Towson takes a bus ride to Dover to take on the Delaware State Hornets in a 3 P.M. game today. Delaware is known as “The First State” due to being the first state to ratify the Constitution. As far as I can tell, the main reason Delaware ratified first was as a big middle finger to Pennsylvania. And so was born the American way.
Delaware also ranks first in people driving past the state borders and thinking, “That was Delaware?!” Unless you like convenience stores and somewhat not vast expanses of some fields and a couple of houses over yonder and, oh wow, that’s a big Royal Farms, there just isn’t a lot that stands out about the Blue Hen State. Don’t look up why it’s called the Blue Hen State. It’s depressing.
Oh, shoot, I’m supposed to be writing about baseball.
Delaware State is 2-12 on the season and coming off a four game sweep at the hands, bats, and gloves of Fairleigh Dickinson. DSU is incredibly young, with only one senior on the team. They have a couple of decent starting pitchers, Lane DeLeon and Garrett Lawson, neither of whom should pitch today.
Their best bats are freshman first baseman Cole Garey, freshman third baseman Jared Gillis, and junior outfielder Darnell Maisonet. Otherwise, their line-up shouldn’t strike much fear (not that Towson should take anyone for granted).
As one would expect with so many young players, the Hornets have issues defensively, committing 27 errors on the season. Another positive match-up for Towson is on the basepaths. DSU has allowed 25 stolen bases in 30 attempts. So the game plan should be, get on base and run, Tigers, run.
Lineup
Some interesting changes to today’s lineup. Cassard and Palacios stay at the top, but Mark Grunberg moves down to fifth and the hot hitting Richard Miller moves up to third. Bo Plagge bats clean-up as DH – but he is also today’s starting pitcher, so is he really a DH? That’s an interesting semantic argument for another day.
Senior Logan Burke gets the start at first, followed by Colin Gimblet, then freshman Drew Bossi gets the start at catcher. Noah Cabrera, who started the last couple of games at third, moves over to second base. Dirk Masters left the game early on Sunday, so I’m not sure if this is just a day off in a busy week or if there is an injury. I will try to find out.
You can see what I wrote last week when I thought Plagge was starting here. There is supposedly live stats here, but I haven’s seen the link go live as of this writing. (UPDATE: This might be a better link – http://www.dsuhornets.com/liveStats/v2/baseball/index.dbml?GAME_STAT_ID=3166964&db_oem_id=12900
- Andrew Cassard, LF
- Richie Palacios, SS
- Richard Miller, 3B
- Bo Plagge, DH
- Mark Grunberg, CF
- Logan Burke, 1B
- Colin Gimblet, RF
- Drew Bossi, C
- Noah Cabrera, 2B
SP– Bo Plagge, RHP
