By Trey McCurry.
TCI continues our preseason baseball coverage by taking a brief look at Charleston Southern. Stay tuned to TCI throughout the preseason as we continue breakdown the 2015 roster and 2015 opponents as we lead up to Opening Day on February 13th.
Led by seventh-year Head Coach Stuart Lake, Charleston Southern will return to Tigertown for a single game after the teams did not meet in 2014. The Buccaneers also have a Clemson connection as Assistant Coach Adam Ward earned three letters at Clemson from 2007-09, hitting .286 in 23 career games.
Charleston Southern, members of the Big South, finished 30-26 (it’s first winning record since 1996) and was 12-15 (3rd in South Division) in 2014. The Buccaneers did not face an ACC team last season, but did go 1-1 against the SEC (falling 14-5 at Georgia and winning 4-1 at South Carolina). Charleston Southern did face their fare share of in-state opponents, going 9-10 in 19 games. The Buccaneers also played seven games against teams that advanced to the NCAA Tournament, going 4-3 in those contests (sweeping three games from Siena along with the win over South Carolina while losing a single game to Campell and two games to College of Charleston).
Charleston Southern welcomes back 18 lettermen from 2014, with eight position players returning and 10 pitchers coming back. Two of the returners earned All-Big South honors in 2014 as C Andrew Widell was named First-Team and INF Chase Shelton earned Honorable Mention honors.
2014 stats for Charleston Returners:
| Hitting |
AVG |
G |
AB |
R |
H |
2B |
3B |
HR |
RBI |
BB |
K |
SB |
| Tyler Pickard |
.500 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0-0 |
| Chase Shelton |
.348 |
56 |
221 |
32 |
77 |
17 |
0 |
4 |
44 |
19 |
15 |
3-4 |
| Andrew Widell |
.303 |
52 |
175 |
25 |
53 |
7 |
0 |
1 |
26 |
30 |
25 |
0-3 |
| Sam Remick |
.276 |
49 |
156 |
24 |
43 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
16 |
19 |
19 |
3-4 |
| Nate Blanchard |
.220 |
46 |
141 |
17 |
31 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
9 |
8 |
22 |
3-4 |
| Kevin Hickey |
.190 |
37 |
100 |
12 |
19 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
8 |
10 |
16 |
3-3 |
| Robbie Streett |
.149 |
43 |
67 |
7 |
10 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
5 |
11 |
1-1 |
| Will Hartsell |
.145 |
18 |
55 |
4 |
8 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
6 |
2 |
28 |
0-0 |
| Pitching |
ERA |
G-S |
W-L |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
OBA |
| Will Hartsell * |
2.37 |
13-0 |
2-0 |
19.0 |
18 |
8 |
5 |
3 |
19 |
.254 |
| Kyle Dyson |
2.61 |
6-1 |
0-0 |
10.1 |
12 |
5 |
3 |
5 |
5 |
.286 |
| Denis Buckley * |
3.33 |
22-3 |
3-1 |
46.0 |
44 |
20 |
17 |
18 |
39 |
.254 |
| Austin Weekley % |
3.51 |
27-0 |
2-6 |
33.1 |
45 |
15 |
13 |
7 |
30 |
.326 |
| Tyler Weekley |
3.66 |
10-4 |
3-3 |
39.1 |
36 |
16 |
16 |
7 |
26 |
.235 |
| Joe Pistacchio ^ |
4.46 |
23-3 |
1-1 |
34.1 |
24 |
20 |
17 |
26 |
39 |
.190 |
| Kyle McDorman |
5.08 |
17-0 |
0-1 |
28.1 |
28 |
16 |
16 |
14 |
21 |
.277 |
| Evan Nations |
6.23 |
9-0 |
2-1 |
13.0 |
14 |
9 |
9 |
3 |
7 |
.275 |
| Tyler Pickard |
7.11 |
12-1 |
0-1 |
12.2 |
20 |
10 |
10 |
6 |
9 |
.364 |
| Jordan Smith |
11.25 |
8-0 |
0-0 |
4.0 |
3 |
5 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
.200 |
% – had 11 saves. ^ – had two saves. * – had one save.