The Stetson baseball team will be back in action at Melching Field on Saturday night, opening a four-game series against Siena.
 
The series will include a 1 p.m. start on Sunday afternoon followed by 6:30 p.m. games on Monday and Tuesday.
 
Both teams enter the series looking for their first wins of 2019. The Saints, from the Mid-Atlantic Athletic Conference, dropped all three games of their opening series last weekend at UCF. The Siena team returned home to Loudonville, NY, which is just north of Albany, followed the UCF series. The Saints will not only play the four games against Stetson, but will follow up with a four-game series at FGCU starting Thursday.
 
Stetson will be looking to avoid going 0-5 to start a season for the first time since 2009. In 102 seasons of baseball, Stetson teams have lost as many as four straight games to open a season just six times. The longest season-opening skid in program history was six games in 1973.
 
The Hatters have enjoyed tremendous success against Siena over the years, posting a 41-4 record in a series that dates back to 1977. Stetson has won each of the last eight games against Siena, going back to 2011, but Stetson head coach Steve Trimper is just 7-11 in his career against the Saints.
 
Stetson is 66-13 all-time against members of the MAAC, including last Sunday's 5-2 loss to Manhattan.
 
Junior Austin Bogart has been the Hatters' hottest hitter to start the year, batting .429 through four games. Among his six hits he has a double, a triple and home run and he has also stolen three bases. The rest of the Stetson team is hitting just .125 to start the year. The Hatters have managed to produce just 35 base runners while striking out 50 times in four games.
 
Hatters pitchers have had struggles of their own to start the year. Stetson has allowed 18 walks and has hit eight batters so far this year and five of the 24 runs the team has allowed came as the result of a walk or hit batter with the bases loaded.
 
To round out the struggles, the Hatters have already been charged with six errors this year after setting a school record for fielding percentage last year. The errors have come on three bad throws, two misplayed ground balls and one dropped fly ball and have resulted in eight unearned runs scoring.
 
The series against Siena marks the start of a 12-game home stand that will also include games against Saint Louis, Georgetown and Sacred Heart in the Westin Lake Mary Stetson Invitational, two additional games against Sacred Heart and a three-game series against the University of Maryland.
 
Junior Mitchell Senger will enter his start on Saturday 15 strikeouts away from 150 in his career. He had a career-high 16 strikeouts in his second start of the 2018 season, which was his no-hitter against George Washington. Senger set a new single game record in his first outing this year by hitting five batters in his 4.1 innings of work. Senger hit just six batters in 93.1 innings of work last spring.
 
His five walks allowed in the season-opening game against Virginia Tech were also a career high.
 
Senger will be opposed in the series opener by Siena senior left-hander Tommy Miller, who is coming off a 2018 season in which he posted a 9-6 record with a 3.70 ERA in 15 starts. He had six complete game outings and two shutouts while posting 84 strikeouts.
 
In his opener against UCF, Miller allowed just two runs on six hits over 5.2 innings with no walks and five strikeouts. He was not involved in the decision in a game UCF won in walk-off fashion 3-2.
 
Sunday's game is scheduled to pit Stetson sophomore right-hander Robbie Peto against Siena junior right-hander Brendan White. Peto allowed just two runs, one earned, over five innings in his Stetson debut against Sam Houston State, scattering six hits with three strikeouts.
 
White also had a strong outing in his season debut against UCF, allowing one run on six hits over five innings with two walks and eight strikeouts. White was 3-9 in 16 starts last year with a 4.08 ERA.
 
Stetson has not settled on a starter for Monday's game, but the Saints will send senior right-hander Dylan D'Anna out for his second start. Like the other two Saints starters, D'Anna had a good outing against UCF, allowing two runs, one earned, over four innings with five strikeouts.
 
The series finale on Tuesday will see a likely match up of left-handers, with Stetson sophomore Chris Gonzalez likely to make his first start of the year against Siena freshman Ben Seiler.
 
About Stetson University Athletics: Stetson University's Athletics Program has a vision of developing a culture of champions athletically, academically and within the community. This vision is accomplished through a mission of recruiting and developing student-athletes, coaches and staff, creating a culture of champions, within and outside of competition. The department operates with five core values: Championship Culture, Integrity, Excellence, Pride/Tradition and Leadership. To learn more about the Vision, Mission and Core Values for Stetson Athletics, visit GoHatters.com and click on Mission Statement under the Inside Athletics tab.