Kent State University
Eastern Michigan
With Title in View, Flashes Host Eagles
5/10/2018 11:19:00 AM | Baseball
KSU plays final three home games; holds three-game lead
With Title in View, Flashes Host Eagles
KSU plays final three home games; holds three-game lead
KENT, OHIO – It's a pretty good position to be in.
With six games remaining, the Golden Flashes baseball team holds a three-game lead over second-place teams Ball State and Miami. The squad has a magic number of four to clinch the 2018 Mid-American Conference regular season title and home team advantage throughout the upcoming post-season. The number is reduced by one every time Kent State wins a league game or if the second place team(s) lose. It drops by two if both things happen.
Providing the opposition this weekend will be the Eastern Michigan Eagles. EMU is 18-27 but 11-10 in the league, five games behind Kent State. The Eagles would be in the tournament as the five seed if it began today. Eastern is fourth in the MAC with a team batting average of .270.
The Golden Flashes (32-13, 16-5) lead the league in both batting average (.294) and team ERA (3.44). In conference-only games, Kent State is hitting .309 and boasts an ERA of 2.45. The Flashes recently completed a weekend sweep of Bowling Green in which the pitching staff yielded one run – in the sixth inning of the Sunday finale.
Kent State has two players ranked fourth nationally. Joey Murray is fourth in NCAA Division I in strikeouts with 117 and Mason Mamarella is fourth in total stolen bases with 30. Nick Kanavas leads the MAC with a .384 batting average.
KSU leads the all-time series with EMU, 68-43. The Golden Flashes have gone 26-19 in games played in Kent and KSU has won the last four games coming into the weekend. The Golden Flashes swept the Eagles a year ago. This weekend's games are slated for 4 p.m. on Friday with Joey Murray on the mound, 4 p.m. Saturday when Jared Skolnicki gets the ball and 1 p.m. Sunday with Eli Kraus heading to the hill.
