The UMBC baseball team continues its season opening four-game road swing when they face the College of Charleston Cougars this weekend at the Baseball Stadium at Patriots Point.

The Friday and Saturday games are slated for a 4:00 p.m. first pitch, while Sunday's finale is set for 1:00 p.m. The games will be broadcast on Flo Sports ($).

EXPECTED STARTERS

• Friday  - Luke Johnson, Jr. (first appearance in '23) vs. Ty Good (0-0, 5IP, 0.00 ERA)
• Saturday – Joe Pucek, Jr. (first appearance in '23) vs. Trey Pooser (0-0, 5.2 IP, 1.59 ERA)
• Sunday – Nick Remy, Soph. (0-1, 3.0 IP, 21.00 ERA) vs. Andrew Duval (1-0, 2.0 IP, 9.00 ERA) 

RETRIEVER NOTES

• Freshman first baseman Leewood Molessa (Pullman, W.Va.) homered in his first career at-bat, drove in six runs and finished a single shy of the cycle, but the UMBC Baseball team dropped its season-opener at Delaware, 22-11, on Tuesday afternoon.
• His three-run homer put UMBC (0-1) up 3-0 in the second and the Retrievers led, 5-0, heading to the bottom of the inning. But Delaware would pile up 17 runs in their next five at-bats, before UMBC tallied four times in the top of the sixth.
• Grad student OF Ian Diaz (2-4, 3R), senior catcher Tony Krueger (2-4, 2 RBI) and junior 2B Anthony Swenda (2-5, 2 RBI) – making his UMBC debut – each had a pair of hits for the Retrievers.
• Johnson – who doubled and scored as a pinch hitter in the ninth inning - finished second in America East with a 3.93 earned run average and was fourth in opponent batting average at .244 in 2022.

A GLANCE AT THE COUGARS  

• The Cougars opened the campaign with a 5-2 victory over No. 14 Virginia Tech at home on Friday, before dropping the final two games (12-3, 15-2) of the series versus the Hokies.
• Junior OF Khyree Miller belted a grand slam in the sixth inning to reverse a 2-1 deficit and William Privette struck out four Hokies over the final two innings to earn the save.
• Sophomore OF Tyler Sorrentino led the offense versus VT with four hits (4/12) and three runs scored in the series.
• The Cougars posted a 37-20 mark and won the CAA regular season title in 2022. However, they dropped a pair of games to No. 5 Northeastern in the CAA Tournament.

SERIES RECORD

• The two schools have only met once on the diamond, with UMBC recorded a 7-6 victory in 1999.

UP NEXT

• The Retrievers are set to open the home schedule on Tuesday, Feb. 28 when they welcome Delaware State at 3:00 p.m. UMBC will embark on a lengthy nine-game road swing (including one neutral site game) before returning home on March 14 to face Bucknell.