Games 51-53 • at FIU • Miami, Fla.
at FIU (24-20, 9-12 SBC) - Friday, May 13, 6 p.m.
Sr. RHP Andy Ferguson (5-3, 3.76 ERA) vs. Jr. LHP Phil Haig (7-3, 3.59 ERA)
at FIU (24-20, 9-12 SBC) - Saturday, May 14, p.m.
Sr. RHP Brad Allen (2-4, 5.58 ERA) vs. Jr. LHP R.J. Fondon (4-4, 3.11 ERA)
at FIU (24-20, 9-12 SBC) - Sunday, May 15, 11 p.m.
Jr. RHP Jacob Lee (5-4, 2.55 ERA) vs. Jr. RHP Kyle Fitzpatrick (7-1, 2.52 ERA)
GAME TIME: The Red Wolves saved their longest road trip of the season for last as ASU travels to Miami, Fla. for a meeting with FIU this weekend. This will be the last regular season road trip for A-State who returns home for a three-game set against UALR to close out the regular season next week.
THE OPPONENT: FIU currently sits in second-place in the Sun Belt Conference rankings, one game out of first behind Troy and are riding a 13-game winning streak. The Golden Panthers own a 33-16 record including a 16-8 SBC mark. FIU's last league loss came on April, 9 at Troy where the Trojans took a 9-5 win over the Golden Panthers. As a team, FIU is batting .314, own a team ERA of 3.51 and lead the conference in all-games in both team batting and team pitching.
FIU has six regular starters batting over .300 led by reigning Sun Belt Player of the Week, junior outfielder, Pablo Bermudez at .386. Bermudez leads FIU with 51 runs scored and 16 stolen bases while ranking second with 71 hits and third with 31 RBI. Junior infielder Garrett Wittles ranks second for the Golden Panthers with a .357 batting average and leads the team with74 hits and 15 doubles. He ranks second on the team with 36 RBI and third with 38 runs scored. Jeremy Patton (.332), Yoandy Barrosa (.331), Jose Behar (.329) and T.J. Shantz (.306) round out the Golden Panthers that are batting over the .300 mark.
FIU has a veteran pitching staff starting three juniors this weekend against the Red Wolves. ASU first faces left-hander Phil Haig who leads the team with 57 strikeouts and is holding opposing batters to .242 batting averages. Haig has pitched a team-high 72.2 innings and owns a 7-3 record with a 3.59 ERA. Left-hander R.J. Fondon draws the start against A-State on Saturday. Fondon owns a 3.11 ERA with a 4-4 record in 72.1 innings pitched. He has 44 strikeouts and is holding opponents to .260. Right-hander Kyle Fitzpatrick draws the start Sunday with a 2.52 ERA and a 7-1 record. Fitzpatrick is holding opponents to a .232 average with 45 strikeouts. He has given up only 15 earned runs in 53.2 innings pitched.
THE SERIES: ASU is 19-23 all-time against FIU. Last year, ASU won two-out-of-three from the Golden Panthers at Tomlinson Stadium and Kell Field.
ROAD WARRIORS: ASU are in the midst of two long road trips traveling last week to South Alabama and this week to FIU before returning home to host UALR for their final series of the season at Tomlinson Stadium and Kell Field.
MILHOUSE VS. OLE MISS: In his first start of the season, sophomore Brandon Milhouse went 4-5 with two RBI and a run scored. On the year, Milhouse has a .700 batting average in 10 appearances. He has gone 7-10 at the plate with two doubles and three RBI.
REACHING BASE: ASU has two players that have big reached base streaks led by senior first baseman Jordan Castaldo who has reached base in 17 consecutive games. Todd Baumgartner has reached base in 13-straight contests and had the longest reached base streak of the year at 23 earlier this season.
TRENDING WITH THE RED WOLVES: As the season enters its final two weekends, the Red Wolves have posted some interesting trends. The Red Wolves are 20-5 when leading after seven innings and 18-3 when leading after eight. ASU is 13-8 when holding opponents to 3-5 runs and 8-6 when scoring 6-9 runs. ASU is 13-8 when scoring first and 9-20 when opponents score first. The Red Wolves are also 5-16 when committing 2+ errors and 11-6 when perfect in the field.
FERGUSON NAMED SBC PITCHER OF THE WEEK: Arkansas State senior right-hander Andy Ferguson was named the Sun Belt Conference Pitcher of the Week announced the league office on Monday.
Ferguson turned in the most dominant performance of his career when the struck out a league-high 14 batters against Middle Tennessee on Friday. It was the first time this season for Ferguson to pitch all nine innings for the Red Wolves as he improved his overall record to 5-2 taking the complete game win.
As the usual Friday night starter, Ferguson is holding opposing batters to a team-low .220 batting average against usual starters. Ferguson owns a 3.57 ERA and 56 strikeouts on the season in 10 appearances on the hill.
MTSU SWEEP: ASU swept its first series of the season picking up wins over MTSU 6-5, 7-6 and 11-4 this past weekend at Tomlinson Stadium and Kell Field. The win pushed ASU up to sixth in the Sun Belt Conference Rankings.
BAUMGARTNER SETS RECORDS: ASU senior outfielder Todd Baumgartner leads ASU and the Sun Belt Conference with 77 hits which moved Baumgartner into the top spot on the all-time career hitting list with 263 career hits. Baumgartner also has set school career marks in doubles (51) and total bases (383).
ANOTHER SERIES WIN: ASU picked up its second SBC series win of the campaign when it took two out of three from the visiting Owls of FAU. The wins put ASU back into contention for the Sun Belt Conference tournament, tied for seventh in the league with MTSU.
