By Cody Shook, Sports Editor

This weekend, Eric Burkle’s 10-15 Hilltoppers will travel to Urbana to take on the Blue Knights in a four game series in Urbana, Ohio. The baseball team has gotten off to a rocky start to the season, but spirits are still high to get things going and turn the season around to make a push for a berth in the Mountain East Conference tournament in early May.

This weekend’s games are scheduled for 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. on Friday, and on Saturday, they are scheduled for noon and 2:30 p.m. start times.

With just four weeks left in the regular season, the Hilltoppers are 10-15 overall and 8-8 in conference games. With that .500 record, the baseball team finds themselves in third place in the north division, right below 9-7 Fairmont State University and right above Notre Dame College, who the Hilltoppers just faced this past weekend.

The Blue Knights are 6-24 overall and 6-10 in conference games, so this weekend is really important for both teams to stay in the playoff chase.

Last weekend, the Hilltoppers dropped three out of four games against the Falcons of Notre Dame College in a frigid four game series that was played in Washington, Pa. and at home on the Hilltop.

In game one, the Hilltoppers gave up four runs in the seventh inning to take home the 5-2 loss, but they were able to bounce back in game two of the double header to win by a score of 4-0 behind an outstanding pitching performance by junior, Parker Dyson.

Day two of the weekend series ended on a sour note after losing game one on Sunday by a score of 4-3. The Falcons put up nine runs in two innings to take the fourth game of the weekend, by a score of 9-1.

The Blue Knights also struggled last weekend as they traveled to the always difficult Shepherd University for a four game series. Urbana got out on top of the series after winning game one, but they were unable to keep the momentum rolling as they dropped the final three games.

This weekend will be no walk in the park as the Hilltoppers will travel to Urbana for the first time since the 2016 season, where the team lost three out of the four games to the Blue Knights.

Last season when these two teams faced off in mid-April, the Hilltoppers took care of business and won three out of the four games by a combined score of 28-20.

Make sure to follow the baseball team all season long on Twitter. 

Photo Credit: Cody Shook