The end of any regular season is a time of reflection, and that will be the case this weekend when the No. 13 Stetson baseball team hosts USC Upstate in a three-game series at Melching Field.

Games in the series are scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, and 1 p.m. on Saturday. All three games are scheduled to be broadcast on ESPN+ with live stats available at Stetsonstats.com.

For four members of the Stetson team, it will be an emotional time as the quartet plays its final regular season home games. Those seniors – Austin Hale, Brooks Wilson, Ben Onyshko and Nico Torino – have combined to appear in a total of 292 games on the field and another 144 on the mound. Offensively, the trio of Hale, Wilson and Torino have hit 14 home runs with 114 RBI while Wilson and Onyshko have combined for 30 wins, 20 saves and 460 strikeouts on the mound.

Wilson is a finalist for the NCAA’s Senior CLASS Award as an outstanding NCAA Division I student-athlete. Public voting for that honor continues through May 28, and Hatter fans can vote once per day at http://www.seniorclassaward.com/vote/baseball_2018/.

The seniors also will be honored on Saturday, prior to the season finale. But, before then, there is business to attend to.

Stetson will put a 10-game win streak, the longest active streak in the nation, on the line against a Spartan team that is playing for pride. The Hatters (40-11) have already wrapped up the top spot in next week’s ASUN Tournament and have climbed to a season-high No. 7 in the most recent college baseball RPI. Upstate (23-27-1) needs a trio of highly unlikely results this weekend to find its way to next weeks’ ASUN Tournament. The Spartans are 5-13 in league play this year.

Offensively, senior catcher Austin Hale has had some of the best games of his career against the Spartans. Last year he was 8-for-13 at the plate in the series in Spartanburg with five doubles, six runs scored and three RBI. He was named ASUN Player of the Week for his performance in that series. In his career he has hit .500 (9-18) with eight runs scored against Upstate.

The Stetson pitching staff also has a solid history in games against USC Upstate. Thursday starter Jack Perkins has the best mark with a 2-0 career record and a 0.93 ERA against the Spartans in two outings. Both Logan Gilbert (1-0), who will start on Friday, and Onyshko (1-0) have two career outings against Upstate.

Stetson is ranked in all five national polls again this week after joining them last week for the first time since the 2011 season. The Hatters are ranked highest by D1Baseball.com at No. 13. The other polls have Stetson ranked 20 (Baseball America), 15 (NCBWA), 17 (USA Today) and 23 (Collegiate Baseball).

During the 10-game win streak, the Stetson pitching staff has dominated. The Hatters have allowed just 2.4 runs per game with a 2.15 ERA while holding opponents to a .202 batting average with just nine extra-base hits. In the most recent series against FGCU, the Stetson pitchers held the Eagles to a .206 average with a 2.33 ERA. The Hatters recorded 32 strikeouts in that series, running the total over the last 10 games to 104.

Gilbert set a new Stetson record for strikeouts in a season on Friday. He currently has 134 Ks on the year, two better than the former school record of 132 set by Lenny DiNardo in 2000. The former Hatter, and Boston Red Sox World Series champion, gave Gilbert a call to congratulate him following the Hatters’ win over FGCU.

Wilson’s next save will move him in to a tie, with 13 other players, for 12th on the NCAA single-season saves list. He will become the 25th player in NCAA history with 20 saves in a season. Wilson is 2-0 this year with six saves in nine ASUN pitching appearances while slugging .477 with a team-high 15 RBI in league play.

–GoHatters.com