ROME, Ga. - After sweeping Mississippi College last weekend, the West Florida baseball team is back in the thick of the race for Gulf South Conference Tournament seeding. UWF sits in fourth place heading into its weekend road trip to Shorter Saturday and Sunday, April 11-12.
The Argonauts (22-13, 15-9) are between third place West Georgia (24-11, 16-8) and fifth place Valdosta State (22-13, 13-9) who play each other this weekend.
Eighth place Shorter (14-15, 9-12) fell to below .500 after being swept by conference leader West Alabama last weekend. The Hawks bounced back from those losses with a midweek 12-10 win over non-conference Georgia Southwestern State April 8.
Scouting Shorter
The Hawks' rotation is led by Colton Cross (2-3, 3.46 ERA) and Russel Crosby (2-5, 4.14 ERA).
The SU offense is led by Zach Santos (.379 avg, seven homers, 34 RBIs) and George Ragsdale (.372 avg, three homers, 24 RBIs).
Pitching Prowess
The UWF pitching staff leads the conference in walks allowed per nine innings (2.12), strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.75) and walks plus hits per innings pitched (1.17). The Argos are second, fifth, and ninth in the nation in those categories, respectively.
In ERA,
Brandon Nagem (2.05),
Reed Bright (2.48) and
Walker O'Connor (2.59) rank first, fifth and sixth in the GSC, respectively. Nagem leads the GSC in opponent's batting average (.206), and Bright is third (.214).
Nagem leads the conference in WHIP (0.85), is first in walks per nine innings (1.02), second in strikeouts (60), third in strikeouts looking (19) and second in innings pitched (70.1). He is 17th in the nation in WHIP and 21st in walks per nine innings.
Nagem is on pace to finish third all-time in UWF history in walks per nine innings (1.03).
Argos in the Pros
Five UWF alums begin the 2015 Minor League Baseball season on professional rosters. John Church and Dustin Lawley begin the year at the Mets Double-A affiliate, Binghampton. Brian Ellington starts the year with the Marlins Double-A affiliate, Jacksonville. 2015 MLB draftees Jordan DeLorenzo and Dawson Brown will play in rookie leagues. DeLorenzo is on the Cardinals Gulf Coast League roster, and Brown is on the Athletics Arizona Rookie League roster.
