Privateers Host Final Series of Season Against Central Arkansas

UNO Notes | UCA Notes | Buy Tickets

NEW ORLEANS, La. – The New Orleans Privateers baseball team (11-35, 2-25 Southland) will conclude the 2014 season at home when they start a three-game series with the Central Arkansas Bears (26-21, 14-13) on Thursday at Maestri Field at First NBC Ballpark.

The Privateers were swept last weekend by Northwestern State while losing the first two games of the series on a walk-off. New Orleans has lost seven straight conference games by one or two runs and is 5-18 overall in games decided by two runs or less this season. The Privateers lost in extra-innings on Saturday and are 1-5 in games that go past nine innings this season.

Reese Kanter is currently on a 10-game hitting streak entering play, which surpasses the nine-game streak he had to open the season. In that span, Kanter is batting .311 (14-45) with nine RBIs and six runs. Kanter has driven in a run in seven of ten games in that stretch, and is currently second on the team with 21 RBIs.

Kanter will be one of five seniors honored on Senior Day, which will be on Saturday. Brian Dixon, Raymond Winter, Morgan Barger, and Trevor McCarthy will also be honored before the Privateers' final game of the season.

Alex Smith enters play with three straight quality starts, and is coming off an outing with a season-high 140 pitches over 8.2 innings in Friday's loss at Northwestern State. Smith has thrown 81.0 innings this season and has gone into at least the seventh inning in each of his last three starts. Last Friday also marked Smith's first complete game since Apr. 13, 2013 (versus Georgia State).

New Orleans lost both meetings against Central Arkansas in 2013, the only two times the two now-Southland foes have squared off in history. Central Arkansas took the first game 11-1, and squeaked out a 4-3 win in the second contest after hitting a tie-breaking RBI single in the sixth. 

The Bears are currently locked in a three-way tie for seventh in the conference, and are looking to secure a spot in the postseason tournament. Central Arkansas is the defending Southland champion, and is hoping to be the first team to repeat as Southland tournament champions since Sam Houston State won three titles in a row from 2007-09.

Central Arkansas is led offensively by Doug Votolato who is currently second in the league In batting average, hitting at a .375 clip. On the mound, Central Arkansas has held opposing batters to a collective .254 batting average, 4th-best in the Southland. In the Bears' last conference series, they swept Incarnate Word after going 1-5 in the previous two Southland weekends.

First pitch for Thursday's game is at 6:30 p.m.

PROBABLE PITCHING MATCH-UPS
THURSDAY: UNO- Nick Halliday RHP (2-6, 4.60) vs. UCA- Bryce Biggerstaff RHP (5-5, 3.13)
FRIDAY: UNO- Alex Smith RHP (1-9, 4.22) vs. UCA- Chris Caudle RHP (6-4, 3.39)
SATURDAY: UNO- Raymond Winter RHP (1-5, 5.28) vs. UCA- Connor Gilmore RHP (5-3, 3.01)