FORT MYERS, Fla. – With conference seeding still up for grabs entering the final weekend of regular-season play, the FGCU baseball team (24-27, 9-9 A-Sun) hosts front-runner Kennesaw State (26-25, 14-4 A-Sun) in a three-game series at Swanson Stadium this weekend. Game one is scheduled to begin Thursday at 6:30 p.m. followed by game two Friday at 6:30 p.m. and the regular-season finale Saturday at noon.
 
Five senior members of the Green and Blue including Brady Anderson, Colton Bottomley, Clint Knoblauch, Jake Noll and Tyler Selesky will be recognized for their contributions to the program over the last five years prior to Saturday's finale.
 
FGCU's weekend rotation is to be determined while Kennesaw State is projected to send left hander Chris Erwin (2-2, 6.02) to the mound Thursday, right hander Gabe Friese (6-1, 4.14) Friday night and right hander AJ Moore (4-3, 4.68) Saturday afternoon.

"This is our last chance to improve our conference seeding, and we're looking for a couple of big wins this weekend," said FGCU head coach Dave Tollett. "Kennesaw State is obviously a tough opponent as they sit atop of the conference standings, but we're going to try to keep the momentum going from last weekend and finish this thing off on a high note."

SERIES HISTORY
FGCU holds an 18-9 advantage in the all-time series vs. Kennesaw State, including an 8-2 record at Swanson Stadium. After splitting a pair of regular season games a year ago, the two teams met in an A-Sun Championship elimination game with FGCU emerging victorious, 6-2, and ending the Owls' season. The Eagles have claimed all seven three-game series against Kennesaw State in program history, including a sweep of the Owls in 2012 at Swanson Stadium.

THE MATCHUP
In his 14th season of work at FGCU, Tollett has compiled a 487-291-3 all-time record as the only head coach in program history. Additionally, he is a four-time A-Sun Coach of the Year and has guided the Eagles to four A-Sun Regular Season Championships. This weekend, Tollett matches up with Kennesaw State head coach Mike Sansing, who has led the Owls to a 939-517 overall record in his 25th year with the program. He led the Owls to the 2014 A-Sun Tournament Title in 2014 as the team made a run to the Louisville Super Regional.

SCOUTING THE OWLS
Kennesaw State enters this weekend's series with a 26-25 overall record and 14-4 mark in conference play, good for a one-game lead over Jacksonville in the current A-Sun standings. The Owls have won each of their six conference series leading up to this point in the season, including three-game sweeps against NJIT and USC Upstate.

Offensviely, Kennesaw State hits .296 as a team, which is good for second in the conference, and lead the A-Sun with a .331 average in league games. Individually, the Owls are led by a Corey Greeson, Austin Upshaw and Brennan Morgan, who have posted batting averages of .372, .342 and .331, respectively. Greeson ranks third in the conference in average, Upshaw leads the team with 66 hits and seven home runs, and Morgan has driven in a team-leading 37 runs.

Along with the aforementioned starters on the mound, Logan Hutchinson (6-1, 2.73), Erich Stahl (0-1, 2.96) and Richard Lovelady (3-3, 3.21) have been the Owls best arms out of the bullpen. Stahl ranks third in the conference with eight saves, while Lovelady has tallied four of his own with 48 strikeouts in 42.0 innings pitched.

LAST TIME OUT
Despite matching No. 2 Miami in hits and retiring 14 of the last 15 batters face, FGCU dropped an 8-3 decision to the Hurricanes Tuesday night at Mark Light Field. After falling in a 5-0 hole through two innings of play, the Green and Blue played Miami even for the last seven innings of the game but failed to make up any ground on the home-standing Hurricanes. Making his first collegiate start in a hostile road environment, Cory Weiand (0-1, 10.80) suffered the loss for FGCU, while Miami starter Jesse Lepore (8-0, 2.37) earned the win for Miami and Keven Pimentel recorded the save.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR
In their last 10 games, the Eagles are hitting .325 as a team with 93 runs on 127 hits, including a season-high 19-run effort in game two against Lipscomb and a 21-hit performance in the series finale at USC Upstate. Individually, Jake Smith (Windermere, Fla./Windermere Prep) leads the way with a .489 clip during the span and has hit safely in all 10 games with multiple hits in seven of the 10 contests. Noll (Punta Gorda, Fla./Charlotte HS) is hitting .438 with 12 extra-base hits and 15 RBI during the stretch, while Selesky (Estero, Fla./Estero HS) has hit a team-leading five home runs and 21 RBI.

