FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern University baseball team will travel to Saint Augustine, Fla. this weekend to play a three-game series against the Flagler College Saints, beginning on Friday night at 6:00 p.m. and concluding with a doubleheader on Saturday at 12:00 p.m.
 
The Sharks will look to carry their momentum into the series and continue their winning ways on the road, as they sport a 3-1 record away from the NSU Baseball Complex. Head coach Greg Brown will turn to his ace, Alex Mateo, to set the tone on Friday night against a Flagler team that is suspect at the plate, hitting under .300 with a team average of .291. Mateo was named the Sunshine State Conference Pitcher of the Week this past week after striking out 10 Tuskegee hitters and taking a no-hitter deep into the seventh inning. Michael Hernandez and Brandon Gomez are prepared to provide the pop in the middle of the Sharks' order and continue their hot streaks, as they are both hitting over .600 in their last five games.
 
Potential Pitching Matchups
 
Friday
NSU: Alex Mateo – 1-1, 3 GS, 18.0 IP, 3.00 ERA, 21 K, 5 BB, 16 H
FC: Mike O'Reilly – 2-1, 3 GS, 20.0 IP, 2.70 ERA, 20 K, 5 BB, 17 H
 
Saturday – Game 1
NSU: Matt Hardy – 2-0, 2 GS, 12.0 IP, 1.50 ERA, 7 K, 6 BB, 7 H
FC: Michael Maiocco – 0-1, 3 GS, 5.1 IP, 13.50 ERA, 5 K, 5 BB, 6 H
 
Sunday – Game 2
NSU: Jonny Ortiz – 1-0, 3 GS, 16.0 IP, 3.94 ERA, 12 K, 9 BB, 17 H
FC: Dustin Dye – 1-1, 2 GS, 11.1 IP, 3.97 ERA, 11 K, 2 BB, 13 H
 
