After opening the season on tough road games and competitive opponents at home, Paladin’s baseball found their groove. The spring season is now in full swing and at the mid-season mark the starting rotation has a strong 10 wins. The coming conference play promises multiple exciting home series games for Furman.
In the past weeks, the team’s leaders stepped up and provided exciting last minute. John Michael Boswell cracked a ball deep out of Latham Stadium for a solo home run in the bottom of the tenth to give Furman the win against Ohio State.
Jabari Richards was named Collegiate Baseball Nation Player of the week and Southern Conference Player of the Week after reaching home twice in an away win at Winthrop, followed by a grand slam homer and five runs in a blowout 18-3 victory over Gardner-Webb. After hitting for the complete cycle against Gardner-Webb, the senior outfielder is the most accomplished Paladin in a single game since 2006.
In transfer catcher Dax Roper, the Paladins got a solo home run in the bottom of the ninth, against the Citadel. Roper’s deep ball secured the comeback win for the ‘Dins, who would later go on to complete a sweep of the Citadel. Outfielder and power hitter Sterling Turman helped smash the Citadel in a 20-6 victory in the same series. The red shirt sophomore scored three times, cracked a home run over the fence and drove in three runs for the easy win. The blowout wins at Winthrop and Gardner-Webb coupled with the series sweep over the Citadel pushed the ‘Dins to a five-game winning streak.
Along with the season’s in-game successes, the team raised over 9,000 dollars for the Vs. Cancer Foundation during their game at Greenville’s Fluor Field, complete with 33 bald heads to end the night, a way for the team to support fighting cancer. To finish off the conference-heavy back half of the season, Furman baseball will host conference members ETSU, VMI and Mercer in weekend series, and see strong competition away at Western Carolina, Wofford and Clemson.