BASH BROTHERS
After entering the season with four combined home runs in their careers, Noll and Selesky have accounted for 21 home runs this season and are the first FGCU duo to hit 10 or more home runs in the same season since Tim Roberson (13) and Zach Maxfield (11) did so in 2010. They are one of two teammates in the A-Sun to each have double-digit home runs. Additionally, Noll and Selesky have each surpassed the 50-RBI plateau with 110 between the two of them this season.

LEAGUE LEADER
Noll currently ranks first or second in the A-Sun in eight offensive categories as he leads the league in runs scored (55), hits (84), RBI (59) and total bases (140) and ranks second in average (.385), slugging (.642), doubles (19) and home runs (11). He is the only player in the league to rank in the top-five in all of the aforementioned offensive categories. Additionally, Noll entered the week ranked eighth in the NCAA in hits, 20th in RBI, 24th in runs scored, 29th in doubles and 36th in average and is the only player in Division I to rank inside the top-40 in all five offensive categories.

PRODUCTION AT THE TOP
The FGCU quartet of Noll, Smith, Matt Reardon (Palm City, Fla./Martin County HS) and Selesky have been big-time producers this season as they not only rank one through four, respectively, in batting average, but also hit one through four in the FGCU lineup. The quartet has collectively gone 255-for-708 (.360) from the plate and accounted for 49% of the teams hits. Additionally, they have also totaled 155 runs scored (50%), 53 doubles (50%), 22 home runs (81%) and 149 RBI (51%).

CONFERENCE DOMINANCE
Since joining the A-Sun in 2008, FGCU has not only won more regular-season conference championships (four) than any other member of the A-Sun, but has also won more overall and league games than any other conference opponent. The following is list of overall and conference records for teams that have competed in the A-Sun since 2008.
 

No.	School	Overall	A-Sun
1.	FGCU (2008-present)	295-207-1	162-80 (.669)
2.	UNF (2008-present)	281-219	129-108 (.544)
3.	Kennesaw State (2008-present)	268-241	140-95 (.596)
4.	Stetson (2008-present)	264-257	132-108 (.550)
5.	Lipscomb (2008-present)	249-267	121-118 (.506)
6.	Mercer (2008-14)	243-156	115-82 (.584)
7.	Jacksonville (2008-present)	242-261	118-120 (.496)
8.	ETSU (2008-14)	197-201	88-110 (.444)
9.	USC Upstate (2008-present)	193-291	80-155 (.340)
10.	Belmont (2008-12)	158-139	78-68 (.534)
11.	Campbell (2008-11)	93-125	31-85 (.267)
12.	NKU (2013-15)	39-118	14-61 (.187)
13.	Gardner-Webb (2008)	29-30	15-18 (.455)
14.	NJIT (2016)	17-33	2-15 (.118)

 
CLIMBING THE RANKS
Senior designated hitter Nick Rivera (Cape Coral, Fla./Bishop Verot HS), who was sidelined with a season-ending wrist injury in game one of a two-game midweek series with Rutgers on March 15, has made his mark in FGCU program history as he not only holds the career record for doubles with 63, but also ranks among the top 10 in program history in a number of categories. The Cape Coral native ranks third in home runs (26) and RBI (160) while also ranking fourth in games started (182), fifth in games played (187), seventh in hits (215) and eighth in runs scored (126). Additionally, his 63 doubles is good for the active lead in the NCAA while his 160 RBI ranks seventh. Rivera hopes to be eligible to utilize a medical redshirt at the season's end and return in 2017.

