The Stetson Baseball team will continue its early season tour through the America East Conference this weekend when they host the Retrievers of UMBC for a three-game series at Melching Field.
 
The games on Friday and Saturday will have an early start time of 4:30 p.m. Sunday's series finale is scheduled for a 1 p.m. start as usual.
 
Stetson comes into the weekend with a 6-1 record on the young season after winning three of four games, including two of three from Hartford, last week. The Hatters had their scheduled mid-week game against top-ranked Florida postponed until March 18.
 
This will be the first time Stetson has faced UMBC since a single game between the teams in 1987. The Retrievers won that game 6-5. Overall, Stetson owns a 10-6 all-time record against teams from the State of Maryland and the Hatters are 21-7 all-time against members of the America East Conference.
 
UMBC is still looking for its first win on the year after getting swept in four games at Charlotte last weekend before dropping a single game at George Washington on Tuesday. The Retrievers are hitting just .153 as a team so far this year and have scored just nine runs in five games.
 
The task of scoring runs won't get any easier for the Retrievers this weekend as they face a Stetson pitching staff that has posted a 1.86 ERA so far this year. The Hatters will use the same weekend rotation for the third consecutive week with sophomore left-hander Chris Gonzalez (0-1, 2.70) making the start in the opener with redshirt junior right-hander Robbie Peto (2-0, 0.00) and freshman right-hander Nick Durgin (1-0, 1.46) set to follow.
 
The Stetson staff is also expected to get a boost this weekend with the first appearance of preseason ASUN Pitcher of the Year Daniel Paret, who has been out of action with an injury. He is expected to get some work out of the bullpen this weekend and, if all goes well, could get his first start next week at Bethune-Cookman.
 
The Hatters have been led offensively so far this year by redshirt freshman Brandon Hylton. The ASUN Player of the Week has hit safely in each of the first seven games and is hitting .522 overall. Junior Eric Foggo is also off to a hot start, hitting .385 on the year.
 
UMBC is led offensively by junior catcher Dmitri Floyd (.333) and senior infielder Christian Torres (.278). Torres is the only Florida native on the UMBC roster, hailing from Miami.
 
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.