COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – The Golden Eagles will take the field at Bush Stadium Tuesday night at 4:00pm to battle the Western Carolina Catamounts in Tech’s final mid-week home game of the 2010 season.
Tech will be looking to come back from a tough loss in Sunday's final game of this past weekend’s series against UT-Martin, when the Golden Eagles fell 12-9 after dominating both games in Saturday’s double header.
They will also be looking to avenge last year’s loss to the Catamounts (31-18-1 overall /13-13-1 SoCon), who notoriously do well against the Golden Eagles and have been victorious in 10 of the 11 contests between the two non-conference rivals. When the Golden Eagles visited Hennon Stadium in Cullowhee, North Carolina last year the Catamount pitching rotation – including returning rightys Jason Sullivan and Matt Benedict – held Tech to only three hits in 28 at-bats.
The Golden Eagles have not announced who will take the hill first for Tuesday night’s contest, but will need a prime pitching performance on the mound against top batters like Tyler Kirkpatrick and Ross Heffley, who lead the Catamounts batting .359 and .350 correspondingly. Western Carolina currently has nine batters averaging over .300.
At the plate, Tech’s hot hitters will look to continue their streaks in the batter’s box against Western Carolina’s rotation, which has yet to be announced. Four Golden Eagles batted over .400 this past week. Junior A.J. Kirby-Jones (pictured) is currently running with a nine-game hitting streak, which ties his longest for the season. Chad Oberacker batted .600 and slugged 1.067 for the week and is riding a five-game hitting streak.
Other players coming off of a stellar week include Casanova Donaldson who hit .500 going 9-18 on the week and Chad Hayes, who hit .444 at 8-18. Tech will look for these players to combine to work Western Carolina’s pitching staff.
Fans who cannot make it to the game can follow the live stats here.
