The Bulls are coming off of a strong offensive performance, beat the Red Birds 10 to 5 and belting out 13 hits on the day. The offense could be heating up at the right time, which is not good news for Lafayette who comes into the weekend after dropping their last game to North Dakota State.
Lafayette is led by junior infielder Kevin Casey (6-1 180-pounds) who is batting .412 with 1 home run and has 7 RBIs on the year. Junior outfielder Andrew Ruck (6-0 195-pounds) is batting .308 with 4 RBIs. Junior 3B/1B Scott Kelleher (6-4 205-pounds) is batting .263 with one home run and 5 RBIs. Senior outfielder Bobby Fargnoli (6-2 200-pounds) is batting .234 with 7 RBIs. Lafayette has a balanced lineup with run production up and down the order. While they do not have a batter with big home run numbers, all of them have the potential and are great at driving in runs.
Lafayette has a strong pitching staff that will be on display this weekend. Junior RHP Derek Gussaroff (6-2 175-pounds) is 2-2 on the year (1.59 ERA) while working 17 innings, allowing 8 hits, 5 runs, walking 8 and has struck out 16 batters. Sophomore LHP Connor Ortolf (6-1 175-pounds) has worked 13.2 innings, allowing 12 hits, 2 walks, and has struck out 8 (0-0 on the season). Senior RHP Jeff Snell has appeared in 7 games, 0-1 with 3 saves and has allowed 9 hits in 7 innings, including 3 walks and 3 strike outs. Senior LHP Sean McGrath (5-10 195-pounds) has appeared in 8 games, working 10.2 innings, allowing 7 hits, 12 walks, and has struck out 19 batters.
The Bulls will have a battle in this series, but should be able to take at least two games in this one. The USF starting pitching has been very strong and the bullpen is closing people down late in games. If they can continue to get runners on base and get those timely hits, they should continue to rack up the wins.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment