Fresh off a series win over UT-Southern over the weekend in the opening round of the Mid-South Conference baseball tournament, the University of Pikeville is preparing for this week's action in Bowling Green.
Play resumes on Thursday, with the Bears playing the first of three games at Bowling Green Ballpark.
Pikeville (23-25), the six-seed, will meet top-seeded Cumberlands at 1 p.m. Eastern Time. The Patriots will roll into Bowling Green with a record of 42-6 and ranked No. 7 in the most recent NAIA Coaches Poll.
Over the weekend, the hot-hitting Bears eliminated UT-Southern by taking two in the three-game series. UPIKE beat the Firehawks 13-5 on Saturday. Needing to win one more on Sunday, the Bears dropped the first game 6-5 before winning the finale 11-10 on a seventh-inning solo home run by catcher Sammy Torres.
The Bears posted 35 hits in the weekend series, with the top of the order providing much of the firepower.
First baseman Tyler Maynard, a junior from Louisa, finished the weekend 8-of-15 from the plate with two doubles and two home runs, driving in eight and scoring seven times to lead the Bears past the Firehawks.
The rest of the lineup was equally hot. Leadoff hitter Ryan Sartin had six hits, scored six times and added a pair of RBIs. Shortstop Kyle Williams was 5-of-11 with seven runs scored and four RBIs, and Noah Brooks finished 5-of-11 with five RBI and two runs scored on the weekend.
Good pitching performances helped the Bears in all three games, with freshman Richtter Castillo factoring into both wins.
The Venezuelan product pitched 3-1/3 innings on Saturday, striking out five and walking two to earn the save. He bounced back on Sunday with four innings of relief in which he recorded eight strikeouts while allowing only two hits and no runs to pick up the win.
The Bears played the Patriots in the final series of the weekend. Cumberlands pulled out wins by scores of 13-6, 7-1 and 5-2 on April 20-21 in Williamsburg.
With a win on Thursday, the Bears would advance to play in the 4:30 game on Friday afternoon. There, they would play the team that loses Thursday's nightcap between No. 3 Freed-Hardeman and No. 4 Thomas More.
A loss would pit them against the loser of the No. 2 Cumberland (Tenn.) game against No. 5 Georgetown on Friday at 1 p.m. in an elimination game.
The tournament will conclude on Sunday afternoon.
--UPIKE--
