After taking a weekend off to prepare for final exams, the Hatters return to action Tuesday at Melching Field against Volusia County rival Bethune-Cookman in what will be the final non-conference game of the 2017 regular season.

Fans attending the game are encouraged to break out their costumes for Harry Potter Night. First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m., weather permitting. Stay up to date on any changes with the game time on the free text message service Hat Check. Sign up HERE.

The Hatters will be trying to split their season series against the Wildcats after dropping a heart-breaking 9-8 decision in February at Jackie Robinson Ball Park in Daytona Beach. Stetson jumped out to what appeared to be a commanding 8-1 lead in the seventh inning of that game before B-CU came storming back, winning with a walk-off home run from sophomore Danny Rodriguez, his fifth hit of the game.

The pitcher Rodriguez hit that home run against, Stetson junior left-hander Ben Onyshko, will make the start for the Hatters this time after taking the loss in the first meeting due to that home run. He is coming off a strong three-inning outing against Florida State last week in which he had six strikeouts while allowing just two hits.

The Wildcats will counter with freshman T.J. Densmore, who was also the starter in the first game against the Hatters. Stetson scored four-runs off five hits and two walks in Densmore's three innings of work back in February. Most of the damage came in the third inning as the Hatters sent seven to the plate, scoring four times.

B-CU is 4-4 this year against ASUN teams, having earned wins over FGCU, Jacksonville and UNF in addition to the win over Stetson. After getting off to a 17-7 start through their first 24 games, the Wildcats are just 7-13 over their last 20 outings, but have won three of their last four.

Stetson's last outing was a 6-0 victory at USF last Wednesday night. It was the first time this year that the Bulls were shutout in a game, but it was the sixth shutout of the year for the Hatters. The win was also a milestone for Hatters coach Steve Trimper. In addition to being his first over USF, it was his 500th career victory.

The six shutouts for the Hatters this year is tied for 12th in the nation, just two behind a group of six teams that have eight shutout wins this year. The win over USF also allowed the Hatters to avoid being swept by the Bulls for the first time since the 2013 season and allowed Stetson to maintain an 85-84 all-time series lead.

Junior Brooks Wilson and sophomore Jack Perkins combined to complete the shutout. Wilson worked the first five innings to get the win, allowing three hits with nine strikeouts while Perkins worked the final four innings, allowing four hits with six strikeouts for his first career save.

For Wilson, the nine strikeouts gives him 102 Ks for the year, making him just the eighth pitcher in Stetson baseball history to record at least 100 strikeouts in a season. He is the first to reach that milestone since Corey Kluber posted 117 strikeouts during the 2017 season. Wilson now ranks ninth on the Stetson single-season strikeout list. He needs seven in his next outing to tie Willard Brown (1993) for eighth with 109, eight to tie Steve Woide (1987) for seventh with 110. He is 11 behind Brown's 1992 total of 113 for sixth place with Kluber in fifth on that list.

Lenny DiNardo owns the top two season strikeout totals in the Stetson record book, having posted 132 in 2000 and 131 in 2001.

With 207 career strikeouts, Wilson is 16 away from moving past Brown into the Stetson career top 10.

The Hatters enter play tonight fourth in the nation with 441 strikeouts. USF (466) leads the country with Arkansas (452) and UL Lafayette (447) second and third. Mercer (438) rounds out the top five. Stetson enters the week third in strikeouts per nine innings, averaging 10.0 per game. USF still leads the nation with 10.6 K/9.

At the current pace, the Hatters will break the school record for strikeouts in a season (485) for a second straight year, finishing the regular season with 541 strikeouts.

Wilson now ranks fourth in the nation in strikeouts with his 102 this year. Alabama A&M's Brandon Marsonek, who has been a reliever most of the year, has the national strikeout lead. He now has 113 strikeouts in 34 appearances covering 93.1 innings this year. David Peterson of Oregon and Eli Morgan of Gonzaga are tied for second with 107 strikeouts. J.P. Sears of The Citadel is tied with Wilson for fourth.

There are a total of 22 players across the nation with at least 85 strikeouts this year. No team other than Stetson has more than one pitcher to have hit that mark. The Hatters have Wilson (102), Logan Gilbert (86) and Jack Perkins (87).

In addition to the strong pitching, the Hatters also got a season-best offensive performance from sophomore Jacob Koos. After extending his hitting streak to 11 games with a first inning hit, he just kept going, adding four more hits for the first five-hit game for the Hatters since March 20, 2015, when Cory Reid had five against LIU-Brooklyn.

It was just the third five-hit game in the ASUN this year. Koos joined with Charlie Carpenter of USC Upstate, who had five hits against Lipscomb, and Jacob Southern of Jacksonville, who had five against Bethune-Cookman.

Over his last five games, Koos is hitting .542 and he has taken over the team lead with a .328 average for the season. Junior Austin Hale cooled a little in the game at USF, but ran his hit streak to seven games with an RBI single in the seventh inning.

Coming off being the ASUN player of the week, Hale was 3-for-3 with a walk against FSU with a home run and a career-high four RBI. Over his last five games Hale is hitting .600 (12-for-20) with five doubles, two home runs and eight RBI. His slash line during those 10 games is .475/.523/.825 with a 1.348 OPS.