The Rider Brocs are coming down from Lawrenceville New Jersey. They play in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, which honestly, I thought was only a thing around this time of year when they seed the NCAA basketball tournament.
Rider's stadium doesn't appear to have lights around it. The last such team we played on a weekend was, I believe, Western Illinois in 2012. I said then that I didn't know what playing such a series really accomplished for anyone and I say the same thing now. It's nothing against Rider or their coaches, but it's just a different level of baseball.
Rider comes in at 3-5. They opened the season against our friends from Charlotte and were swept in a four game series. Rider then beat Lafayette in their home opener in the midweek, then beat Delware State and Delaware in Newark Delaware (man, it takes a lot to be the less prominant Newark) before falling to the Delaware Blue Hens to cap that weekend (series was a double header on Sunday and then the finale on Monday).
Last year Rider was 18-33 and 10-14 in the MAAC. They didn't play any major college teams last season.
Friday night we'll face off with Pete Soprowski, a stocky freshman pitcher from South Amboy New Jersey. This has not been a good start to the season for the young guy. He's 0-1 in 2 appearances, 1 start. He's thrown 4 1/3 innings and struck out 2 hitters and walked 6. The opposition is hitting .444 against him. 3 of the 8 hits he's allowed have gone for extra bases. This is an interesting choice to get the baseball on Friday night.
Saturday we'll see Nick Margevicius, a big junior lefty from North Royalton Ohio. Margevicius is their regular Friday night guy. I assume they pushed him to Saturday since they opened their series last weekend on Sunday. Stricklin mentioned that he recruited this guy while he was at Kent State. Margevicius looks to be pretty solid. He's 1-0 in two appearances, both starts, and has a 2.25 ERA. In 12 innings, he has 10 K's and 4 BB's. Opponents are hitting .234 against him.
On Sunday, we'll see Paul Sporano, a smallish junior from Ewing New Jersey. His numbers are closer to Soprowski's. In 2 appearances, both starts, he's 0-1 with a 14.14 ERA. He's thrown 7 innings, posted 3 strikeouts and 8 walks. Opponents are hitting .370 against him. For good measure, he hit a batter... so in his 7 innings of work, he's allowed 19 base runners.
Mike Volaski appears to be their most dangerous hitter among their regulars. We should see the senior from Oxnard California at 3B. He's hitting .318/.464/.364. He's K'd 6 times and drawn 6 walks.
Harrison McClure is their lone Georgia player, by way of Atlanta and North Atlanta High School. The junior made a stop at South Florida State College before working his way up I-95 to New Jersey. He's at .261/.292/.478. He's hit one of their team's two home runs and one of their two triples.
Rider's offense is pretty bad. I thought after last weekend that surely we wouldn't see a group as punchless as UAB the rest of the way. I may have been wrong. As a team, Rider is hitting .211/ .283/.278. They've collected 9 extra base hits in 8 games, struck out 50 times, drawn 20 walks, and hit into 5 double plays. They've scored 23 runs on the year.
The worst part about series like this is that it feels like a borderline disaster if you don't sweep it. Regardless of what we are or what we've been this year, one cannot look at this series on paper and have an expectation other than 3-0. Their Saturday guy is good, but they shouldn't be able to score enough against us to win that one and we should hit their starters Friday and Sunday and run those guys pretty quickly.
Maybe this is what we need, but here again, I don't know what it really accomplishes for us.
Pull 'em through for me. I have to miss this weekend (and next, although this weekend was a planned miss for awhile)... This should be a low stress weekend for everyone. Any updates that anyone else wants to provide from the games, I'd greatly appreciate!
Rider's stadium doesn't appear to have lights around it. The last such team we played on a weekend was, I believe, Western Illinois in 2012. I said then that I didn't know what playing such a series really accomplished for anyone and I say the same thing now. It's nothing against Rider or their coaches, but it's just a different level of baseball.
Rider comes in at 3-5. They opened the season against our friends from Charlotte and were swept in a four game series. Rider then beat Lafayette in their home opener in the midweek, then beat Delware State and Delaware in Newark Delaware (man, it takes a lot to be the less prominant Newark) before falling to the Delaware Blue Hens to cap that weekend (series was a double header on Sunday and then the finale on Monday).
Last year Rider was 18-33 and 10-14 in the MAAC. They didn't play any major college teams last season.
Friday night we'll face off with Pete Soprowski, a stocky freshman pitcher from South Amboy New Jersey. This has not been a good start to the season for the young guy. He's 0-1 in 2 appearances, 1 start. He's thrown 4 1/3 innings and struck out 2 hitters and walked 6. The opposition is hitting .444 against him. 3 of the 8 hits he's allowed have gone for extra bases. This is an interesting choice to get the baseball on Friday night.
Saturday we'll see Nick Margevicius, a big junior lefty from North Royalton Ohio. Margevicius is their regular Friday night guy. I assume they pushed him to Saturday since they opened their series last weekend on Sunday. Stricklin mentioned that he recruited this guy while he was at Kent State. Margevicius looks to be pretty solid. He's 1-0 in two appearances, both starts, and has a 2.25 ERA. In 12 innings, he has 10 K's and 4 BB's. Opponents are hitting .234 against him.
On Sunday, we'll see Paul Sporano, a smallish junior from Ewing New Jersey. His numbers are closer to Soprowski's. In 2 appearances, both starts, he's 0-1 with a 14.14 ERA. He's thrown 7 innings, posted 3 strikeouts and 8 walks. Opponents are hitting .370 against him. For good measure, he hit a batter... so in his 7 innings of work, he's allowed 19 base runners.
Mike Volaski appears to be their most dangerous hitter among their regulars. We should see the senior from Oxnard California at 3B. He's hitting .318/.464/.364. He's K'd 6 times and drawn 6 walks.
Harrison McClure is their lone Georgia player, by way of Atlanta and North Atlanta High School. The junior made a stop at South Florida State College before working his way up I-95 to New Jersey. He's at .261/.292/.478. He's hit one of their team's two home runs and one of their two triples.
Rider's offense is pretty bad. I thought after last weekend that surely we wouldn't see a group as punchless as UAB the rest of the way. I may have been wrong. As a team, Rider is hitting .211/ .283/.278. They've collected 9 extra base hits in 8 games, struck out 50 times, drawn 20 walks, and hit into 5 double plays. They've scored 23 runs on the year.
The worst part about series like this is that it feels like a borderline disaster if you don't sweep it. Regardless of what we are or what we've been this year, one cannot look at this series on paper and have an expectation other than 3-0. Their Saturday guy is good, but they shouldn't be able to score enough against us to win that one and we should hit their starters Friday and Sunday and run those guys pretty quickly.
Maybe this is what we need, but here again, I don't know what it really accomplishes for us.
Pull 'em through for me. I have to miss this weekend (and next, although this weekend was a planned miss for awhile)... This should be a low stress weekend for everyone. Any updates that anyone else wants to provide from the games, I'd greatly appreciate!
