Final SoCon series critical for Bulldogs

Theoretically, The Citadel baseball team can finish anywhere from tied for second place to eighth in the Southern Conference regular season standings.

Realistically, the Bulldogs are fighting to stay out of a SoCon Tournament play-in game as they wrap up the regular-season play in the league against Western Carolina this weekend at Riley Park.

At 12-12 in the SoCon, the Bulldogs are in sixth place, just ahead of Appalachian State and Western Carolina, tied for seventh at 10-11. The Nos. 7, 8, 9 and 10 teams must play single-elimination play-in games when the SoCon Tournament starts May 20 at Riley Park.

The Citadel's bats have started to heat up over the last week, as the Bulldogs have scored 44 runs in their last four games, including a 14-7 win at Winthrop on Wednesday night. That's their best four-game output since early March, when they scored 45 runs in a four-game stretch that ended with a 13-1 win over College of Charleston.

Sophomore catcher Richard Jones is among the Bulldogs who are heating up. He was 4 of 6 with a home run and three runs batted-in against Winthrop, and in the last four games is 11 of 17 with four homers and 11 RBIs. For the season, Jones is hitting .288 with 10 homers and 41 RBI.

The Bulldogs' weekend pitching rotation is Matt Crim (5-5, 4.52 ERA), Wes Wrenn (5-5, 4.89) and Asher Wojciechowski (4-0, 4.43). Western Carolina will counter with Mike Tavernier (3-3, 4.14) on Friday, a pitcher to be determined on Saturday and Corey Martin (2-1, 7.11) on Sunday.

Barrett Shaft is batting .368 with five homers and 40 RBIs for Western, and Blake Murphy is at .348 with 15 homers and 54 RBIs.

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