The Stetson baseball team will open the first of two straight key ASUN series at home on Friday night when the Hatters host North Florida to start a three-game series.
 
Game times are set for 6:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday with Sunday's series finale scheduled for 1 p.m. All three games will be broadcast on ESPN+ with Messod Bendayan on the call for each game, joined by Evan Weston on Friday and Victor Anderson for the weekend games.
 
With wet weather expected throughout central Florida over the weekend, pay attention to @StetsonBaseball on Twitter as well as GoHatters.com for updates or changes to the schedule.
 
Stetson owns a slim 33-30 lead in the all-time series which dates back to 1988. UNF made a big dent in the Hatters advantage overall last year by taking seven of the nine games played between the teams.
 
The Ospreys return a good bit of the team that gave the Hatters so many problems last year, but are missing some of the bigger pieces including Alex Kachler, Blake Marabell and former Hatter Austin Bogart offensively and on the mound as well as both closer Brandon Reitz and set-up man Eddie Miller from the bullpen.
 
The Hatters enter play this weekend with a 14-10 record overall, including a 2-4 mark in ASUN play. The Ospreys come into the series with a 9-17 overall record, including 1-5 in conference play. With only the top two teams in each division guaranteed a spot in the ASUN Tournament, along with the next four teams with the best league records, every series is important to hopes of playing into late May.
 
Stetson is coming off a big weekend series victory at Liberty last week. It was the first home series loss for the Flames since late in the 2018 season. UNF was swept last weekend by Kennesaw State after dropping two of three games to the Flames to start conference play.
 
The important series opener on Friday is scheduled to pit Hatters' redshirt sophomore right-hander Nick Durgin (0-1, 5.56) against UNF senior right-hander Max McKinley (2-2, 4.81).
 
Durgin is hopeful of getting a regular start in the opener because he made two appearances against the Ospreys last year before his season was cut short. His Friday night start was cut to just one inning by a weather delay. He came back to pitch in relief in the Sunday game, allowing a run on five hits in just 1.2 innings.
 
McKinley made two appearances against Stetson last year. He took a loss in his first outing, allowing seven runs on 10 hits over 6.1 innings of work. He wasn't involved in the decision for his second start during which he allowed five runs on 10 hits over five innings.
 
Stetson's plans for the weekend are to stick with sophomore left-hander Jonathan Gonzalez (3-3, 5.75) and sophomore right-hander Cole Stallings (4-1, 2.83) to fill out the rotation for the weekend series.
 
UNF has not yet announced starting pitchers for the other two games, but expect to see junior left-hander Tony Roca (0-3, 5.30) make one of those starts. Roca made three starts against Stetson last year, all UNF wins, and worked a total of 15.1 innings while allowing just five hits and five runs. He has struggled in his last two outings, against Liberty and KSU, allowing 11 runs on 15 hits over just 8.2 innings combined.
 
For the Hatters to have success this weekend, they will need to continue to get solid play at the top of the lineup from grad transfer Cameron Hill. The Kentucky native is hitting a team best .386 on the year (fourth in the ASUN) and has reached base in 19 consecutive games. In fact, Hill has reached base to lead off the first inning in 12 of the 24 games the Hatters have played this year. Hill has multiple hits in nine of the last 11 games during his hitting streak and has a .426 (25-54) batting average during that stretch.
 
About Stetson University Athletics: Stetson University's Athletics Program is driven by a shared purpose. It is what inspires, motivates and binds us together. More than a task, a reason for being. THE HATTER PURPOSE is to create and provide an experience of a lifetime through teamwork and relationships to achieve excellence. This purpose is achieved through five Core Values: Communication, Integrity, Excellence, Value People and Commitment. To learn more about the HATS program and our Core Values, visit GoHatters.com/HATS. Get in on the conversation on social media by following Stetson Athletics on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. For video content, visit our YouTube channels: Stetson Hatters, Stetson Athletics and, for live events, Hatter Vision.