Baseball hosts Philander Smith, eyes GCAC regular season title
The Wiley College baseball team enters their final regular season series, hoping to clinch the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference regular season title when it hosts a three-game series against Philander Smith College Saturday and Sunday at Airport Park.
The doubleheader on Saturday and Sunday's game will start at noon. Admission is free. Live statistics for all three games will be available. The links can be found in the baseball schedule on WileyAthletics.com.
The Wildcats (19-16, 11-4 GCAC) enter their final series in a three-way tie for first with Dillard University and Rust College. They won two out of three against Rust College on March 25 and 26 but lost all three to Dillard. To win the title outright, Wiley College will need to beat Dillard by a game and at least match Rust.
Wiley College swept their second straight GCAC series against Tougaloo College. It outscored the Bulldogs 39-12. In last week's four games, Kai Woodard went 6-for-13, scoring seven runs and driving in four. He hit his fifth home run of the season in the second game against Tougaloo. Woodard improved his conference-leading batting average to .443 – which is 16th in the NAIA. He leads the conference and ranks 5th in the NAIA with a .573 on-base percentage. Jhan Carlos Javier also went 6-for-13, he hit three triples, drove in six runs and scored five. Luis Mares is hitting 14-for-25 in his last seven games with seven runs and five RBIs. He has improved his batting average to .398 which is second in the conference and in the top 100 in the NAIA.
Jalen Porter earned a win and a save against Tougaloo College. In three outings, he held the opponent scoreless in 7 1/3 innings and struck out nine batters. Porter earned his second Gulf Coast Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Week award. Daniel Cox picked up his fourth win and threw his third straight complete game in the opening game against Tougaloo College. Isaac Burciaga started the second game and threw 5 2/3 innings and struck out seven to pick up his conference-leading sixth win of the season.
The Panthers (10-19, 6-9 GCAC) have lost 7 of their last 10 games and seven of their last nine conference games. They won the opening game against Rust College by forfeit due to no umpires being present. Philander Smith holds a half game lead over Tougaloo College for fourth.
In the first series against Wiley College, Mitchell Brown put up seven hits, two runs and three RBIs. Juan Zorola had four hits, three RBIs and a run. The Wildcats tagged the Panthers' pitchers with 31 runs, including 22 earned. They walked 21 and only struck out 11.
For more coverage on the Wildcats visit https://wileyathletics.com/sports/bsb/index
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