NEW ORLEANS NOTES | GEORGIA STATE NOTES
NEW ORLEANS – The New Orleans Privateers baseball team is set to open the 2024 regular season is set to begin on Friday when the squad opens their campaign against the Georgia State Panthers. The series starts at Maestri Field and the first and last games of the series will be carried on ESPN Plus.
TIME CHANGE
The Privateers' series opener on Friday has been moved to 3 p.m. because of impending rain in the forecast. Stay tuned for any further schedule updates for the remainder of the weekend.
ROTATION
FRIDAY: UNO-LHP
Colton Mercer vs. GSU-LHP Rob Evans
SATURDAY: UNO-RHP
Grant Edwards vs. GSU-RHP Ross Norman
SUNDAY: UNO-RHP
Caleb Seroski vs. GSU-RHP Tyler Roche
PREVIEW
The Privateers come into the season off a highly successful 2023. New Orleans had the top offense in the Southland in several statistical categories including home runs. The Privateers cranked out 90 home runs, tied for second most in a single season in program history.
Though New Orleans lost several starters including the entire middle infield to the transfer portal, there is still a solid core of returners led by Preseason First Team All-Southland selections,
Mitchell Sanford,
Issac Williams and
Miguel Useche. Joining that trio is
Dylan Mach who earned Second Team Preseason honors.
Sanford led the team in batting average (.324) last season and was second in the conference in RBI with 60. Useche enters the season with 32 doubles and is 11 shy of cracking the top ten in that category in program history. Williams enters his fourth year for the Privateers after hitting .302 last season. He also did not commit an error while starting all 60 games in center field. Mach played in 41 games last season and hit .328 against conference opponents.
New Orleans also brought in what was labeled as a strong recruiting class. The junior college transfers in particular were highly regarded as a group, ranked the 13
th-best JUCO signing class for 2024 in the nation. One of those transfers in Edwards will start on Saturday for the Privateers. Edwards was part of a JUCO World Series team at East Central CC in 2023.
The Privateers will open with the first three weekends at home and 10 of their first 11 games at Maestri Field. Last season, home field was great to the Privateers as they went 20-6, which was the best winning percentage in the Southland in home games. Only McNeese had more home wins last year among Southland schools as they went 23-12.
These two teams only met once before in a four-game series in 2013. Georgia State won three of the four contests but all games were decided by one run.
ABOUT THE OPPONENT
The Georgia State pitching staff has gone for over 1,000 strikeouts in the last two seasons. In 2022, the Panthers struck out 505 batters. Last year, they followed with 503 strikeouts. Offensively, the Panthers hit 110 home runs which ranked 14
th in the nation.
The Panthers return 79 of those home runs led by Luke Boynton who hit 16. Head Coach Brad Stromdahl is in his fifth season at Georgia State. In his previous stop, he took Georgia-Gwinnett to the NAIA World Series three times in seven seasons.
WE ARE YOUR KREWE
For 54 seasons, Privateer student-athletes have had the unique experience of wearing New Orleans across their chests. Like the city itself, our sports teams have been fueled by resiliency, grit, and the unquenchable desire to win. Our city also houses the nation's biggest celebration each year. And much like a Mardi Gras parade krewe, we are tethered to our community through pride, tradition, a culture of acceptance, and finally our commitment to show that New Orleans is a world-class city to live, learn, play and work. We invite you to become more involved with the only University that truly represents New Orleans all day, every day. Join #NOLAsTeam, We Are Your Krewe!
Visit UNOPrivateers.com/signup to stay connected and follow us @UNOPrivateers on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
SOCIAL MEDIA
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@PrivateersBSB on Twitter/X,
@PrivateersBSB on Instagram, like
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