Wildcats Put Streak On The Line Against Wake Tonight

Catching the Action

Admission to Wilson Field is free. Live video and live stats will be available for all three games. Twitter updates will be available from @DavidsonWildcat.

LEADING OFF

	Davidson (10-6, 3-0 SoCon)	Wake Forest (13-8, 3-3 ACC)
Wednesday (6 p.m.)	RHP Clark Beeker (11.25, 0-0)	RHP Connor Johnstone (1.59, 1-0)

- Davidson and Wake Forest are completing a home-and-home series Wednesday at 6 p.m. This game was originally supposed to be played at Wake Forest, but Davidson and Wake agreed to flip-flop the sites for the series in February. Davidson ended up opening its season at Wake because the Demon Deacons' field was in better condition than Wilson Field after the heavy snows that affected the area. Weather impacted the date again, as freezing rain resulted in more poor field conditions, postponing the game an additional day.

- Davidson enters the game on a seven-game winning streak - its longest since 1988. At 10-6, the Wildcats are off to their best start since 2007 when they also opened the season at 10-6.

- A Davidson win would improve its winning streak to eight games, its longest since the 1964 team won nine in a row. The longest winning streak in program history is 10 games, set across the 1906 and 1907 seasons.

- RHP Clark Beeker is slated to make his first start since March 3, 2013 against Appalachian State. It was his last appearance of the year as he missed the rest of the season due to injury. He entered 2013 as the Wildcats' top returning pitcher.

- The Wildcats are 10-3 at Wilson Field so far this season, and have won their last eight home games. This is the eighth game of a 16-game homestand.

- Davidson batters boast four of the Top-10 batting averages in the Southern Conference: 2. 1B Ben Arkin, .409; 4. OF Forrest Brandt, .391; 6. OF Lee Miller, .378 and 10. SS Sam Foy, .362. They also hold three of the top four on-base percentages: 1. Arkin, .491; 3. Brandt, .473 and 4. DH Ryan Lowe, .458.

- OF Nathan Becker is among the conference leaders in home runs and RBIs, ranking second with seven home runs and ranking sixth with 20 RBIs. He entered the week ranking sixth in the nation in home runs.

- As a team, Davidson ranks sixth in the nation with 19 home runs, and third in the nation with 1.19 home runs per game.

- Since being held to one hit against Miami (Ohio), the Wildcats are batting .354 as a team with 12.9 hits per game in their 10 games since, led by Foy (.477) and Brandt (.474).

THE SERIES

VS. WAKE: The Demon Deacons enter the game with a 13-8 overall record and 2-3 away mark. They have dropped their past two contests, winning just the opener in an ACC series with Clemson over the weekend. Will Craig, the reigning ACC Player of the Week, leads the team with a .358 batting average and five home runs. Matt Conway has a team-best 16 RBIs and is batting .321, while Craig and Charlie Morgan have 15 RBIs each. RHP Connor Johnstone will be making his sixth appearance and third start of the season. He boasts an ERA of 1.59 in 11.1 innings pitched, with 12 strikeouts.

SCOUTING WAKE FOREST

The Demon Deacons enter the game with a 13-8 overall record and 2-3 away mark. They have dropped their past two contests, winning just the opener in an ACC series with Clemson over the weekend. Will Craig, the reigning ACC Player of the Week, leads the team with a .358 batting average and five home runs. Matt Conway has a team-best 16 RBIs and is batting .321, while Craig and Charlie Morgan have 15 RBIs each. RHP Connor Johnstone will be making his sixth appearance and third start of the season. He boasts an ERA of 1.59 in 11.1 innings pitched, with 12 strikeouts.

NOTES

INSPIRATIONAL SERIES: Davidson head coach Dick Cooke was a recipient of the College Baseball Insider Inspiration Award this past summer that is named after Wake Forest coach Tom Walter. Walter donated a kidney to a freshman outfielder before the 2011 season, which inspired the now annual award. Cooke was honored for returning to the diamond after sustaining serious injuries in a car accident caused by a drunk driver just before the start of fall practice in 2012.

STRONG SOCON START: The Wildcats' sweep of The Citadel (3/14-15) resulted in their first 3-0 start in SoCon play since 2000, when they swept VMI.

'CATS VS. 'DOGS: Against The Citadel, which was voted to finish second in the SoCon this season by both the league's coaches and media, Davidson (10-6, 3-0 SoCon) has now won five straight, dating back to last season, and three of the last four series. The sweep of the Bulldogs was the Wildcats' first since 2003.

BECKER BREAKS OUT: Nathan Becker started all 49 games last season for Davidson and totaled one home run and 14 RBIs. He has seven home runs and 20 RBIs through 16 games this season.

SENIOR WINS: Senior relievers Justin Charles and Michael Goldberg have both earned their first career wins this season. Charles did it by pitching 0.2 innings against North Carolina A&T (3/9). Goldberg earned his with a perfect inning against Miami (Ohio) (3/2). He began his career in 2010 as an infielder, but primarily became a pitcher as a sophomore in 2011, seeing limited action. Injury cost him all of 2012, but he was able to redshirt. Goldberg made a career-high 13 appearances last season, including two starts, totaling 18.1 innings.

GRIDIRON TO DIAMOND

Senior Jonathan Carkhuff became Davidson's all-time passing leader as a four-year starter for the football team, but is now concluding his Wildcat career as a relief pitcher.
He is one of 20 Division I football players to be playing baseball this season
Carkhuff and Florida State's Jameis Winston are the only two starting quarterbacks from the 2013 football season to be playing college baseball this season.
He had not played competitive baseball since high school, where he was an all-area player.
Carkhuff made his debut against Mount St. Mary's (2/23), contributing to a combined shutout with a scoreless inning in which he surrendered two hits and a walk. He has two appearances so far.

ACC SCHEDULE: Davidson has played three of five consecutive mid-week games against ACC opponents. The Wildcats opened their season at Wake Forest and allowed an unearned run in the bottom of the ninth inning before ultimately losing, 4-3, in the 12th inning. Davidson was also competitive against No. 6 NC State, losing 7-5. The 'Cats will host Wake Forest tonight and Duke (Mar. 25) the week after that.

DOUBLE DUTY: Ryan Lowe is one of 28 players in the country this season that is in the everyday lineup and weekend pitching rotation.

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