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CLINTON, S.C. - The Presbyterian College baseball team (19-25, 7-11 Big South) takes a break from Big South Conference play as the Blue Hose travel to Orlanda, Fla., to battle the Central Florida Knights (36-10, 13-5 Conference USA) before playing a Tuesday night game at Auburn (25-19, 10-11 SEC) at 7 p.m.. The Knights enter the weekend with the No. 13 ranking in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers' Association poll. PC will look to rebound from a narrow loss to Radford on Sunday that gave Radford the series win after the Blue Hose took the second game, 5-3.
UCF holds a 3-0 lead in the all-time series, sweeping the teams' only series in 2010. The Knights tookt the final game in a rain-shortened, six-inning contest. Kenny Bryant hit a home run in the series while Gabe Grammer went 4-for-8 with four singles. Auburn and PC will play for the first time in history on Tuesday.
UCF enters the weekend with a 36-10 overall record and a 13-5 Conference USA record. The Knights dropped two of its three games against Memphis over the weekend, snapping a seven-game winning streak. In addition to the No. 13 NCBWA ranking, UCF maintains the No. 15 spot in the Collegiate Baseball and Baseball America rankings. Travis Shrever's .349 batting average leads the team in that category while D.J. Hicks has hit 10 home runs and tallied 57 RBI.
Auburn will play an SEC series against Georgia and will take a 25-19 record into Athens, Ga. The Tigers swept Tennessee last weekend after shutting out Troy on April 24, 7-0. Ryan Tella leads the team with a .376 batting average.
PC will likely start Bud Jeter, Chandler Knox and Beau Dees opposite UCF's Ben Lively, Brian Adkins and Chris Matulis. Each PC pitcher enters the weeked with three wins on the season after Knox picked up a victory against Radford last week, allowing two earned runs in six innings of work. Jeter and Knox rank sixth in the Big South in innings pitched (67.1) while Dees checks in in ninth (66.0).
PC took the first game of a Saturday doubleheader against the Highlanders, 5-3, before a ninth-inning, three-run Radford rally in game number two gave Radford a 9-8 win. Brad Zebedis, the Big South Conference Preseason Player of the Year, hit four home runs on Saturday. The sophomore hit one home run in the first game of the doubleheader before going 4-for-4 and cranking three homers in the second game for six RBI.
Over the last five games, Brad Zebedis' explosive performance against Radford gives him a team-leading .538 batting average and eight RBI. Kenny Bryant and Nate Chong have also picked up two RBI over the last five games, while Chad Sanders has not allowed a run in his last two innings.
Kenny Bryant cranked his team-leading eighth home run on Saturday against Radford. Brad Zebedis' four homers in a doubleheader moves him to fifth and the Blue Hose come into the weekend with 28 on the year, second-most in the Big South. Bryant ranks second among all active players with 24 career home runs, while Tony Micklon leads with 27. Brad Zebedis ranks third, with 18.
PC then returns home for the final home series of 2012, taking on the Gardner-Webb Bulldogs, before playing its final four games on the road.
