The Stetson Hatters return home on Friday night to open a big series in ASUN Conference play against Kennesaw State.
 
The games are scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday evening and for 1 p.m. on Sunday. All three games will be live streamed on Stetson's HatterVision YouTube channel with Messod Bendayan on the call.
 
The Hatters come into the series off a disappointing loss in extra innings on Wednesday night in Tallahassee, but that game has no bearings on the race to make the ASUN Tournament in late May.
 
Stetson is 16-12 overall on the season, but 4-5 in ASUN play while the Owls, who had their Wednesday night game at Georgia Southern canceled by bad weather, enter the weekend with a record of 18-9 overall, including a 7-2 mark in ASUN play.
 
With a 12-team ASUN, only eight teams will advance to play in the tournament in Ft. Myers. The top three teams from each division based on overall record in ASUN play will be joined by the next two team with the highest ranking according to the RPI.
 
This will be the first meeting between the Hatters and the Owls since the 2019 season. Kennesaw State leads the all-time series, which first started in 2006, 23-22. The Hatters lead the series 13-10 in games played at Melching Field. The last time the teams played, during the 2019 season, Stetson took two of the three games in a series in DeLand.
 
Only five members of the current Stetson squad have faced the Owls wearing a Hatters uniform. Kyle Ball is 4-14 (.286) in four career games against KSU. Four current Hatters pitchers have faced the Owls - Bret Neilan (1.1 IP, 0 R), Daniel Paret (6.2 IP,  O R, W), Danny Garcia (3.1 IP, 0 R, SV) and Chris Gonzalez (8.0 IP, 3 R, W).
 
This will be the first time Stetson has played against a Kennesaw State team coached by someone other than Mike Sansing, who retired following the 2021 campaign. New KSU coach Ryan Coe played and coached for Sansing for 15 years before spending 12 season as a scout for the Texas Rangers. He is a member of the KSU Hall of Fame.
 
KSU is led offensively by transfer Josh Hatcher, who was part of the CWS National Champion Mississippi State team in 2021. In addition to hitting .400 on the year (2nd in the ASUN) he made national headlines by hitting for the cycle twice in the same week against Georgia Tech and UNF.
 
Senior Tyler Simon is the only member of the KSU roster to have played against Stetson. He is 13-28 (.464) in seven games against the Hatters.
 
The loss to Florida State on Wednesday dropped Stetson to 3-4 in mid-week games this year. The Hatters are also 5-5 in games decided by two runs or less. The game was the first to go extra innings for Stetson this year. The Hatters played a pair of 12 inning games in 2021, both losses - one at South Florida (6-5) and the other at Alabama (4-3).
 
The last extra innings win for Stetson came in 2020, an 8-7 victory over UMBC in a game that went 12 innings.
 
Stetson is 11-8 in extra-inning games in five plus seasons under Steve Trimper. The longest game during his tenure was a 6-1 victory over Jacksonville in the 2019 ASUN Tournament, a game that went 16 innings.
 
The Hatters have swiped 54 bags already this season, more than the team stole in the shortened 2020 and 2021 seasons combined. Stetson is on pace, in a 60-game season, to steal 115 bases, which would be the most for the Hatters since 1997.
 
Graduate transfer Cam Hill continues to lead the Stetson offensive attack. The Kentucky native is hitting a team best .359 on the year (10th in the ASUN) and has reached base in 23 consecutive games. In fact, Hill has reached base to lead off the first inning in 14 of the 28 games the Hatters have played this year.
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.