Like Rivera, Noll also makes his way up the list of career batting average, hits, RBI and runs scored and nears the program record for stolen bases. Additionally, he ranks fifth in hits among active NCAA players while also ranking 12th in career batting average. In the midst of an impressive senior campaign, Selesky has also cracked the top-10 in hits, RBI and runs scored.

FGCU CAREER BATTING AVERAGE

1.	Chris Brown (2003-04)	.435
2.	David Cox (2003)	.430
3.	Jason Peacock (2007-08)	.380
4.	Jason Cooper (2003-05)	.375
5.	Zach Maxfield (2009-11)	.371
6.	Jason Kouwsma (2005-06)	.367
7.	Jake Noll (2014-present)	.367
8.	Mikel Alvarez (2008-11)	.360
9.	Ian Manson (2005-06)	.359
10.	Ozzie Borrell (2007-08)	.356

FGCU CAREER HITS

1.	Mikel Alvarez (2008-11)	316
2.	Josh Upchurch (2006-09)	311
3.	Jake Noll (2014-present)	264
4.	Stephen Wickens (2008-11)	259
5.	Tim Roberson (2008-11)	247
6.	Zach Maxfield (2009-11)	241
7.	Nick Rivera (2013-present)	215
8.	Brandon Bednar (2001-13)	206
9.	Jason Cooper (2003-05)	203
10.	Tyler Selesky (2013-present)	201
	Mike Reeves (2010-13)	201

FGCU CAREER RBI

1.	Zach Maxfield (2009-11)	180
	Tim Roberson (2008-11)	180
3.	Nick Rivera (2013-present)	160
4.	Mikel Alvarez (2008-11)	154
5.	Jason Cooper (2003-05)	149
6.	Josh Upchurch (2006-09)	137
7.	Jason Louwsma (2005-06)	135
8.	Jake Noll (2014-present)	128
9.	Tyler Selesky (2013-present)	120
10.	Ozzie Borrell (2007-08)	117

 
FGCU CAREER RUNS SCORED

1.	Josh Upchurch (2006-09)	237
2.	Mikel Alvarez (2008-11)	202
3.	Stephen Wickens (2008-11)	178
4.	Zach Maxfield (2009-11)	158
5.	Tim Roberson (2008-11)	156
6.	Jake Noll (2014-present)	148
7.	Chris Perry (2003-06)	134
8.	Tyler Selesky (2013-present)	133
9.	Jake Smith (2005-08)	129
10.	Nick Rivera (2013-present)	126

 
FGCU CAREER STOLEN BASES

1.	Josh Upchurch (2006-09)	61
2.	Jake Noll (2014-present)	48
3.	Stephen Wickens (2008-11)	36
4.	Chris Brown (2003-04)	27
5.	Michael Suchy (2012-14)	22

 
On the mound, Anderson (Arcadia, Fla./DeSoto County HS) also makes his way up the list of career appearances, innings pitched and wins.
 
FGCU CAREER APPEARANCES

1.	J.J. Crumbley (2005-08)	86
2.	RJ Brown (2010-13)	82
3.	Brady Anderson (2012-present)	74
4.	Jason Kiley (2004-07)	65
5.	Jason Forjet (2009-12)	63

 
FGCU CAREER INNINGS PITCHED

1.	Jason Kiley (2004-07)	284.2
2.	Michael Murray (2013-15)	284.0
3.	Brady Anderson (2012-present)	283.2
4.	Ricky Knapp (2011-13)	283.1
5.	Pete Woodworth (2007-10)	272.2
6.	Chris Sale (2008-10)	228.2
7.	Jason Forjet (2009-12)	220.2
8.	Richie Erath (2008-11, 13)	219.2
9.	Richard Bleier (2006-08)	209.2
10.	Casey Coleman (2006-08)	187.2

