Baseball | March 18, 2019

PHILADELPHIA – The La Salle University baseball team will visit Delaware to take on the Blue Hens Tuesday before welcoming the Fairleigh Dickinson Knights to Hank DeVincent Field on Wednesday. Both games have first pitch set for 3 p.m.
 
SUMMING UP THE LAST WEEK

• La Salle went 3-2 last week with wins over Saint Peter's, Delaware State and Villanova.
• The Explorers posted 11 hits en route to a 14-4 home win over Saint Peter's on Tuesday before holding off Delaware State on the road on Wednesday, 7-4.
• On Friday, La Salle led Villanova 5-1 heading to the bottom of the sixth, but the Wildcats scored seven runs late to snag the win on their home field, 8-6. Senior Kevin McGowan drew three walks, doubled and scored a run for the Explorers.
• La Salle bounced back on Saturday with an 8-7 win over Villanova at Hank DeVincent Field behind 15 hits from the offense. Five Explorers had multi-hit games led by McGowan (4-for-5, R, RBI), junior Ryan Guckin (3-for-4, 2 R, RBI) and senior Peyton Sorrels (3-for-5, 2 R).
• Villanova shut down La Salle in the series finale on Sunday, 1-0, despite junior Jackson Ray allowing only one run over 6.1 innings on the mound.

STAT STUFFERS

• Senior right-handed pitcher Connor Hinchliffe recorded two saves last week and now is tied for the NCAA lead with seven saves on the season.
• McGowan hit .556 over the five games last week with six runs, five RBIs and five doubles. He already has eight multi-hit games this year.
• Guckin has been just as efficient at the plate, batting .444 over his last five games, similarly with eight multi-hit performances early on this season.
• Meanwhile, senior Ben Faso is second in the Atlantic 10 with 23 RBIs, while the La Salle pitching staff leads the conference in strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.87), walks allowed per nine innings (3.08) and shutouts (2).

SCOUTING DELAWARE

• The Blue Hens sit at 4-14 overall but have a winning record at home (4-3).
• Delaware has won three in a row, but all three of those wins came against NCAA Division II opponents (Goldey-Beacom and West Chester). The Blue Hens' only Division I win came against Fairfield, 7-4, on March 10.
• Jordan Hutchins leads the team with a .297 batting average, two home runs and 16 RBIs. Zack Miller is batting .283, while Erik Bowren leads the squad with 12 runs scored.
• On the mound, Delaware has a team ERA of 6.56 and a WHIP of 1.77. Opponents are batting .287 against the Blue Hens.

SCOUTING FAIRLEIGH DICKINSON

• After starting the year 2-0-1, the Knights have fallen off and are currently on an 11-game losing streak.
• Fairleigh Dickinson enters the week 2-11-1 overall and has yet to win on the road (0-7). The Knights, who were swept in four games by Penn over the weekend, will host Lehigh on Tuesday before playing the Explorers.
• Mike Veit and Nate Brodsky anchor the FDU offense. Veit is tops on the team in batting (.325) and on-base percentage (.440), while Brodsky leads the squad with 10 runs and eight RBIs to go with a .321 average.
• The Knights have a team ERA of 7.81 and a 2.13 WHIP. Opponents are hitting .328 against them.