'You can't play average and expect to win': Braves ready for NCAA regional

Chris Stiles, The Robesonian, Lumberton, N.C.
·4 min read

May 19—TIGERVILLE, S.C. — Players on the University of North Carolina at Pembroke baseball team know they will have to play well this week to keep their season alive. But such is life in the postseason.

The Braves will play in the NCAA Southeast Regional, held at North Greenville University in Tigerville, South Carolina, starting with Thursday's noon opener against Lenoir-Rhyne.

"I think everybody in this tournament is a quality team; I think if you want to win this time of year, you better play your best baseball out there," UNCP coach Paul O'Neil said. "You can't play average and expect to win this time of year. The opponents you're playing are all very good and have good resumes, and the ones that play the very best are the ones that are going to win this weekend."

The fifth-seeded Braves (38-15) qualified for a regional for the fourth time in the last five full seasons; this includes last year's, also played at North Greenville, when the Braves lost both their games. That experience and familiarity with the NCAA postseason is something that can only help as the team returns, O'Neil said.

"We've got several guys that are on the roster that have done this before, and we've got several guys on the roster where this is, some of them, this is their third time they've gotten to do this," O'Neil said. "Anytime you get to do something more than once, you get a familiarity with it, and it's that learning curve and you kind of know what to expect, and it can only help you."

Lenoir-Rhyne (44-11), the No. 4 seed, won the South Atlantic Conference Tournament and is making its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2001.

The Bears boast a deep lineup, led by first-team All-Conference selection Drew Yniesta (.384 average, 13 home runs, 52 RBIs, 62 runs), along with Anthony Porrino (.389 average, 12 home runs, 63 RBIs, 51 runs), Nick Clarno (.376 average, five home runs, 36 RBIs, 46 runs) and Luis Atiles (.345, six home runs, 55 RBIs, 42 runs). All seven Bears players who have played in at least 50 games are hitting .299 or higher.

On the mound, Bears starter Joshua Lanham (10-1, 2.20 ERA, 102 strikeouts in 82 innings) was also a first-team All-Conference honoree; Braden Houston (4-1, 2.38 ERA, 39 strikeouts in 34 innings, two saves) and Ben Freibel (2-0, 2.54 ERA, 27 strikeouts in 28 1/3 innings, three saves) lead a strong and deep relief corps.

"I think it's going to be a very big challenge for us," O'Neil said. "They're a quality team, they had a great year, so we've got to go out and play our very best baseball (Thursday)."

UNCP is 9-8 all-time against Lenoir-Rhyne, and has won five of the last six meetings, most recently including a two-game split in the 2017 season.

The double-elimination Southeast Regional is essentially decided into two tournaments; the Braves and Lenoir-Rhyne are playing in the North Greenville portion of the regional, while four more teams are playing at second-seeded Wingate. At North Greenville, the loser of the game between UNCP and Lenoir-Rhyne will face North Greenville at 4 p.m. Thursday and the winner will face North Greenville at noon Friday; matchups after that will be based on tournament results to that point.

North Greenville (45-8) is no stranger for UNCP; the Crusaders won the Conference Carolinas regular-season and tournament titles as UNCP finished second in the conference regular-season standings and third in the tournament. North Greenville, coached by former MLB player Landon Powell, won two out of three games in a regular-season series in Pembroke April 1-2.

The Crusaders are led by two hitters at over a .400 batting average: Marek Chlup (.415 average, 11 home runs, 65 RBIs, 57 runs), who was named Conference Carolinas Player of the Year, and John Michael Faile (.414 average, 15 home runs, 81 RBIs, 59 runs). Reece Fields (9-1, 3.57 ERA, 82 strikeouts in 75 2/3 innings), the Conference Carolinas Pitcher of the Year, leads the rotation while Tristen Hudson (3-0, 1.50 ERA, 44 strikeouts in 36 innings pitched, five saves) and Noah Takac (5-0, 1.70 ERA, 37 strikeouts in 47 2/3 innings) are key in the bullpen.

"North Greenville is very talented, very well-coached," O'Neil said. "I think they have a lot of depth, and I look at them in the same breath as everybody else in this tournament, that you better play your very best when you're playing somebody and if you don't you're going to lose. There's not a lot of room for error this time of year."

The winners of each of the two portions of the Southeast Regional will play a best-of-three series May 27-28, with the winner advancing to the NCAA Division II College World Series in Cary.

Chris Stiles can be reached at 910-816-1977 or by email at cstiles@robesonian.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @StilesOnSports.