The Niners come off a great weekend in taking 3 of 4 from Missouri. They have a quick turnaround as the Niners travel to Chapel Hill Tuesday and return home for a 3 game series with UNC Asheville next weekend. Below is a preview of unc-ch. The Asheville preview will come later.
Schedule and Projected Starters:
Tuesday 3:00- SP’s: RHP [b]Chad Rothlin /b vs LHP [b]Kent Emanuel /b
Projected lineup:
CF Cory Tilton RH
LF Shane Brown LH
2B Corey Shaylor RH
DH Tony Montalbano LH
C Ross Steedley RH
3B Shane Basen RH
RF Justin Wilson LH
1B (Miguel Rodriguez RH, Kevin Gillespie LH, Justin Seager RH)
SS Justin Roland RH
The Niners (7-1) travel to Smurf Mountain for their first road game of the season. UNC-CH (6-1) is the only nationally ranked (21) team that is currently on the 49ers schedule. They are coming off a Sunday loss to Seton Hall but won the weekend series 2 games to 1. Last week they defeated common opponent Missouri 11-3. Their RPI last season ended up at 23.
The pitching matchup will be righty junior Chad Rothlin vs lefty freshman Kent Emanuel. Both starers have made one start on the season as Rothlin is 1-0 and Emanuel has yet to earn a decision. Emanuel got his first college start vs recent Niner opponent Missouri in the USC Tournament last weekend. Over 5 innings he gave up 2 runs on 6 hits, striking out 2 and walking 1. Rothlin was a weekend starter for the 49ers last season, is 1-0 and has not allowed a run this season. The Niners bullpen may be a little thin after playing 4 games over the weekend including a 12 inning game, but I expect most relievers to be available except for Tyler Pilkington and Brock Hudgens.
On offense the Holes are led by All-American candidate, SS Levi Micheal. He led the baby blues in almost all offensive categories last season as a sophomore. He is ranked as College Baseball Daily’s 39th best player. The other top returning player is CF Ben Bunting. The projected starters for CHP’s favorite team is below:
6 Levi Michael SS
18 Colin Moran DH
5 Jacob Stallings C
1 Tommy Coyle 2B
34 Jesse Wierzbicki 3B
19 Tom Zengel 1B
16 Seth Baldwin RF
3 Ben Bunting CF
2 Chaz Frank LF
Warren Nolan now has 2011 RPI numbers up. It’s very early so the numbers should fluctuate a good bit for the next weeks. The Niners are currently 157 and the A-10 is the 22nd rated conference. : http://warrennolan.com/baseball/2011/conference/Atlantic%2010
[u]Record[/u] [u]RPI
[/u]Coppin St. 0-5 230
Missouri 2-5 120
Chapel Hell 6-1 82
UNCA 4-3 92
TN Tech 1-6 263
Ball St. 1-5 150
Wake 3-4 64
Duke 7-1 39
Harvard 0-0 283
NC Central 0-7 276
Rhode Island 4-1 48
SC Upstate 4-4 174
Xavier 2-4 186
St. Joe 4-4 123
St. L. 2-2 77
Fordham 5-1 199
Winthrop 2-5 260
UMass 0-0 283
Richmond 3-5 180
LaSalle 3-2 210
Dallas Baptist 5-2 83
The Holes are 18th. The Holes are also 17 in Collegiate Baseball Newspaper, and 23 in Baseball America. None of our other opponents are recieving votes.
23. NORTH CAROLINA
Last Week: 2-1. Overall: 6-1, 0-0 in ACC (1-0 vs. Top 25). Weekend Series: 1-0.
UNC won the first two games of its series against Seton hall before taking its first loss of the season Sunday. Fr. 3B Colin Moran (3-for-5, 2B, HR, 2 RBI) led UNC's 13-hit attack Friday, helping So. RHP Chris Munnelly (5.2 IP, 8 H, 5 ER, 1 BB, 7 K) earn his first win of the year. Moran (2-for-4, 3 RBI) led the offense again Saturday in support of Sr. RHP Patrick Johnson (7 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K). So. RHP Michael Morin (5.1 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K) took the tough loss Sunday despite setting a career high in strikeouts.
RESULTS
Feb. 25-27: Seton Hall: W 10-5, W 7-1, L 3-1
UPCOMING
[b]March 1: Charlotte
[/b]March 2: Davidson
March 4-6: Stony Brook
We are still receiving votes in the National College Baseball writers poll. They list ORV alphabetically so we could be anywhere from 31-55 in the country.
Live audio of the game (Charlotte Web cast) can be found [url=http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/charlotte.portal#]by clicking here[/url]. Live Stats are available through the Tar Heels Web site.
Bryan made is his collegiate debut last weekend against Missouri, throwing a perfect inning of relief for the win. The right-handed pitcher got the 49ers out of a jam in the top of the ninth, as he took the mound with bases loaded, no outs and Charlotte trailing 2-1. Bryan induced three-straight ground balls resulting in force outs, giving Charlotte the opportunity to come back in the bottom frame with a 3-2 victory.
I could also argue that we had some better candidates for player of the week and they gave it to the guy who was co-player of the week with Montalbano last week.
Future Niner opponent Dallas Baptist beat 8th ranked TCU last night. They have also beaten traditional power Oklahoma State this season. I think they are our best weekend opponent of the season and they should add a nice RPI boost at the end of the year.
Schedule and Projected Starters:
Friday 4:00- SP’s: RHP [b]Andrew Smith /b vs RHP [b]Ryan Dull /b
Saturday 4:00- [font=arial]S[/font]P’s: RHP [b]Corey Roberts /b vs LHP [b]Drew Spear /b
Sunday 12:00- SP’s: RHP [b]Tyler Barnette /b vs RHP [b]Robert McIntosh /b [/font] Projected lineup:
CF Cory Tilton RH
LF Shane Brown LH
2B Corey Shaylor RH
RF Tony Montalbano LH
C Ross Steedley RH
3B Shane Basen RH
DH Justin Wilson LH
1B (Miguel Rodriguez RH, Kevin Gillespie LH, Corbin Shive RH)
SS Justin Roland RH
UNC Asheville (4-4) comes to the Hayes after being swept by Campbell last weekend and getting beaten by ETSU on Wednesday. They finished last season with an RPI of 222 and were projected as the 243rd best team in the pre season rankings. They were also projected to finish anywhere form 6th to 9th in the Big South Conference. The leading returning hitter for the Bulldogs is catcher Ian Graham. http://www.uncabulldogs.com/fls/19200/stats/Baseball/2011/TEAMCUME.HTM
