SALISBURY, N.C. --- The Tusculum Pioneers will face Lincoln Memorial this Friday afternoon at 3 p.m. in the opening round of the 2024 South Atlantic Conference Baseball Championship.
The SAC Championship Tournament will be held over the next two weekends with the opening round taking place this Friday, Saturday and Sunday at campus sites and concluding with a best-of-three series next weekend (May 10-11) at McCrary Park in Asheboro, North Carolina.
Tusculum is the No. 4 seed and will open against fifth-seeded Railsplitters in one half of the double-elimination opening round at historic Newman Park and hosted by 2024 SAC Champion Catawba College. Also playing in this half of the bracket are top-seed Catawba and No. 8 seed Lenoir-Rhyne.
Head coach Brandon Steele has the Pioneers back in the postseason as TU posted a 25-24 regular-season record including 18-12 in league action to finish in a four-way tie for third place in the final conference standings. Tusculum won eight of its 10 SAC series including all three against Catawba, LMU and Lenoir-Rhyne.
Offensively, senior first baseman Murphy Flood (Dalton, Ga.) leads the way where he is batting a sizzling .414, which is the third-best average in the league. His 75 hits are the fourth-most in the SAC and currently ranked 18th in NCAA Division II. In his 46 starts, he has recorded 11 doubles with one triple and four home runs. He leads the team with 47 RBI and his .552 slugging percentage and .479 on-base percentage are also tops on the club.
Flood, who has accounted for an All-Conference worthy season, has been on-fire especially during the month of April where he went 35-of-66 (.530) in his last 15 games. He enters the SAC postseason riding a six-game hitting streak, batting a prenominal .551 (16-of-29) during the streak including three 4-hit outings. He boasted an 18-game hitting streak.
Two-time All-SAC shortstop Ben Scartz (Tarpon Springs, Fla.) is second on the roster with his .382 average which includes 66 hits including 13 doubles, three triples, one home run and 36 RBI. He earned All-Conference second team honors this spring as he posted a 22-game on-base streak, which was snapped last weekend at Limestone.
Scartz has struck out only six times in his 202 plate appearances this year which ranks him the toughest to strikeout in the conference so far. He has struck out in one out of every 28.8 times at bat this year, which is the third-best rating in NCAA Division II. The 2023 SAC and ABCA Southeast Region Defensive Team selection leads the Pioneers with his 106 fielding assists and owns a .952 fielding percentage.
Against the three teams competing in Salisbury this weekend, Scartz boasted a .500 batting average where he went 18-of-36 while scoring nine runs in nine games.
Outfielder Zane Keener (Knoxville, Tenn.) is third on the roster with his .335 batting average and has reached base safely in 26 consecutive games which is the eighth-longest streak in program history. He leads the team with 53 runs which are seventh in the SAC. In his 47 starts, he has tallied 59 hits including a team-best 13 doubles with two triples, four home runs and 26 RBI. His team-best 32 walks are ninth in the conference and is 11-of-12 in stolen bases. He is also tops for the club with his 12 times hit by pitch (11th in SAC).
The 2022 All-SAC selection is second all-time in career hit-by-pitch (47), fifth in runs scored (161), fifth in career walks (102), ninth in career doubles (40) and ninth in total bases (296).
Second baseman Zach Wilson (Lawndale, N.C.) is fourth on the TU roster with his .326 batting average. Wilson has accounted for 47 hits with seven doubles, one triple and 10 RBI. He has 37 starts under his belt this season.
Freshman third baseman Omar Carreras (North Brunswick, N.J.) is enjoying a solid rookie campaign with the Pioneers. He is tied for fifth on the roster with his .292 batting average where he has totaled 33 hits including eight doubles and 23 RBI. His 25 walks are third-most in the team and has reached base safely in his last seven games.
Senior Will Samuelson (Charlotte, N.C.) is also batting .292 following the regular-season. His 40-hit tally including five doubles, one triple and a team-best six home runs. In his 42 appearances this year, 32 have come as TU's designated hitter. He has raised his batting average by 84 points over his last 18 games going 27-of-65 (.415) down the stretch for Samuelson.
Luis Reyes (Queens, N.Y.) has been a solid fixture in centerfield this season where he leads the team in stolen bases (15) and is second on the club with 29 walks. In his 44 games, including 42 starts, he has a .250 batting average and leads the club with eight sacrifice bunts. He has scored 32 runs and has driven in a dozen to go along with his 35 hits. He has also been solid defensively with his .986 fielding percentage which includes five outfield assists.
