Baseball | 2/20/2015 10:06:00 AM
BALTIMORE –
Jhar Devilme's face lit up and a small smile creased his face when informed he would be Coppin State's opening pitcher Saturday afternoon against Jacksonville. The Eagles begin their 2015 campaign with a weekend set against the Dolphins at John Sessions Stadium.
Coppin State (0-0 overall) and Jacksonville (2-2) will play a doubleheader Saturday beginning at 1:00 p.m. The series concludes Sunday at the same time with a single game. Expected to follow Devilme on the mound are Yayha Muhammed and
Anderson Burgess.
"It means a lot and it's a privilege to be an opening day starter," Devilme said. "I am excited about the opportunity and I feel like I've worked hard for it. I am ready to get after it. As a staff, we have a lot of upperclassmen now and we've been through our ups and our downs. I feel like this will be a good year for us. It's been a long learning experience for all of us, but I feel like we're ready to take on the challenge of being a good pitching staff this year."
Devilme led the Eagles with three wins and 49 strikeouts in 62.2 innings last season. He had four appearances last season in which he struck out at least five batters. His finest effort was a six-strikeout outing over 8.1 innings to lead the Eagles to win over Delaware State. Devilme struck out a career-high eight batters in a tough complete-game setback to Maryland Eastern Shore.
The Eagles were picked third in the Northern Division of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) preseason poll that was voted on by the conference's head coaches and sports information directors. However, Coppin State has a different vibe to its team this season and it is ready to rebound from an injury-plagued 2014 campaign that saw it finish with 12 victories.
"I am really excited to start the season," said junior outfielder Jack Kraft, who was named to the College Sports Madness All-MEAC preseason first team. "This is the best team that we've had here on paper and I really think everything is going to pan out for us this year. It's going to be good to be outside on a baseball field again and facing live competition. The chemistry on the team is good."
Picked fifth in the Atlantic Sun preseason coaches' poll, Jacksonville will offer a nice challenge for the Eagles. The Dolphins have won two straight games after defeating 12th-ranked Florida State, 5-3, Wednesday night. Jacksonville dropped two of three games to Middle Tennessee State last weekend in their opening series. Cameron Gibson, Dylan Dillard and J.J Gould all doubled during the victory over the Seminoles.
Through four games, the Dolphins top hitters are Gibson (.429 batting average) and Gould (.313). As a team, the Dolphins are hitting .301. Jacksonville's probable starters are right-handers Michael Baumann (1-0, 3.60 earned run average), Greg Shannahan (0-0, 6.75) and Justin Russell (0-1, 4.50).
This trip to the Florida is the first of three visits south for the Eagles this season, who will travel to Morehead State in Kentucky next weekend and Wofford in South Carolina in the middle of March. Following this weekend's set in Florida, the Eagles are scheduled to visit Navy Wednesday afternoon, of course weather permitting.
"We are traveling a lot more this year than we have in the past, which is nice," Kraft said. "We've had further trips and maybe played bigger-named opponents, but this year we're traveling more, which can only help us once we get into our conference schedule."