CASTALDO BIG WEEK: Castaldo's bat came alive a few weeks ago when the senior first baseman went 7-16 with three home runs and six RBI in four starts. Castaldo's three home runs lifted his season total to five on the year with 27 RBI. Castaldo's strongest performance of the week came at SEMO when he went 3-4 with five RBI and two home runs with two runs scored.
MEMPHIS SWEEP: ASU swept its midweek series against Memphis by scores of 9-8 at FedEx Field and 5-4 in Jonesboro. In the series, Smith, Uxa, Faulkner and Emery each recorded three hits while Faulkner led the squad with three RBI.
SBC SERIES WIN: ASU picked up two wins over Louisiana-Monroe this past weekend to pick up its first Sun Belt Conference series win of the season with wins of 13-2 on Friday and 13-3 on Sunday. The wins improved the Red Wolves
HOME RUN OUTPUT: Against ULM the Red Wolves hit six home runs over the weekend with Baumgartner and Uxa each hitting two and Castaldo and Smith each adding one. The six home runs was the same total that the Red Wolves had hit on the season entering the weekend. So, in one weekend, ASU doubled its output for home runs on the campaign.
HITTING THEIR STRIDE: During their seven game losing streak, the Red Wolves posted 19 runs scored over that period. During their three-game set at ULM ASU posted 33 runs scored. The Red Wolves also had its most productive hitting weekend of the series as they posted 43 hits during its weekend against the Warhawks. Their next most-productive weekend was when they put up 42 hits against Louisiana-Lafayette.
FAULKNER NAMED POW: Arkansas State sophomore Michael Falkner was named the Sun Belt Conference Baseball Player of the Week for the competition week of March 20-27 announced the league office Monday.
Faulkner went 11-17 from the plate to lead ASU with a .647 batting average and a.882 slugging percentage. He also scored six runs and drove in seven RBI while going 3-3 on stolen base attempts as he helped ASU to a 2-2 record on the week.
Faulkner was perfect at the plate in the first half of ASU's twin bill against Louisiana-Lafayette on Sunday going 4-4 from the plate with three RBI and three runs scored. The week also saw Faulkner's return to the ASU defense after a shoulder injury kept him in a strictly offensive role for the Red Wolves for the past few weeks.
ASU continues action on Tuesday when they travel to Edwardsville, Ill. for a two-game midweek series against SIU Edwardsville. First pitch on Tuesday against the Cougars is set for 6 p.m.
BAUMGARTNER STREAK: Senior outfielder Todd Baumgartner team-high 14-game hitting streak was snapped at SIU-Edwardsville this past week in front of his home town crowd. Baumgartner's streak was the third longest on the team this season.
FAULKNER'S TRIPLE DOUBLES: Sophomore outfielder/DH Michael Faulkner picked up his first three doubles of the season legging out a trio of extra-base hits against Lyon College in midweek action. During that game Faulkner also recorded two RBI and two runs scored while also stealing a base.
BAUMGARTNER INSIDE THE PARK: Senior outfielder Todd Baumgartner recorded a rare feat legging out an inside the park home run against Lyon College. It was Baumgartner's second home run of the season. During that contest Baumgartner went 2-4 from the plate with four RBI and two runs scored.
CASTALDO STREAK: Senior first baseman Jordan Castaldo's hitting streak came to an end against Austin Peay but not before he extended it to 24-games which puts him alone in second-place on the all-time leader board behind Kevin Tate who had the longest hitting streak in school history with a 28-game streak in 1991.
BAUMGARTNER GOES 5-5: Senior outfielder Todd Baumgartner went 5-5 against Austin Peay in Friday night's action including picking up two doubles, four runs scored and an RBI.
SEASON SWEEP: With its 5-1 win over Murray State a couple of weeks ago, the Red Wolves completed a season-sweep of the Thoroughbreds. Earlier this season ASU picked up an 8-4 win at Tomlinson Stadium over Murray earlier this season.
LEE PRESEASON SBC PITCHER OF THE YEAR: Arkansas State junior starting pitcher Jacob Lee was named the Sun Belt Conference Preseason Pitcher of the Year announced the league last week. Lee also earned a Preseason All-Conference nod.
Lee is the top returning pitcher for the Red Wolves from last season whose pitching staff ranked third in the Sun Belt Conference. Lee had a team-best 3.80 ERA and worked to a 8-3 record including 92.1 innings pitched. Lee struck out a team-best 83 batters and held opponents to a .246 batting average. He owned a 6-2 record in league play and helped the Red Wolves to a 12-2 victory against Troy in the 2010 Sun Belt Conference tournament for which he earned all-tournament honors.
BAUMGARTNER EARNS ALL-CONFERENCE NOD: Senior outfielder Todd Baumgartner was named to the Sun Belt Conference preseason all-conference team. Baumgartner has one of the top returning bats for the Red Wolves and was a 2010 All-Sun Belt Conference selection. Last season, Baumgartner ranked second on the team with 42 RBI and had a .336 batting average. He also had 74 hits, 49 runs scored and 10 stolen bases. In the field, he was nearly perfect committing just one error in 112 chances for a .991 fielding percentage.
BASEBALL AMERICA ALL-SBC PRESEASON: Sophomore outfielder and junior RHP Jacob Lee earned preseason all-SBC honors by Baseball America. The Red Wolves were tabbed to finish sixth in the standings while Faulkner was called the best leadoff hitter in the league by Baseball America and Lee was tabbed as the second best pro prospect in the conference.
