Kent State University
Eastern Michigan
Flashes Road Swing Continues at EMU
5/11/2023 11:56:00 AM | Baseball
KENT- The Golden Flashes continue their regular-season ending road trip this weekend with a trek up to Ypsilanti to take on the Eastern Michigan Eagles in a three-game set.
Kent State comes into the weekend at 35-13 overall and 19-5 in the MAC, owning a two-game lead on Ball State and Central Michigan with six MAC games remaining. Eastern Michigan is 22-24 overall and 8-16 in MAC play entering the weekend.
The Flashes have won four straight after sweeping Western Michigan over the weekend and picking up a 7-2 win over Akron at Canal Park on Tuesday. They come into the weekend hitting a MAC best .306 on the season, it is the highest team batting average for the Flashes since 2010. Five Kent State regulars are hitting over .300, led by Aidan Longwell who leads the MAC with a .415 average. Kent State leads the MAC in extra base hits with 195, including 118 doubles, a top-10 mark in the NCAA. The team has also stolen 105 bases, third most in program history and most since the team swiped 106 bases in 2001.
They will take their swings against an Eastern staff that has pitched to a 7.49 ERA in MAC play and 6.70 overall on the season. The Eagles are set to start a pair of righties in Thomas House and Luke Russo to start the series and lefty Sam Reed to toss in the finale. House and Russo both have ERAs in the fives in MAC play but House tossed six plus innings of one-run ball against both Central Michigan and Ball State.
The Kent State starting staff dealt against Western Michigan last weekend. The trio of Ben Cruikshank, Joe Whitman and Jack Kartsonas all picked up wins and allowed one earned run over 16 innings pitched. The back end of the bullpen has been excellent as well with Calvin Bickerstaff and Jordan Kolenda part of the bridge to closer Mitch Scott. The trio are all holding MAC hitters under .200 this season.
Eastern comes into the weekend hitting .297 overall and .290 in MAC play. They are among the leaders in homers, tied for third with Kent State and Ball State with 33 homers in 24 MAC games. The duo of Matt Kirk and Josh Kross have been excellent, both are hitting over .350 on the season. Kross leads the team with 13 homers and 59 RBI while Kirk isn't far behind at 10 and 43, respectfully. Five regulars are hitting over .300 against MAC pitching as well.
All three games will be streamed free of charge by Eastern Michigan, with Greg Steiner and Alex Jewell on the call. Live stats will be available all weekend as well, the links are on the baseball schedule page. The Flashes will wrap up the regular season next week at Ball State, first pitch in the series opener is set for Thursday at 3 p.m.