 
FGCU CAREER WINS

1.	Pete Woodworth (2007-10)	25
	Jason Kiley (2004-07)	25
3.	Michael Murray (2013-15)	23
	Ricky Knapp (2011-13)	23
5.	Chris Sale (2008-10)	20
6.	J.J. Crumbley (2005-08)	19
7.	Richard Bleier (2006-08)	17
8.	Brady Anderson (2012-present)	16
	Casey Coleman (2006-08)	16
10.	Richie Erath (2008-11, 13)	15

 
RECEIVING VOTES
For the third-consecutive year, FGCU was receiving votes in Collegiate Baseball's Fabulous 40 NCAA Division I Preseason Poll. The A-Sun was represented by four teams as defending tournament champion Lipscomb, defending regular season champion UNF and Stetson were also receiving votes. Additionally, as the A-Sun Preseason Honors and Awards were released in January, the Green and Blue were chosen to finish runner-up to UNF in the preseason coaches poll. The Eagles garnered 50 points and received three of eight first-place votes while the Ospreys collected 58 points and four first-place votes. Lipscomb was selected third with 48 points, followed by Stetson in fourth with 43 points and the lone remaining first-place vote and Kennesaw State in fifth after receiving 37 votes. The preseason top five was separated by only 21 points. Jacksonville (28), USC Upstate (14) and conference newcomer NJIT (8) round out the poll.
 
2016 SCHEDULE
The Eagles' schedule features eight teams that participated in the 2015 NCAA Base­ball Tournament including a pair of College World Series participants, two additional Super Regional participants and three conference champions. The eight NCAA Tournament teams include CWS semifinalist, defending SEC Tournament Champion and preseason No. 1 Florida, CWS participant and preseason No. 4 Miami, Super Regional participants FSU and Illinois, defending A-Sun Tournament Champion Lipscomb, defending MEAC Tournament Champion FAMU and a pair of familiar in-state foes in USF and FAU. A total of 20 games, including the first eight games of the season, will be played against those eight programs.
 
TICKETS
Single-game and season tickets for the 2016 FGCU baseball campaign are now available by calling the FGCU Ticket Office at 239-590-7145 or visiting FGCUTickets.com. The ticket office is also open Monday-Friday from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. for walk-up service. Single-game tickets are $7 for adults, while youth (12 and under), military and members of the alumni association are admitted for $5. Season tickets are $89 for adults and $59 for youth, military and alumni, but exclude the game against Miami at Hammond Stadium on Apr. 5.
 
NEXT UP
The A-Sun Conference Baseball Tournament takes place from Wednesday, May 25 through Saturday, May 28 at Lipscomb's Dugan Field in Nashville, Tenn. The top six teams in the regular season conference standings – Kennesaw State, Jacksonville, UNF, FGCU, Lipscomb and Stetson – will compete in a double elimination tournament with the winner receiving an automatic bid to the 2016 NCAA Tournament.
 
DAVE TOLLETT
In 14 seasons of work, FGCU head coach Dave Tollett has compiled a 487-291-3 record (.625) as the only head coach in the program's history. He is a four-time Atlantic Sun Coach of the Year and has guided the Green and Blue to four A-Sun Regular Season Championships. His team has been ranked nationally on several occasions by multiple media outlets and has coached 39 All-Conference selections, 25 draft picks, 16 current minor leaguers, four A-Sun Pitchers of the Year, four All-Americans, one National Freshman Player of the Year, one National Player of the Year and one MLB All-Star.

FOLLOW ALONG
For constant, news, photos, videos and updates you can follow the baseball team on Twitter @FGCU_Baseball, Instagram @FGCU_Baseball or on Facebook: Facebook.com/FGCUBaseball. You can also find FGCU athletics on YouTube by visiting YouTube.com/FGCUEagles.

#FEEDFGCU
FGCU Athletics sponsors events throughout the year to benefit the FGCU Campus Food Pantry (www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry) and the Harry Chapin Food Bank (www.harrychapinfoodbank.org), FGCU Athletics' charities of choice. For more information, including how to make a contribution, please visitwww.fgcu.edu/foodpantry and utilize the hashtag #FeedFGCU to help raise awareness.