SALISBURY, N.C. – After splitting a home doubleheader with No. 2 Belmont Abbey on Wednesday, the Lincoln Memorial University baseball team will travel to league-leading Catawba (23-18, 16-5 SAC) for a South Atlantic Conference showdown between the two highest-scoring teams in the conference. The Railsplitters (25-17, 10-11 SAC) are coming off a disappointing series loss at last-place Coker. The Indians have overcome a slow start to the season to win 12 of their past 14 games, including a sweep of Newberry last weekend and a 13-9 win over Mount Olive on Tuesday.
 
Schedule/Game Day Links: 
 
Friday, April 13 (6 p.m.) - Live Stats | Video
Saturday, April 14 (1 p.m.) - Live Stats | Video
Saturday, April 14 (4 p.m.) - Live Stats | Video
 
Quick Hits: 
 
- LMU earned its highest-ranked win in program history with a 14-11 victory over No. 2 Belmont Abbey in the nightcap of Wednesday's doubleheader thanks to a walk-off three-run homer off the bat of Joe Stucky. The Crusaders won game one 5-4.
 
- The Railsplitters dropped two of three games to Coker in their most recent SAC series. The Cobras took Friday night's series opener 10-7 after Ethan Elliott allowed a career-worst nine runs and 12 hits in only 4.2 innings.
 
- The Cobras walked off LMU with a two-out, bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the ninth to win 14-13 in game one of Saturday's doubleheader. The Railsplitters made a valiant comeback to take a 13-12 lead after falling behind 12-2 after the fourth inning before allowing two runs to cross in the bottom of the ninth to drop their sixth straight game. Nate Stinson had a career day by going 5-for-5—all singles—with two RBI and three runs scored.
 
- Matt Mullenbach fired a complete game shutout in the seven-inning nightcap st the Railsplitters snapped their six-game losing streak and salvaged a game in the series with a 6-0 win. The righty allowed five hits and walks and also struck out five to improve to 4-2.
 
 - The Railsplitters are 19-8 at home with an 8-4 mark in SAC play and have won all four home conference series. LMU is 6-9 on the road, including 2-7 in SAC games, and is yet to win a conference road series in three tries.
 
- Despite scoring 26 runs in the Coker series, LMU did not hit a home run. The Railsplitters hit three in Wednesday's doubleheader. Timmy Wages has connected for eight of the team's 39 home runs. Chris Salvey has seven while Logan Augustine and Tyler Adams have each hit six. No one else has hit more than three.
 
- The Railsplitters as a team have hit .343 at home compared to .279 on the road. On-base percentage (.439-.382) and slugging percentage (.537-.389) are also significantly higher at Lamar Hennon Field.
 
- LMU has recorded a double-digit hit total in 23 of 42 games, including 15 of 26 at home. The team is batting .319 overall. Lincoln Memorial's .313 mark in SAC play ranks only behind Catawba (.351) and Newberry (.331).
 
- LMU pitching has seen its ERA rise over a full run in the past two weeks after allowing at least 10 runs in a program-record six straight games prior to Sunday's shutout and has done so in seven of its past nine. The team has a 5.01 ERA overall with a 4.93 mark in SAC play.
 
- LMU has a 9.48 ERA in eight April games. The team posted solid ERAs of 4.20 in February and 3.87 in March.
 
- The pitching staff has a collective 4.78 ERA at home and 5.43 on the road. It was 3.44 at home and 5.09 away just two weeks ago.
 
- Railsplitter starting pitchers have accumulated a 16-8 record with a 4.33 ERA in 42 games. Starters have struck out 213 batters in 2018 innings. 
 
- Despite the uncharacteristically poor start his last time out, Elliott still leads the conference with a 2.55 ERA, 85 strikeouts and 67.0 innings pitched. Joe Bobiak is tied for second with six wins but fell to sixth in ERA (3.50) after allowing five earned runs in 2.2 innings on Saturday.
 
Notes on Catawba: 

- The Indians began the year 0-7 but have reeled off 12 wins in their past 14 games and have a two-game lead in the SAC standings with a 16-5 record in league play. Catawba has won six of its seven conference series and have three sweeps. Its only setback was losing two of three at home to Lenoir-Rhyne. 
 
- Catawba leads the SAC in most offensive categories including runs (351), batting average (.320), hits (464), doubles (98), walks (241), on-base percentage (.426) and slugging (.519). The Indians lead these same categories in SAC play: runs (205), batting average (.351), hits (257), doubles (51), walks (122), on-base percentage (.452), slugging (.594) as well as home runs (39).
 
- Catawba has won four straight over the last week with a sweep over Newberry and a 13-9 win over Mount Olive on Tuesday. The Indians hit six home runs in Friday's series-opening 18-12 win over Newberry.
 
- Catawba beat the Wolves by identical 8-6 scores in both ends of Saturday's doubleheader. Chance Bowden's walk-off two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth in the nightcap gave the Indians the sweep.
 
- Bowden added three hits and five RBI in Tuesday's win over Mount Olive. He leads the SAC in home runs (15), RBI (58) and is third with a .409 average.
 
- Luke Setzer is tied for second in the SAC with 14 home runs and 46 RBI. 
 
- Catawba is a much better offensive team when playing at home. The Indians have hit .341 with 39 home runs in 22 games at Newman Park compared to .299 and 19 homers in 18 road games.
 
- The Catawba pitching staff is eighth in the 10-team SAC with a cumulative 6.39 ERA. However, the team's 5.69 ERA in SAC games ranks fifth. Indian pitchers have allowed a league-high 57 home runs, including a SAC-most 31 in conference games.
 
- Catawba pitchers' 182 strikeouts and 9.41 strikeouts per nine innings in SAC games leads the conference. The team has also allowed the fewest hits to conference opponents with 176 in a SAC-most 174 innings.
 
- Indian pitchers have a 5.64 ERA at home with 9.56 strikeouts per nine innings at home compared to a 7.47 mark and 8.27 K/9 on the road. The team has given up 30 homers at home and 27 in away games.
 
Series History: 
 
- Catawba has dominated the series with a 36-9 record all-time, though the Railsplitters won the season series last year by taking three of five meetings.
 
- LMU took two of three over the Indians in Harrogate in the teams' regular-season matchup in 2017. The Railsplitters won again, 10-6, in the SAC Tournament on their way to the title. Catawba enacted some revenge, however, by ending Lincoln Memorial's season with an 8-2 win in the NCAA Division II Southeast Regional.
 
- The Railsplitters are 3-18 in games played in Salisbury and have never won a series there in seven tries.