CINCINNATI- Xavier (2-4) travels to Statesboro, Ga., for a three-game weekend series with Georgia Southern (4-4). The Musketeers enter the game fresh off of a 12-4 thrashing of UAB in their last game out.
Game times are scheduled for 6 p.m. on Friday, 2:30 p.m. on Saturday and 1:30 p.m. on Sunday at J.I. Clements Stadium. Xavier's scheduled rotation is Vinny Nittoli (Fri.), Jon Richard (Sat.) and Tyler Koors(Sun.), while Georgia Southern will put Sam Howard (Fri.), Jason Richman (Sat.) and Justin Hess (Sun.) on the mound.
Win No. 200 Xavier head coach Scott Googinsreached career victory No. 200 on Sunday in Xavier's 12-4 win at UAB. All 200 wins during his coaching tenure have come as the skipper of Xavier's baseball team. Four of Xavier's top-10 single-season win totals have come under Googins guidance.
Bruening Goes Streaking First baseman/outfielder Brian Brueningclosed out the 2012 season on a 12-game hitting streak, the longest of the season for Xavier, and has hit safely in all six of XU's games this season to extend his hitting streak to 18-straight games. He is hitting .400 with two RBIs and five runs scored in the early going this season.
UAB Series Xavier played a three-game series at UAB this past weekend, posting a 1-2 record. XU dropped the first two games (4-3 and 4-2, respectively), before winning the final game, 12-4.
Don't Wake a Sleeping Dog After sputtering through the first five games of the season, Xavier's offense exploded in a 12-4 drubbing of UAB on Sunday. The Musketeers scored 12 runs on 14 hits by nine different players. Four Musketeers registered multiple hits (Elwell, Hasenbeck, Nittoli and Rizzie), five scored two runs (Elwell, Bruening, Hasenbeck, Nittoli and Rizzie) and three posted multiple RBIs (Bruening, Nittoli and Paligraf) in the win. In all, 20 players saw the field in the victory.
Four-for-Four In each of the last four games, Xavier has held its opponents to exactly four runs. The pitching staff has posted a 3.55 ERA, allowing just 13 earned runs in that same span.
Richard A Workhorse After 6.0 IP at UAB, senior pitcher Jon Richard has thrown 275.0 IP during his Xavier career. The lefty passed Matt Raih's 272.0 IP from 1998-01 to move into seventh all-time in XU's record books and has his sights set on Bill Konecny's275.2 IP from 2004-07. Richard led the Musketeers with 87.1 IP last season. So far in 2013, Richards has pitched 12.0 innings and has allowed six earned runs.
