Mount Olive baseball ranked No. 25

By News-Argus Staff
Published in Sports on March 30, 2004 1:55 PM

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MOUNT OLIVE -- Mount Olive College is ranked No. 25 in this week's Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Division II Top 30 poll released Monday.

Mount Olive is 27-10 overall and 12-6 in the Carolinas-Virginia Athletics Conference. The Trojans dropped 10 places from last week's season-high No. 15 ranking after losing two of three games at Erskine over the weekend.

Mount Olive is hitting .325 as a team and has 45 home runs in 37 games.

The Trojans had won four consecutive CVAC series prior to their series against Erskine.

Ryan Hurba and Steve Parrish both homered last week and remain tied for second in the CVAC with 13 home runs apiece. Hurba, who ranks second in runs batted in (59) and third in batting average (.436), remains in the top three in all three triple crown categories. Parrish is third with 52 runs batted in and his .394 batting average is eighth-highest in the conference.

On the mound, Ricky Duke is 8-0 with two saves, while Brian Corbett is 4-1 with one save. Duke picked up his eighth consecutive win Sunday against Erskine.

Mount Olive is .500 against ranked opponents this season, including a two-game split against No. 4 North Florida and a win in its lone meeting with No. 6 Shippensburg. The Trojans have games scheduled later this season against No. 16 Augusta State and No. 21 Georgia College and State.

Mount Olive was scheduled to play a make-up game at Elizabeth City State this week, but the status of the game is currently undetermined. The Trojans play host to Coker this weekend in a three-game CVAC series.

Softball -- UNC Pembroke comes to town

MOUNT OLIVE -- When the Mount Olive College softball team faced UNC Pembroke at the Patriot Invitational earlier this month, the Trojans were in the midst of a five-game losing skid.

In its 12 games since the tournament, Mount Olive's stats sheet shows dramatic improvement at the plate, on the mound and in the field. The Trojans hope UNC Pembroke will see an improved Mount Olive squad since the first meeting.

Mount Olive plays its third doubleheader in four days as the Trojans play host to UNC Pembroke in non-conference NCAA II softball today at Nancy Chapman Cassell Field. Game time is 2 p.m.

Mount Olive (12-20) posted a 1-3 record over the weekend in a pair of Carolinas-Virginia Athletics Conference doubleheaders. The Trojans split a pair of games against Pfeiffer Saturday, then were swept by St.

Andrews Sunday. The loss to Pfeiffer was by one run in extra innings, while the game two loss to St. Andrews was by two runs in a game the Trojans led going into the seventh.

In its 12 games since the Patriot Invitational March 13-14, Mount Olive has hit .292 as a team. The Trojans have compiled 93 hits in their last 12 games, equaling their hits total from the first 20 games. Freshman third baseman Erin Wilson has led the hitting surge, hitting .553 (21-for-38) in the last two weeks and raising her season batting average to .371. Wilson jumped to fifth in the CVAC in hitting. Her four triples - three coming in her last four games - are tied for second in the conference. Freshman designated player Kristie Smith, last week's CVAC Player of the Week, has hit .429 over the last two weeks, raising her season average to .270. Smith has seven extra-base hits in her last 12 games, including four doubles over the weekend.

On the mound, junior Erin Case and freshman Shauna Cowdrey have combined for a 2.75 earned run average since the Patriot Invitational. Case has a 2.28 ERA in the last two weeks, while Cowdrey's ERA is 3.23 in that span. Defensively, the Trojans' fielding percentage is 22 points in their last 12 games, compared to their first 20.

UNC Pembroke (14-23) posted a 1-3 record over the weekend, getting swept by USC Spartanburg Sunday, one day after splitting a doubleheader with No. 24 Georgia College and State. Brookes Musser leads the Braves with a .366 batting average, while Danielle Peters has 29 stolen bases in 33 attempts.

UNC Pembroke defeated Mount Olive 8-0 in the previous meeting March 13.

The game was scoreless going into the bottom of the fifth before UNCP broke the game open with a pair of four-run innings.

Today's doubleheader was originally scheduled for two weeks ago today, but was rescheduled due to rain.