UNO Notes | UIW Notes
NEW ORLEANS, La. – The New Orleans Privateers baseball team (8-18, 1-8 Southland) gets back to conference play on Friday when they take on the Incarnate Word Cardinals (7-19, 1-2) in a three-game series starting Friday at Sullivan Field in San Antonio, Texas.
The Privateers are coming off a rally that fell short in a 9-7 loss at home against Southern Miss on Tuesday night. New Orleans was behind by as many as six runs, but narrowed the deficit as close as one before taking the loss. On the season, the Privateers have played 11 games that have been decided by two runs or less, and are 3-8 in those contests.
Senior catcher
Brian Dixon enters the weekend tied for 12th in the country among all backstops in throwing runners out. Dixon vanquished USM's Michael Sterling, and has now caught 13-of-22 runners trying to steal against him this season. That surpasses Dixon's 2013 total of 12 runners thrown out on the base paths.
Freshman
Samuel Capielano continues his torrid pace of late after a two-hit performance on Tuesday. Capielano also drove in three runs in a game for the first time in his career. Capielano is riding an 11-game hitting streak, and has recorded multi-hit efforts in six straight. Among the Southland, Capielano is third in hits with 42.
This will be the third consecutive weekend opponent the Privateers will face for the first time. New Orleans had their first ever meetings against Houston Baptist and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in their previous two conference weekends.
Incarnate Word enters with the highest ERA and batting average against in the Southland. The Cardinals have also struggled to drive in runs. In each of their last six losses, the Cardinals have been held to three runs or fewer. Incarnate Word and New Orleans are the only two teams in the Southland who have scored less than 100 runs entering the weekend.
Mark Whitehead leads the Cardinals offense on the season. A .303 hitter, Whitehead has hit safely in 19 of his last 20 games entering the weekend, and has reached base safely in 24-of-26 games (all starts). Whitehead also leads the team in walks, runs, and stolen bases while ranking third in RBIs.
First pitch for the opening game of the series will be at 6:30 p.m.
Alex Smith will take the ball for the Privateers while Geno Encina goes for the Cardinals.
