Florida Atlantic University Athletics
Baseball Gears Up for Weekend Series with Campbell
4/10/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 10, 2003
No. 15 Florida Atlantic University travels to Buies Creek, NC to take on Campbell University in an Atlantic Sun conference series on Friday and Saturday. FAU, which holds a two game lead in the conference, will try to sweep the tenth ranked team in the conference to improve on its 30-8, 14-4 A-Sun record.
The Camels will face their fourth straight A-Sun opponent from the state of Florida this weekend. Against the Sunshine State, CU holds a 5-4 record against the teams picked to finish in the top four spots in the A-Sun preseason poll. Prior to playing Jacksonville, Stetson and UCF, Campbell only mustered a 3-9 record in conference play and is currently ranked tenth in the conference.
In the last two weekend series, the Camels swept Stetson and narrowly missed winning the series at UCF with a 12 inning loss in game one of the series. Other highlights during the season included a 12-9 win in 10 innings over the University of Miami in Coral Gables and a 4-1 victory over East Carolina.
Expected to start for CU (13-19, 8-13) this weekend, after a midweek rainout against Charleston Southern, is Jeff Stovall (3.53, 4-3), Josh Blades (2.88, 2-0) and Matt Kleweno (2.63, 2-4). Stovall and Kleweno are both lefties and lead the staff in games started. In Stovall's last outing he picked up an 8-5 victory over UCF when he threw a complete game and only allowed one earned run and struck out four.
The offense has four hitters with batting averages over .300. Derek Barrows leads the team with 22 RBIs after picking up four RBIs in two games last weekend at UCF.
The starting rotations for FAU will have a different look this weekend as Danny Core (1.60, 5-1), Chris Saxton (0.75, 2-1) and Travis NeSmith (3.30, 6-1) will get the start. Core, who threw 8 1/3 innings against Miami, will work on nine days rest. Saxton will make his first start of the season after working as the closer and recording five saves this season.
Florida Atlantic holds a team batting average of .320 compared to opponents .238. Jeff Fiorentino leads the squad with a .379 average and 11 home runs. FAU's record when its hits a home run this season is 20-2.
FAU holds a 16-2 series record over the Camels. The only two losses came in 2001 in Buies Creek, NC when FAU fell 9-10 and 3-7.
Game times are scheduled for 6 pm on Friday with a doubleheader to follow on Sunday at 1 pm. The Raleigh area has been inundated with rain this week and the games could be pushed back a day due to field conditions. Visit www.fausports.com for the latest updates in game changes.
