NEW ORLEANS – The New Orleans Privateers baseball team will open their 2022 campaign on Friday at Maestri Field when they take on the Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions. First pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m. on the first day of the Andre Dawson Classic.
INSIDE THE SERIES
New Orleans leads 2-1
Last meeting: 3/29/15 (UNO won 5-4 in 10 innings)
The Privateers will be participating in the Andre Dawson Classic for the fifth time in
Blake Dean's tenure. New Orleans is 9-3 all-time in four previous Classic appearances. The offense has been front and center in most of those wins as they've scored 10 or more runs in five of the nine triumphs.
Brandon Mitchell is projected to start the season opener against the Golden Lions. Mitchell was second on the team in innings pitched a season ago at 71.1. He also had a stretch of six out of seven starts between April and May where he went at least six innings.
New Orleans has already been bestowed with a lot of preseason recognition. The squad had their highest preseason projected order of finish (3
rd) since joining the conference.
Kasten Furr,
Pearce Howard,
Caleb Seroski and
Anthony Herron Jr. were all named Preseason All-Southland. Howard was named Perfect Game's Preseason Southland Player of the Year while
Andrew Duran was named the publication's Preseason Freshman of the Year.
Howard is also on the brink of several top ten lists in program history. He is two doubles, five home runs and 12 RBI from making it into the top ten of those respective lists in Privateer history.
Dax Norris and
Ryan Fineman are new to the Privateers staff. Norris comes over after five seasons with FIU and his pitching staff led Conference USA in earned run average in 2019. Fineman was a four-year starter at Indiana.
The Privateers will continue the weekend when they face Grambling on Saturday and Alabama State on Sunday. Those games will be slated for 4 p.m. and 2 p.m. respectively.
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