NEW ORLEANS – Maestri Field is going to be a busy place this weekend as the University of New Orleans (2-1), will host the Allstate Sugar Bowl Baseball Classic for the second consecutive year. The Privateers will face Chicago State (0-3) on Friday, Rutgers (0-3) on Saturday, and Butler (2-1) on Sunday. Starts times are set for 6:30 p.m., 1 p.m., and 1 p.m., respectively.
HOW TO FOLLOW
Tourney Central:
https://unoprivateers.com/sports/2019/2/18/allstate_sugar_bowl_baseball_classic.aspx
Game Notes:
http://unoprivateers.com/sports/2018/2/15/baseball-game-notes.aspx?path=baseball
Live Stream ($):
http://unoprivateers.com/watch/
Live Stats:
http://sidearmstats.com/uno/baseball
Social Media
Twitter:
@Privateers_BSB
Instagram:
@Privateers_BSB
Facebook:
/PrivateersBSB
SERIES HISTORY
New Orleans has never faced Rutgers or Butler in its history. This will be the third time the Privateers and Cougars have matched up. The last meeting was on March 14, 1978 in a game UNO won 11-1.
ABOUT NEW ORLEANS
Pearce Howard was named the first Southland Conference Hitter of the Week on Tuesday. Howard went 6-for-10 at the dish with a home run and four runs batted in against Michigan State last weekend.
Salo Iza homered twice in the three-game series versus the Spartans.
Head coach
Blake Dean is just eight wins away from 100. If the Privateers get to the 10-win mark before the 13
th game of the year, Dean would be the third fastest to the reach the century mark in wins in program history.
The Privateers went 2-1 last season in the Allstate Sugar Bowl Classic with wins over Ball State, and power-five opponent, Virginia Tech.
With his two saves last weekend,
Reeves Martin brought his total to 14 which puts him in second place on the all-time saves list at UNO.
ABOUT CHICAGO STATE
The Cougars dropped all three games this past weekend against Pacific. Junior utility player Zack Stockton leads the offense for Chicago State after going 4-for-11 at the dish.
ABOUT RUTGERS
The Scarlet Knights had a rough opening weekend dropping three games at the Miami Hurricanes. Chris Brito leads the Scarlet Knight offense with a .364 batting average, a triple, and pair of RBI.
ABOUT BUTLER
The Bulldogs finished their opening weekend with a pair of wins against Rider. Butler was led by Kyle Smith who went 6-for-11 at the plate with two homers, a triple, a double, seven runs scored, and six RBI. Harrison Freed added three round-trippers to the offensive output.
PITCHING MATCH-UP
Friday vs Chicago State: LHP
Brandon Mitchell (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs TBA
Saturday vs Rutgers: RHP
Chris Turpin (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs LHP Tevin Murray (0-1, 3.86 ERA)
Sunday vs Butler: RHP
Steven Swift (0-1, 9.00 ERA) vs RHP Connor Schultz (1-0, 3.60 ERA)
Mitchell will be making his first collegiate start after going two-thirds of an inning and striking out a batter in his collegiate debut. Turpin limited Michigan State's offense to five hits over six innings of work in his Privateers debut. Swift made history by becoming the first true freshman to start on opening day.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Fans are encouraged to follow
@Privateers_BSB on Twitter,
@Privateers_BSB on Instagram, like
/PrivateersBSB on Facebook and subscribe to the
PrivateerAthletics YouTube channel.