COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio Dominican's baseball team returns to the diamond for a four-game road series against Malone this week.
The Panthers will look to bounce back from dropping four straight contests against No. 24 Ashland on Sunday and Monday, while the Pioneers were able to win three of four from Lake Erie in their most recent GLIAC series.
Thursday's doubleheader will begin at 11 a.m., while Saturday's twinbill will begin at 1 p.m. as well.
The Panthers enter the week with a 10-10 record overall (2-6 GLIAC), while Malone comes in with a record of 14-10 (5-3 GLIAC).
ODU comes into the week seventh in the conference in hitting (.288) and is tied for fourth with nine home runs. The Panthers hit 10 home runs as a team in 2014.
Freshman Lee Sponseller (Mason, Ohio) has continued to rank amongst the conference's best in batting as he is hitting .437 this spring, which is second in the league. His four home runs rank second in the conference. Sponseller has 10 multi-hit games and five multi-RBI games as well.
Senior Kyle Tisdale (Uniontown, Ohio) has reached base in 19 of ODU's 20 games and is batting .333 with a .450 on-base percentage. He and fellow senior catcher Ronn Bidwell (Syracuse, N.Y.) have combined to throw out 10 of 14 would-be basestealers this season.
Junior Colman Fitzgerald (Centerville, Ohio) leads the team with 18 RBI and has also hit a pair of home runs.
On the mound, junior Ryan Colegate (Centerville, Ohio) ranks second in the conference in wins (3-1), and he has one of the better strikeout to walk ratios in the GLIAC as well (6:1). Opponents are batting just .170 off of him.
Freshman Tyler Magley (Baltimore, Ohio) has a 1-1 record with 11 strikeouts and just one walk on the year and senior Ryan Bidwell (Syracuse, N.Y.) has limited opponents to a .227 batting average against.
Malone is tops in the conference in runs, having scored 163 through its 24 games, and the Pioneers also lead the GLIAC with a .334 batting average as a team. They're also tops in on-base percentage (.410) and slugging percentage (.450).
Contact: Scott Miles
miless@ohiodominican.edu
