No. 6 Clemson(45-14) plays the Morehead State Eagles(37-24) Friday at 6:00 p.m. in the NCAA Baseball Tournament/Clemson regional at Doug Kingsmore Stadium.
Clemson is the No. 1 seed, Morehead State, No. 4 , St. John’s, No. 3 and Vanderbilt, No. 2. Morehead State got an at-large NCAA bid when they beat No. 19 Tennessee Tech(46-7) to win the Ohio Valley Conference(OVC) Championship.
So who is Morehead State?
Morehead State is coached by Mike McGuire, who has some South Carolina ties. He has been the head coach at Morehead since 2013 but had prior stops at Winthrop(1997-2002), Lander(2003-05) and played at South Carolina from 1991-92. Morehead finished third behind Southeast Missouri and first place Tennessee Tech in the conference regular season standings. In the OVC Tournament, Morehead was able to limit Tech, the nation’s number one ranked scoring team(10.5 runs per game) to nine runs in two games and beat them 11-6 and 4-3 to win the championship.
Key Stats
The Eagles are second in the nation with 8.5 runs and fourth in batting average at .317 per game. They are also fourth in total home runs with 83 which is notable, because Clemson is second and Tech is first with 94 and 128, respectively.
Players to watch
First baseman Trevor Snyder leads the team with 18 home runs(12th nationally).
Braxton Morris has a team leading .374 batting average and 59 RBIs.
Reid Leonard is one of five finalists for the Brooks Wallace Award, an award given to the nation’s top shortstop. He is the only mid-major player on the list.
Niko Hulsizer, an outfielder, was named the OVC Tournament MVP after hitting .375 with nine RBIs and three homers. Can he continue his hot streak?
Dalton Stambaugh, a lefty, gets the pitching call on Friday after holding the powerful Tech batters to three hits and one run in 4.2 innings in the final game of the OVC tournament. He is 7-3 on the season and has allowed 15 home runs in 15 starts.