JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. - The University of Hartford baseball team will travel to Johnson City, Tenn. for their next three games against the East Tennessee State Buccaneers. The series, which will be played at Thomas Stadium, is scheduled for single games on Friday, Saturday and Sunday with the series opener tabbed for a 6:05 start on Friday evening.

INSIDE THE SERIES
Hartford and East Tennessee State meet for the first time in the history of the two programs

SCOUTING EAST TENNESSEE STATE
The Buccaneers broke a three-game skid with a 4-3 mid-week victory over Eastern Kentuck on Wednesday at Thomas Stadium. This weekend series will be the final games in an eight game home stretch, in which the Buccaneers are 2-3 in the first five games. Leading ETSU is led by senior  first baseman Clinton Freeman who has hit safely a team best 15 times in 48 at bats for a .313 batting average. He has also hit six extra base hits and drove in a team-best 10 runs. ETSU is scheduled to throw rookie righthander Austin Hutchison (5.40) in the series opener, junior righty Jimmy Nesselt (3.15) in the middle game and senior righty Logan Rice (4.66) in the series finale.

NEXT ON TAP
The Hawks return to the Constitution State for their first game in New England when they travel to New Britain for a date with the Central Connecticut State University Blue Devils. Hartford and CCSU are scheduled for a 3 p.m. first pitch at Balf Savin Field on Wednesday, March 12, the first mid-week game of the season for Hartford.

LAST TIME OUT
Three RBI from Brady Sheetz and an RBI double from Ryan Lukach lifted the Hawks to a 4-3, 12-inning, victory over the George Mason Patriots in the final game of a three-game series. Earning the Hawks first victory in 2014 was reliever Sam McKay who pitched two of the extra frames without allowing a run on one hit and striking out one. Sophomore Brian Hunter started for Hartford, and allowed two of the Patriots three runs. David Drouin, Kyle Gauthier and Jeremy Charles all saw at least two innings of relief. Sheetz led the Hawks at the plate with his three RBI, all coming on a double in the fifth inning. He would finish the game with a pair of hits, tying James Alfonso and Billy Walker in leading Hartford. As a team, the Hawks finished with nine total hits.

STREAKING HAWK
Shortstop Trey Stover has hit safely in all six games in 2014, smacking a team-best nine hits in 30 at bats for a .300 batting average. Dating back to 2013, Stover has hit safely in seven-straight games. Included in the first six games this season is a pair of multi-hit games, including a season-best of three hits in the series finale against Georgetown, an 11 inning battle. He also finished with two hits in the middle game against Georgetown. Two of his nine hits have gone for extra bases, a double and a triple, while he has reached base safely a total of 11 times, including a pair of walks.

EXTRA TIME
The Hartford baseball team has needed extra innings to decide a winner in three of their six games in 2014. Overall, the Hawks are 1-3 in those extra innings contest with the most recent a 12-inning victory over George Mason last time out. The Hawks have played a total of nine extra innings with the longest game so far this season, the season opener at Georgetown, lasting 13 innings and resulting in a 4-3 loss.

COVER BOY
Junior pitcher Sean Newcomb graces the cover of the latest New England baseball Journal while he is also the focus of the magazine's Prospects Pulse article by Dan Guttenplan (page 13). Newcomb is also listed as the #2 prospect in the journal's Top 10 MLB Draft Prospects listing (page 15). March NE Baseball Journal

NEWCOMB GETS NATIONAL ATTENTION
Junior lefty Sean Newcomb has been listed among many of the top-50 players to watch in the coming season and most recently was named to the Preseason All-American Third Team by Baseball America. The Baseball America Preseason All-America teams are a product of a poll of major league scouting directors who make their selections based on performance, talent and professional potential. In Baseball America's Major League draft listing, Newcomb was listed as the 19th overall pick. The junior hurler finished last season with a career-high 92 strikeouts, earning America east First Team All-Conference honors after setting a conference record with 78 strikeouts in league play. Included in that was a single-game career-high of 12 against Binghamton, the most by a single pitcher in the America East in the 2013 season.

LUKACH & CARTER CAPTAINS
Third year head coach Justin Blood announced the leadership for his 2014 Hartford Hawks squad, senior Ryan Carter and redshirt junior outfielder Ryan Lukach. "Every day it is our goal to have energy and effort with direction," said Blood. "These two student-athletes have earned the right from their teammates to be captains because they are very consistent with that philosophy." The Hawks everyday right fielder in 2013, Lukach is a three-time captain who looks to build on a team-best .292 batting average last season. Carter, a right-handed pitcher, closed out his junior season with seven appearances on the mound, three of which were starts. Primarily a relief pitcher, Carter pitched 10 innings and allowed 13 hits overall.

WHATS ON THE MENU
Head Coach Justin Blood announced a 52-game schedule for his third season at the helm of the Hawks in 2014. The schedule includes 43 dates, highlighted by games against four NCAA Tournament teams from 2013. "We are very excited about the 2014 schedule," said Blood. "It features 13 games against opponents the program has never faced and nine games against programs that participated in the NCAA tournament in 2013. Our non-conference schedule will be very competitive and should prepare us well for our America East slate" The first 13 games will all come on the road as they beat out the winter weather in the Northeast by traveling south. A 19-game home schedule will start with five-straight games at Fiondella Field beginning with in-state rival Yale University.

PRESEASON POLL
In a poll of the America East head coaches, the Hawks were picked to finish fourth overall in the league. For the first time in America East baseball history, two teams were selected as co-preseason favorites as Binghamton and Stony Brook tied atop the poll. Binghamton is the reigning America East champion after finishing second in the regular season in 2013

RETURN TRIP
Prior to the season, the America East Conference announced that the 2014 America East Championship will return to LeLacheur Park in Lowell, Mass. LeLacheur Park played host to the 2013 championship for the first time following the UMass Lowell River Hawks joining the America East. The current announcement by the league office will keep the baseball championship at the home of the Boston Red Sox Sing A affiliate Lowell Spinners for three seasons. LeLacheur Park opened in 1998 and holds 4,767 spectators. The 2014 America East Championship is scheduled for May 22-24 with May 25 available as a rain or extra day if needed. The top four teams following a 24-game conference regular season will advance to the championship event.