Nashville, Tenn. - For the Stetson Hatters, returning to Lipscomb's Ken Dugan Field should bring back fond memories of an improbable championship run last spring. The Hatters hope to celebrate another ASUN Championship this weekend when they face the host Bisons in a three-game series.

The Hatters enter the series having won five of six ASUN series so far this year. A sixth series win, with some help from North Florida in its series against Jacksonville, would have the Stetson players dog-piling on the infield in Nashville for the second time in 12 months.

Stetson enters the weekend just one game behind JU in the race for the ASUN title and No. 1 seed in next week's tournament in DeLand. The Hatters need only tie with JU, thanks to a series win over the Dolphins two weeks ago, to claim the top seed and no worse than a share of the title.

For Stetson, it is the first time since winning the ASUN regular season title in 2011 that the Hatters enter the final weekend of the season within striking distance of a championship.

Stetson comes into the series having won nine of its last 11 games, closing to within one game of .500 on the year. The Hatters would be at .500 if the game at Florida on April 4 had been completed.

The Hatters have now won five consecutive games for the first time since early in the 2013 season. Stetson has not had a six-game win streak since 2011. That year the team had win streaks of six, eight and nine games.

During the Hatters current five-game win streak, the team is hitting .320  while holding opponents to a .219 average. Stetson pitchers have a combined 2.00 ERA during the stretch.

Senior Colton Lightner continues to be the Hatters' hottest player, both at the plate and in the field. He is hitting .545 with one home run and four RBI over the last five games, but has also handled 21 chances flawlessly at third base and executed a double play in last Friday's series opener against UNF when he tagged out two Ospreys at second base to end the game.

For Hatters coach Steve Trimper, this will be his first encounter with Lipscomb as well as with Bisons head coach Jeff Forehand. Trimper has never faced a team from Tennessee in his career as a head coach.

Lipscomb comes into the weekend having lost five straight games overall this year, but the Bisons also come in riding a four-game win streak against the Hatters. Lipscomb defeated Stetson 9-5 in the opening round of the 2015 ASUN Tournament in Ft. Myers and then swept three games from the Hatters last spring in DeLand.

It was after suffering that sweep on the final weekend of the season last year that Stetson went to Nashville and won four straight to win the ASUN Tournament title. The teams did not meet in the tournament, but Stetson should have plenty of good feelings upon the return to the site of their title run.

Among players who return from last years' club, which hit .392 as a team in the tournament, Kirk Sidwell had the best performance, batting .563 with three RBI to earn All-Tournament honors. Austin Hale was also named to the All-Tournament team after hitting .294 with a home run and five RBI.

The Hatters go into the Lipscomb series this weekend with a chance to become the first team in ASUN history, and the just the eighth in the NCAA (since 2001) to have three pitchers record more than 100 strikeouts in a season. Sophomore Logan Gilbert needs four Ks in his outing this weekend to join with teammates Brooks Wilson (115) and Jack Perkins (101).

According to NCAA records, only seven teams have had a trio of pitchers with 100+ strikeouts in a season since 2002. Those teams were Oklahoma (2012), UCLA (2010), TCU (2006), Ole Miss (2005) and Rice (2002, 03 and 05). Among the pitchers that were a part of those trios are Jake Arrieta (TCU), Trevor Bauer (UCLA) and Gerrit Cole (UCLA). Among the top 54 pitchers in the nation in strikeouts, all with at least 89 this year, only Stetson has three and just four other programs - No. 1 Oregon State, Connecticut, Elon and South Florida - have as many as two players on the list.

Last Weekend

The Hatters recorded their first sweep of North Florida since the 2011 season. Since that sweep, UNF was 10-5 against the Hatters. With the sweep, Stetson reclaimed the all-time series lead 25-22.

All three of the games in the series were decided by one run, improving the Hatters' record to 8-7 this year in one-run games.

