Citadel opens SoCon baseball vs. defending champ Samford

Packing a three-game win streak, The Citadel jumps into the Southern Conference baseball season this weekend against defending tournament champion Samford at Riley Park.

Game times are set for 6 p.m. today, 3:30 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday.

The Citadel (8-5) has won three straight despite the absence of sophomore first baseman Bo Thompson, who has missed the last three games with an ankle injury. He has been rehabbing and traveled with the team for Wednesday’s 3-1 win at Winthrop, but remains day-to-day.

Junior Calvin Orth has been filling in at first base and was 2 of 4 with a double and RBI at Winthrop.

The Citadel is batting .300 as a team, second in the SoCon, and averaging 6.1 runs per game. Tyler Griffin is batting .392 with four home runs and 16 RBIs; Drew DeKerlegand is at .390; and catcher Joe Jackson is hitting .382 with 16 RBIs.

Coach Fred Jordan plans to stick with his weekend rotation of Austin Pritcher (2-0, 0.00 ERA), James Reeves 91-1, 5.68) and Austin Mason (1-0, 2.79).

Samford has won four straight to improve to 9-5 heading into SoCon play. Samford is batting .292 as a team.

It leads the SoCon with 100 runs and 15 homers. Slugger Phillip Evrin already has six homers to go with his .327 average and 13 RBI, and two-way star C.K Irby is at .396 at the plate, and is 2-1 with a 4.50 ERA on the mound.