WINCHESTER, Va. – The No. 21/28 Shenandoah University baseball team opens up ODAC Tournament play this weekend by taking on Hampden-Sydney in the opening round.
Second-seeded Shenandoah (29-10-1) hosts the seventh-seeded Tigers (20-17) in a best of three series beginning Sunday at 2 p.m.
Game two, in which H-SC will be the home team, is set for Monday at 2. The if-necessary game three would start 30 minutes following the conclusion of game two.
This is the fourth straight year that SU has faced Hampden-Sydney in the opening round of the ODAC Tournament. In 2018 and 2019, the Hornets swept H-SC. Last year (the 2020 tournament was not held because of the pandemic), Shenandoah won games one and three to advance to the semi-finals.
The winner of the 2022 first round series advances to High Point, North Carolina for next week's four-team double-elimination finals. Those games will be played at Truist Park in High Point.
Shenandoah, which has won two of the last three ODAC titles and appeared in three straight tournament championship games, comes into the tournament second in the league in hitting with a .316 average.
Six SU hitters expected to be in the starting lineup:
Frankie Ritter,
Pearce Bucher,
Henry Delavergne,
Kyle Lisa,
Kooper Anderson, and
Gavin Horning, are hitting at least .313 with Bucher's .386 currently 11
th in the league.
Lisa, with 11 home runs and 54 RBI, is second in the league in both categories.
Hampden-Sydney is 10
th in the league in batting average, .271, and they have two starters: Johnny Oates II and Trey Karnes, hitting above .300.
On the mound, the Hornets 4.93 ERA is third in the league with H-SC fourth at 5.02.
SU starters
Jacob Faivre,
Reilly Owen, and
Calvin Pastel are a combined 16-5 this season with likely game one starter Faivre 7-1 with 47 strikeouts and a 4.50 ERA in 56 innings pitched.
Pastel, the lone senior in that group, is 6-0 with a 2.24 ERA and had the save in last Saturday's 3-2 victory over H-SC in the regular season finale.
For H-SC, Nic Graziano has made a team-high 10 starts with Justin Woodall and Justin Reynolds each starting eight games. Owen Tappy, who took the loss in that season finale, has a team-high five wins along with one save in 10 decisions.
Kieran Conway leads the Tigers out of the 'pen with a win and four saves in 14 appearances.
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