with 17 strikeouts through his last three starts
AWARD WINNERS:
• This week, Kent State's Tim Faix was announced as one of 30 Senior CLASS Award candidates in the nation, recognizing him for being one of the best to exemplify excellence in the community, classroom, character and competition
• He will aim to be one of the award's ten finalists that is set to be announced midseason
• Zarley Zalewski has also been honored recently as the back-to-back College Sports Madness MAC Player of the Week. Zalewski hit .500 and was also named the MAC East Player of the Week after the Charlotte series. He hit .625 against Radford to be recognized again by College Sports Madness
