Tribe to Close Out Home Slate with Series Against Northeastern

05/07/08 10:20AM

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. - The William and Mary baseball team will close out its regular-season home slate when it hosts Northeastern for a three-game conference series at Plumeri Park this week. Thursday and Friday’s games are scheduled for 7 p.m., while the series finale will be on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. Saturday’s contest will mark the final home game for seven Tribe seniors: Sean Grieve, Aaron Hurwitz, Paul Juliano, Pat Kantakevich, Greg Maliniak, Tim Park and Pete Vernon.

The Tribe enters the NU series having won 18 of its last 21 games and owns a 34-13 record overall. With just four more wins, the College can break the program’s single-season record. Additionally, W&M is 25-4 in home games this season and is currently third in the Colonial Athletic Association standings with a 15-8 conference mark.

W&M boasts an 11-1 record in conference home games this season and is hitting .355 (142-for-400) in those contests. Individually, junior Mike Sheridan has posted a .467 batting average in league games at Plumeri Park.

In its last outing, the Tribe won both games of a doubleheader against Longwood last weekend. Junior Ben Guez had an outstanding afternoon against the Lancers and went 8-for-10 with two home runs, six runs scored and three RBI. Senior Greg Maliniak extended his hitting streak to 12 games and went 4-for-7 with a home run. Senior RHP Pat Kantakevich earned his ninth save of the season and equaled a single-season record. In doing so, he also equaled the program’s career record (11) that was established by Bill Bray (2002-04).

After scoring 27 runs in the doubleheader against Longwood, the Tribe is averaging nearly 15 runs per game with a .425 team batting (85-for-200) average during its last five contests.

One of the most productive offensive teams in the nation, W&M entered the week leading the nation in batting average (.352), while it ranked second in doubles (135), fourth in slugging percentage (.569), seventh in hits (575), ninth in runs scored (420), and 25th in home runs (62) and stolen bases (86). Defensively, the Tribe was ninth in double plays turned with 52.

Individually, Sheridan entered the week as the nation’s leader in hits (86), while he ranked second in RBI (68), third in runs scored (70) and total bases (152), fourth in doubles (22) and batting average (.448), seventh in toughest to strike out and eighth in slugging percentage (.792). Senior Tim Park also ranked among the nation’s top 20 in batting average (.440), hits (80), doubles (21) and slugging percentage (.742), while Guez ranked among the top 20 in runs scored (65) and hits (78).

Currently on a three-game winning streak, Northeastern enters this weekend’s series with a 20-22-1 record overall and a 9-14-1 mark in conference play. Mike Tamsin leads the team with a .377 batting average, while Frank Pesanello has 16 home runs. Mike Lyon is also having an impressive season, hitting .357 with 12 home runs and 39 RBI.

Last season, the Tribe won its series against Northeastern by taking two of three games at Plumeri Park.