Towson looks to make it two in a row with a home match-up versus the Retrievers of University of Maryland-Baltimore County. Despite the location specific name, UMBC has a solid program under head coach Bob Mumma (who is also their all-time home run record holder), winning the America East championship and making the NCAA Tournament last year. 2018, however, has been a different story.
UMBC is 2-9 on the season. They are another incredibly young team, featuring 19 freshmen and sophomores, and have struggled in all phases of the game. The Retrievers are hitting only .176 as a team, while allowing an opponents batting average nearly a hundred points higher (.271), and have committed 17 errors in 11 games. Still, it’s not a team that Towson wants to take lightly. They have scored five or more runs four times and have walked 16 times in their last three games. Of course, they have also struck out 23 times in their last two contests. So, uh, throw strikes, Tigers.
One player Towson will want to avoid is 6′ 5″, 240lb right-hander Stephen Schoch. The redshirt sophomore, who transferred from Appalachian State, has struck out 16 and allowed only two runs in 13.1 runs this season. In the 2017 Cal Ripken summer league, Schoch allowed zero runs and zero walks, striking out 33 in 26.1 innings. However, despite his size, strikeout numbers, and this tweet…
Something about just throwing a baseball as hard as i can gets me goin
— Stephen Schoch (@BIG_DONKEY47) March 10, 2018
…Schoch isn’t actually a fireballer (at least as far as I can tell), but is instead a submariner. But, either way, he isn’t someone you want to face if you’re trying to come back on UMBC. The Tigers mission will be to take the lead early and keep it there.
Lineup (Updated)
The top three is pretty much as expected. Colin Gimblet gets the call in the clean-up spot. Billy Lennox starts at second base today and I’m definitely starting to wonder if Dirk Masters has an injury. Again, I’ll reach out and see if I can get an answer to that.
Righty Dean Stramara gets today’s start, his first of the year. Stramara has pitched three plus innings each of his last two outings, so I would expect him to go three or four today and then see the bullpen. Stramara typically throws strikes – his four walks in his last appearance represent one half of his season total. Even then he was able to work around those walks and four hits, giving up one run in three and two thirds.
The game will be streaming online here.
- Andrew Cassard, LF
- Richie Palacios, SS
- Richard Miller, 3B
- Colin Gimblet, RF
- Mark Grunberg, CF
- Logan Burke, DH
- Billy Lennox, 2B
- Charlie Watters, 1B
- Trey Martinez, C
SP– Dean Stramara, RHP