Freshman outfielder Jake Absher (Lenoir, N.C.) has provided some pop to the middle of the lineup where he has eight doubles, four home runs and 32 RBI. He is batting .248 with 19 runs scored and is second on the club with nine times hit by pitch.
The duo of Blaze McCauley and Avery Collins have been platooning behind the plate for the Pioneers. McCauley (Dacula, Ga.) has appeared in 32 games with 23 starts where he has totaled 16 hits with two doubles and 11 RBI. He has made only one error this season and his 609 career fielding putouts are tied for ninth-most in Tusculum history. Collins (Greeneville, Tenn.) has played in 26 games in his first TU campaign. Collins is batting .238 with five doubles, one triple and 12 RBI.
Starting weekend pitching staff has remained intact throughout most of the spring with the tri of Brady Salyards, Brice Anders and Luke Absher getting the call.
Salyards, a senior right-hander from Bakersfield, California, has gone 4-2 in his 13 starts on the mounds. He has a 6.39 earned run average with one save in his 63 1/3 innings of work. He leads the team with 62 strikeouts (7th in SAC). His best outing of the year came in his win over LMU where he pitched a two-hit shutout in his seven-inning performance with the Railsplitters.
Anders, a junior right-hander from Brevard, North Carolina, has pitched in 13 games with 12 starters where he has a 5-5 record and 43 strikeouts. He has a 4.81 ERA but has a combined 1-0 record against the three teams in Salisbury this weekend which includes a combined 3.11 ERA against Catawba, Lenoir-Rhyne and LMU. He bolted out to a 5-0 record to start the year including a Mar. 17 victory over Lenoir-Rhyne where he allowed one earned runs in his six innings of work.
Senior right-hander Luke Absher (Lenoir, N.C.) has a 7.28 ERA and a 2-5 record in his 11 starts for Tusculum. One of those wins came in the series opener with Catawba as he went six innings and allowed two runs on seven hits and posted four strikeouts.
The Tusculum bullpen is anchored by closer Seth Wills (Vale, N.C.) who leads the team with his 3.71 ERA. He has a 5-3 record with a team-best five saves. The 2024 All-SAC third team choice relief pitcher has appeared in a team-most 19 appearances with two starts. Of the three teams competing this weekend in Salisbury, Willis went 2-0 and recorded a 1.13 ERA.
Senior Caid Sanders (Hendersonville, Tenn.) is second on the team with his 18 appearances out of the bullpen where he has a 2-0 record with a 4.85 ERA. Sanders has not allowed a run in his last four mound appearances with one of his victories coming against Catawba.
Junior Drew Sliwinski (Knoxville, Tenn.) wrapped up the regular-season with a 1-2 record with four saves and a 5.16 ERA. Two of those saves came in TU's victories over Catawba where he pitched 3 2/3 shutout innings.
Graduate student Jonathan Nelson (Knoxville, Tenn.) is tied for the team-lead with his 19 mound appearances where he has a 6.67 ERA and a 1-2 record in his 29 2/3 innings. His ERA was in double figures through the first 10 games, but in his last nine outings he tallied a respectable 3.91 ERA.
Jake McKenna (Palos Verdes Estates, Calif.) has a 3-0 record with a 4.02 ERA in his 10 appearances including one start, while Cole Forcellina (Norwalk, Conn.) has a 1.89 ERA in his 10 contests where he went 1-0 with one save. Luke Maicon (Wake Forest, N.C.) has been called upon 13 times where he has a 1-1 record with a 6.00 ERA.
Also contributing for Tusculum have been pitchers Corey Binion (Morehead, Ky.), Trejen Fox-Birdwell (Rockledge, Fla.), Billy Quinn (Elma, N.Y.), Mason Huffstickler (Elleboro, N.C.) and Scout Martin (Murfreesboro, Tenn.).
In their SAC Tournament history, the Pioneers have won the championship four times with the latest coming in 2016. Tusculum has won the SAC Tournament in 2005, 2008, 2012 and 2016. TU is 51-38 all-time in the SAC postseason.
The winner of the SAC Championship earns the conference's automatic berth to this month's NCAA II Southeast Regional.