LaGrange goes on the road Wednesday for a Top 10 matchup with Birmingham-Southern. The Panthers are 17-1 and riding an eight-game winning streak entering the game.
LC jumped six spots to No. 6 in the current D3baseball.com/NCBWA Top 25 poll and received a first place for the second time this season. It is the first time since the 2017 season the Panthers have cracked the Top 10. LC rose to the No. 1 ranking that season and were No. 9 in the final poll after a record 40-6 season.
Birmingham-Southern is ranked second in this week's poll and are 15-4 overall. The host Panthers have won four straight since being swept by Rhodes in a conference doubleheader on March 13.
Birmingham-Southern won 6-3 last season at Cleaveland Field in Williamson Stadium in the last meeting. The Panthers won 4-1 in 2020 in their last trip to Scrushy-Striplin Field.
The Panthers have a number of players ranked in the latest USA South and NCAA Division III statistics.
McKinley Erves is first in the conference and in Division III with 22 walks. Erves also is the conference leader and third nationally with 33 runs scored. Rhett Hebert has been hit by a pitch 11 times, the most in the conference and ranks second nationally.
Jack Layrisson is tied for first in the conference and fourth nationally with 29 RBIs. He is tied for the Division III lead and is first in the conference with five sacrifice flies. Joe Ruth is third in the conference and sixth nationally with 27 RBIs.
On the mound, Baley Coleman's five wins leads the USA South and is second nationally. Coleman's 0.88 ERA leads the conference. Ethan Kramer is the conference leader and third nationally with six saves.
As a team, the Panthers lead the USA South in batting average (.348), earned run average (3.05), hits (216), runs (183), on-base percentage (.448), slugging percentage (.477), scoring (10.2 runs per game), and sacrifice flies (16). They rank in the Top 20 in Division III in batting average (19), earned run average (14), hits (14), runs (6), sacrifice flies (5), and scoring (20).
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