VALDOSTA, Ga. – The Valdosta State baseball team returns home to host No. 16 West Florida in a key Gulf South Conference series at Billy Grant Field at Tommy Thomas Park this weekend. The three-game series is set for a doubleheader Saturday at 1 p.m., followed by a single game Sunday at 1 p.m.
Fans can access links to live stats and streaming of the game on vstateblazers.com on the baseball schedule page.
VSU (13-10, 4-4 GSC) returns home after a disappointing 8-1 loss at Albany State earlier this week. In the game, VSU stranded 12 base runners and were unable to come up with timely hitting in the loss. ASU scored its first four runs over the first three innings with two outs.
The Blazers are hitting .287 for the season through 23 games on 217 of 756, while recording 123 runs with 41 doubles, two triples, four home runs and 105 RBI. The team is slugging .362, while reaching base at a .380 clip with 87 walks and 30 hit batsmen. The Blazers are 41 of 54 in stolen bases. VSU has a .971 fielding percentage with 24 errors on the year. Conversely, the opposition is hitting .219, scoring 87 runs with 159 hits, 24 doubles, two triples, seven home runs and 72 RBI.
From the dish, junior
Logan Stephens leads the team with a .407 average on 22 of 54 with 11 runs scored, three doubles and seven RBI. Senior
DJ King leads the team with 33 hits and 20 runs scored, along with five doubles and 12 RBI for a .371 average. Senior
Josh Broughton is third in average at a .323 clip on 30 of 93 with 18 runs scored, a team-high nine doubles, one triple, one home run and 13 RBI. Senior
Mack Hathcock is 9 of 10 in stolen bases and junior
Jowenrick Daantji is 10 of 11 in stolen bases.
On the bump, VSU has a 3.42 ERA in 197.1 innings of work with one complete game, two shutouts and six saves. The Blazers have allowed 159 hits, 87 runs – 75 earned, walked 105 and fanned 254 as teams are hitting .219 against it. Reigning GSC and NCBWA South Region Pitcher of the Week, junior
Jonathan Gettys, is 2-2 with a 2.45 ERA to lead the team among starters. Gettys has pitched 29.1 innings, allowing 22 hits, 12 runs – eight earned, walked 18 and fanned 46. Teams are hitting .202 against him. Junior
Tristan Cone is 2-0 with a 2.63 ERA in 27.1 innings, while junior
Cooper Cain leads the team in innings pitched (30.2) and strikeouts (48) as teams are hitting just .179 against him.
Nationally speaking, VSU ranks 35
thin doubles with 41, while ranking 20
thin ERA (3.38), 34
thin fielding percentage (.971), 2th in hit batsmen (30), 31
stin hits (217) and seventh in hits allowed per nine innings (7.25). VSU leads the nation in sacrifice bunts (25), while ranking eighth in strikeouts per nine innings (11.6), 18
thin stolen bases (41) and 48
thin strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.42). Broughton is 14
thnationally in doubles with nine, while Hathcock leads the league and is 12
thnationally in hit by pitch (9). King leads the league in hits and is 30
thnationally (33). Daantji is 36
thnationally and fourth in the league in stolen bases (10). Cain is 11
thin strikeouts (48) and Gettys is 14
th(46).
UWF has been on fire after a slow start. The Argos opened the season 1-4, but have gone 13-4 since for a 15-8 record and are 8-1 in GSC play to lead the league. UWF is coming off a split with No. 4 North Georgia on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Nighthawks won the opener 8-4, while UWF won the second game 7-3. The Argos took two of three from Embry-Riddle at home last weekend as VSU also played ERAU to open the season, sweeping the Eagles.
The Argos lead the GSC in runs scored with 158. West Florida is second in the conference in team batting average (.305). The team is second in ERA (3.26) and second in fielding percentage (.972). UWF is the only team in the conference to be in the top three in batting average, ERA, and fielding percentage currently. Matt Sullivan and Robert Lopez tied for second in the conference in doubles with eight. Mike Farnell is tied for third with seven. Trevor Payne is tied for sixth with 21 RBIs. Sullivan and Matthew Jones are second in the conference in runs scored (24). Tony Kucera ranks fourth in the conference with a 1.71 ERA. Andrew Vaccacio is fifth with a 1.99 ERA. Kucera is second in the conference with four saves. Josh Pahlad has moved into second in the GSC with three saves.
Following the series, VSU heads to Tampa for a midweek game next week and then it's off to Alabama Huntsville for a three-game series next weekend.