Starting pitchers Brooks Wilson and Logan Gilbert both went the distance to get wins in the first game and the last one. The series finale had been scheduled as a seven-inning game due to being the back-end of a doubleheader on get-away day, but the game went the normal nine innings with the Hatters walking off in the 9th.

On the strength of his performance in that series finale, Gilbert was named ASUN pitcher of the week for the second time this year. He is the only pitcher in the league to have won the award more than once. Gilbert allowed just one unearned run on five hits over nine innings with no walks and six strikeouts. He retired the final 13 Ospreys he faced to pick up his league-leading ninth victory of the season.

Stetson's trio of seniors were honored prior to the second game of the series and all three came up big in helping the Hatters to a 4-3 win. Colton Lightner hit his second home run of the year to provide what turned out to be the winning run. Tyler Keller got the Hatters out of a jam in the sixth inning and pitched a quiet seventh before running into trouble in the eighth. Dean Garabedian got Stetson out of that jam in the eighth with the lead intact and then closed out the game in the ninth for his second save.

In the opening game, the Hatters scored three times in the eighth inning against UNF closer Matthew Naylor to take the lead and then finished the game on Lightner's unusual double-play at second.

Part of the reason for Stetson's success in the series was that Hatters pitchers held the ASUN's top offensive team to just four earned runs, for a 1.33 ERA in the series. The Ospreys hit just .233 on the weekend with no home runs and six RBI.

On the other side, Stetson hit .303 on the weekend with a pair of home runs and nine RBI.

Freshman Andrew MacNeil had perhaps the two biggest hits in the series. He hits his first collegiate home run, a three-run shot, in the fourth inning of game two and then delivered the hit in the bottom of the ninth to drive in the winning run in walk-off fashion.

Last Year vs. Lipscomb

The Hatters were swept in the series at Melching last spring, losing 4-3, 9-1 and 6-1. 

The Hatters hit just .163 in that series with returning players accounting for just four hits in 34 at bats for a .117 batting average. On the mound Perkins, Ban Onyshko and Gilbert combined to pitch just 3.2 innings, allowing one earned run with five strikeouts.

The Bisons have a number of players back who had big series against Stetson last year. OF Von Watson hit .556, 2B Lee Solomon hit .467 with a double, triple and home run while driving in six, preseason ASUN player of the year Michael Gigliotti hit .417 with a double, two triples, three RBI and two stolen bases and OF Allan Hooker had a triple and stole a pair of bags.

On the mound, sophomore sophomore RHP Kyle Kemp worked six shutout innings in a win, junior Jeffrey Passantino worked seven innings, allowing one run on four hits in a win, or Brady Puckett worked 5.2 innings, allowing a run on three hits in a no decision and reliever Alex Dorso allowed a run in three innings and earned a save.

Pitching Matchups

Thursday

Team	R/L	Name	Yr.	W-L	ERA	G-GS	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HBP	WP	HR	BAA
Stetson	RHP	Brooks Wilson	Jr.	4-5	2.70	16-13	93.1	74	35	28	35	115	4	3	4	.215
Lipscomb	RHP	Jeffrey Passantino	Jr.	3-2	3.00	13-13	84.0	82	30	28	9	85	3	2	9	.255

Friday

Team	R/L	Name	Yr.	W-L	ERA	G-GS	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HBP	WP	HR	BAA
Stetson	RHP	Jack Perkins	So.	6-4	2.69	15-12	90.1	76	30	27	29	101	4	4	4	.228
Lipscomb	RHP	Brady Puckett	Jr.	7-5	3.78	13-13	88.0	90	43	37	20	62	9	5	4	.261

Saturday

Team	R/L	Name	Yr.	W-L	ERA	G-GS	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HBP	WP	HR	BAA
Stetson	RHP	Logan Gilbert	So.	9-0	1.75	13-10	77.1	55	18	15	22	96	6	4	1	.197
Lipscomb	RHP	Denton Norman	Sr.	4-4	2.25	22-3	44.0	33	13	11	14	39	1	1	0	.208