#MaxFacts

• The Sharks showcased how much potential they have this season in last weekend's sweep of Tuskegee.  The offense scored 38 runs on 44 hits, 20 of them for extra bases, and hit .415 as a team. Meanwhile, the pitching kept the Golden Tigers scoreless the entire series, allowing just 9 hits for a .111 opponent average, and struck out 32 batters. In the field, the defensive play was flawlessly, as the Sharks committed no errors, while also picking off two runners.
• Those 38 runs are the most in a single series since the Sharks took two-of-three at Palm Beach Atlantic in March of 2014, also scoring 38 times. The middle game of that series, a 20-5 win, was also the last time before Friday night's 20-0 victory over Tuskegee that the offense put up 20 in a game. The last game of that series was a 15-0 win, behind the highly unusual combined and interrupted 7-inning perfect game. In the back end of a doubleheader, Dillon Frye threw the 1-2-3 first inning, before rain prevented him from taking the mound again. The game was suspended until Sunday when Mitchell Buerosse picked up where Frye left off, tossing six more 1-2-3 innings to complete the perfect game.
• The offense had their best batting average (.415) and most doubles (12) in a series since they swept Saint Leo at the NSU Baseball Complex just one week before that PBA series in 2014. In the first game of a Saturday doubleheader, Alexander Fernandez dominated with a single-game record four doubles, along with another record-breaker of 10 for the team, in a 22-3 win. On the weekend, the Sharks notched a total of 15 doubles and a .418 team average.
• The pitching staff held opposing batters to their lowest AVG/OBP/SLG (.111/.182/.111) since Bentley hit just .101/.135/.101 against them from March 1-3, 2013. That also marked the last time an opponent was unable to get an extra-base hit against the Sharks, the only other time they threw two consecutive shutouts in the NCAA era, with a pair of 5-0 victories in the last two games of the series, and the last time the staff had an ERA of 0.00 for a full series, as both runs scored were unearned.
• Combined with the last four innings of the first game against Bentley in 2013, Sharks pitching held their opponent scoreless for 22 consecutive innings. With their three shutouts last weekend, the current crop of pitchers have not allowed a run in 26 innings, making this past weekend's feat the new longest streak in the program's NCAA history.
• The defense held a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage for an entire series for just the fourth time since the start of the 2010 season. The last time was last season in a home sweep of Delta State on February 6-7, 2015. Just as catcher Michael Hernandez picked off two Tuskegee runners last weekend, so did pitcher Alex Mateo, both of them in the same inning, on Delta State. Last weekend, however, was the only occurrence since 2010 without a passed ball.
• The last time the Sharks hit nine home runs out of the NSU Baseball Complex in one series was the last weekend 2010. NSU hit nine home runs against Lynn, four of them by esteemed Sharks equipment manager Dusty Maggs, along with three by Haven Fitzsimmonds and two by Michael Hartley.
• Michael Hernandez and Brandon Gomez paced the offense last weekend, with each of them homering three times, the first pair of teammates since Maggs and Fitzsimmonds in the 2010 Lynn series, and also recording just two outs each.
• Hernandez has been on a tear in his last five games, going 11-for-18 (.611), with six runs scored, four doubles, all four of his home runs on the season, and all 14 of his RBI. He has raised his batting average by 253 points in that span, his on-base percentage by 269 points and his slugging percentage by an incredible 651 points.
• In the first 75 games of his career – spanning his freshman and sophomore seasons, as well as his first five games of this season – Hernandez had one game in which he drove in four runs. In his current five-game boom, he has three such games. He tied his career high with 4 RBI in the third game of the Sharks' series against Alabama-Huntsville, and then broke it with 5 in the opener against Tuskegee. The next game, he was 4-for-4, with a double and two homers, and four more runs knocked in. No one in the last fifteen seasons had ever had more than one game with at least 4 RBI in the team's first 11 games of the season.
• Gomez, meanwhile, is 11-for-16 (.688) in his last five games, with eight runs scored and seven batted in, along with two doubles and three home runs. He has raised his average by 232 points and his slugging percentage by 484 points.
• Hernandez and Gomez, combined, in the last five games, are 22-for-34 (.647) with 14 runs, 21 RBI, six doubles, seven homers and five walks, for a .700 on-base percentage and 1.441 slugging percentage.
• Alex Mateo earned Sunshine State Conference Pitcher of the Week for his dominant effort last Friday night, taking a no-hitter for 6.2 innings, while tying his career-high with ten strikeouts, previously set last April 11, vs. Florida Tech. Mateo's performance was the fifth since 2001 in which a Sharks pitcher struck out double-digits and held the opponent scoreless, and the first since Sean Tighe, twice, in 2011. The first two were by Derek Antelo in 2005 and Jon Spier, who took his no-hitter the distance on March 5, 2007, vs. Dominican.
• Mateo is also just the sixth Sharks pitcher since 2001 to achieve 10 or more strikeouts twice in his career, and again, the first since Tighe, joining a group that also includes Houston Astros pitcher Mike Fiers and Yomiuri Giants pitcher Miles Mikolas, in addition to Kyle Ruwe and Derek Antelo. Of those six, only Ruwe and Mateo reached the 10-K mark in two different seasons.
• An update on the #DylanWoodsHittingStreakWatch: Woods' streak to start the season is now at 10 games, tied with Chris Villano (2001) for fifth-longest since 2001. Tied for first are Bryan Needle (2001) and Sean McFadden (2006), both at 14. San Diego Padres prospect Carlos Asuaje, who started his freshman season in 2011 with a 13-game hit streak, is third. Chris Hamper's 12-game streak in 2009 got him fourth and lasted until mid-April, because he split time between the outfield and the mound.
• The Sharks' 20-0 win over Tuskegee on Friday night is tied for the eighth-largest margin of victory in program history, and fourth since joining the NCAA. It's also the most runs scored in a shutout in 22 seasons, when they defeated Warner Southern 21-0 on May 10, 1994. The only 20+-run shutout win, and the record for most runs in a shutout, was a 22-0 victory over Edward Waters on February 17, 1991.
• Going into the weekend, Sharks opponents were out-hitting them .318 to .260 and out-slugging them .418 to .372. In the series, the offense improved the team's batting average by 46 points to .306 and slugging percentage by 114 points to .486, while the pitching decreased the opponent average by 48 points to .270 and opponent slugging by 55 points to .363. That's a 96-point swing in average and a whopping 169-point swing in slugging.

You can follow along with the Sharks all weekend on twitter at @NSU_Baseball and tune in to watch the games live right here.