GAME TIMES CHANGED TO: 6:30 p.m. (Friday night) and 11 a.m. (beginning of Saturday's doubleheader)
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern baseball team will have its final road trip of the 2013 season, as they travel to Winter Park, Fla., to take on the Rollins Tars, this Friday and Saturday in the Plantation Ford/Weston Nissan Volvo Series of the Week.
The Sharks (25-18, 7-11 SSC) are coming off a 1-2 series against No. 6 Tampa (coincidentally, the top-ranked team in the South Region). The capper was an 11-6 NSU victory, highlighted by two grand slams from
Michael Melendez (So., Miramar, Fla.). For his efforts, Melendez was named SSC Player of the Week, and on Wednesday, was also awarded South Region Hitter of the Week by the National Collegiate Baseball Writer’s Association.
Melendez is the second Shark to receive an NCBWA award, after
Vinnie Contaldi (Sr., Jupiter, Fla.) took home a South Region Pitcher of the Week award in early March.
Rollins (22-19-1, 7-10-1 SSC) is a half-game ahead of the Sharks in the conference standings, in seventh place. The Tars haven’t played an SSC foe since April 20-21, when they won, lost and tied against Saint Leo. Since then, they defeated Assumption and Saint Anselm and, last Sunday, fell 3-2 to Bentley.
Rollins’ leading hitter, Brandon Curson, is tied for fourth in the conference in batting average at .370, a point behind NSU’s
Jose Rodriguez (Sr., Hialeah, Fla.). Curson’s teammate Brian Lattanzi is eighth in the SSC at .367. The Tars also feature one of the conference’s top pitchers, Taylor Smith, who leads all SSC hurlers in strikeouts (89, also good enough for ninth in the nation), and ranks fourth in ERA at 2.43.
The Sharks are scheduled to start their normal rotation of Contaldi,
Zachary Westcott (Jr., Weston, Fla.) and
Mitchell Buerosse (Jr., Lighthouse Point, Fla.). Contaldi will pitch in Friday’s first game, a 6:30 p.m. start. Westcott will start the opener of Saturday’s doubleheader, at 11 a.m., while Buerosse will take the ball for game two.
After the series with the Tars, the Sharks are back home for three games to wrap up the regular season, against Florida Tech. The Senior Night game is Thursday, May 9 at 6 p.m., with a doubleheader on Friday, May 10 beginning at noon.
All three games between NSU and Rollins can be heard via live audio
HERE, and live stats can be viewed
HERE. Follow the NSU baseball team on Twitter at
www.Twitter.com/NSU_Baseball.
For the latest NSU news and results, be sure to visit
www.NSUSharks.com. To have results sent directly to your cell phone via text message, sign up for SMS text message delivery by
clicking here. For the latest news, be sure to sign up for the Shark Alert E-newsletter by
clicking here.
