COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – The Tennessee Tech baseball team looks
to continue its strong start to the season with an exciting week on
theschedule. The Golden Eagles (10-4) will travel to Knoxville,
Tenn. to faceSoutheastern Conference foe Tennessee (8-8), before
returning to Cookeville toopen Ohio Valley Conference play against
Southeast Missouri (10-6).
Tech’s hot start can be partially attributed to its
offense.The Golden Eagles are hitting .308 as a team this season,
and six differentTech players are batting over .300. But the Tech
pitching staff is getting thejob done as well, allowing opponents
to hit just .258, while lefty AdamLiberatore leads the conference
with a perferct 0.00 ERA opponents battingaverage of .119.
Tech took a 9-7 victory over the Volunteers a in Cookevillea season
ago, which marked only the second time in 26 years a Tech squad
beatTennessee. OVC teams are 3-4 against SEC teams this season.
“I hope our guys play the same way against Tennessee as
theydo Saturday and Sunday, and the same way they played against
Valpo last week,”head coach Matt Bragga said. “Every
game is important, and needs to be playedhard.”
The Volunteers are led by sophomore catcher Blake Forsythe,who is
batting .407 with nine home runs and 26 RBIs on the season.
Firstbaseman Cody Hawn is leading the team with 26 RBIs.
The Golden Eagles are scheduled for a three-game seriesagainst
Southeast Missouri to open conference play on Saturday and Sunday,
witha double header slated for Saturday.
“Once conference play starts the fun really gets
going,”Bragga said. “This is what you play for,
it’s exciting.”
The Redhawks took three out of four games from Tech a yearago, and
were responsible for ending the Golden Eagles’ season,
winning anelimination game in the OVC tournament.
“We are excited about the challenge ahead of us,”
Braggasaid. “We have a good team that plays good baseball,
and we will continue to dothat.”