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CHARLESTON, S.C. – The Citadel baseball team faces VMI in the opening game of the Southern Conference Championships presented by Holston Gases on Tuesday at Fluor Field in Greenville, South Carolina.

The Bulldogs (16-34, 7-17 SoCon) are the No. 8 seed in the SoCon tournament. They defeated VMI in two of three games in the conference series opener. The winner of Tuesday's game will take on No. 1 seed Mercer on Wednesday.

VMI (22-32, 7-17 SoCon) had a chance to take the No. 7 seed over the weekend, but was swept by ETSU.

SoCon Pitcher of the Year JP Sears will matchup with VMI's Josh Winder. The Keydet right hander was named to the All-SoCon Second Team on Monday. Sears and Winder dueled earlier this season on March 24. The Citadel won 3-0 behind Sears' two-hit, complete game shutout and 20 strikeouts. Winder also threw a complete game in the loss, striking out 14 batters.

Tuesday's game begins at 10 a.m. Live statistics and video links will be available at CitadelSports.com.

Quick Hits

• After defeating VMI in two out of three games earlier this season, the Bulldogs are 70-23 overall against the Keydets.
• The two teams met up in the 2016 SoCon Championship play-in game, with The Citadel winning 3-2 in 10 innings.
• JP Sears was selected the SoCon Pitcher of the Year by both the coaches and media on Monday. Sears was also placed on the All-SoCon First Team.
• Jonathan Sabo was selected to the All-SoCon Second Team by the conference coaches. Will Abbott and Bryce Leasure were named to the All-SoCon Freshman Team.
• Sears finished the regular season with a 7-2 record, 2.03 ERA and a Division I best 138 strikeouts.
• The south paw will face off with VMI's Josh Winder on Tuesday at the Southern Conference Championship. The last time Sears and Winder met up, both pitchers threw a complete game in The Citadel's 3-0 victory.
• Sears struck out 20 batters in the complete game shutout and has 49 strikeouts in his last three starts against VMI.
• Sears wrapped up the regular season with three straight double-digit strikeout performances. He won his final three starts against ETSU, UNCG and Wofford with 36 strikeouts in 23 innings.
• The Sumter, South Carolina, native is the first Bulldog player to receive a SoCon weekly award three times in a single season. He now has five Southern Conference Pitcher of the Week awards in his career.
• Sears was also named to the prestigious Golden Spikes Award Midseason Watch List by USA Baseball on April 12. He is one of just 40 players across the country on the list and the only player from the Southern Conference.
• In addition to leading the nation in strikeouts, Sears enters the week ranked fourth in strikeouts per nine innings with 13.35, 21st in strikeout-to-walk ratio at 6.27 and 24th with a 0.94 WHIP.
• Sears is just the 13th pitcher to record 100 strikeouts in a season for The Citadel since 1965, with the last by James Reeves in 2015.
• The left hander is now also third in the Bulldog record book in career strikeouts with 313. He passed current Bulldog pitching coach Britt Reames (295) and Mike Pendleton (298) and Asher Wojciechowski (308) in his last two starts to move into the top-three.
• As a pitching staff, The Citadel ranks eighth in Division I and first in the SoCon with 9.6 strikeouts per nine innings.
• Freshman Jeffery Brown made his first career start on May 5 against ETSU going 3-for-4 with three runs scored and the game-tying RBI. He started the final two games of the series, finishing 7-for-11 with five runs scored and three RBI to raise his season average to .455.
• On May 7, Taylor Cothran hit the team's first grand slam of the year, which gave the Bulldogs an 8-7 lead in the eighth inning. The Citadel eventually fell 10-9 in 10 innings despite Cothran's heroics.
• Jonathan Sabo had his third two-homer game of the season on May 5 against ETSU. He leads the team with 10 home runs and 31 runs batted in.
• Ben Peden, who started the team's first 37 games, was injured April 23 against Mercer. He remains out indefinitely with Joe Sabatini and Bryce Leasure splitting time at first base in his absence.
• William Kinney' extended his streak of consecutive starts to 121 games, dating back to 2015. His streak of starts at shortstop ended at 97 on April 29 at Furman when he was the starting designated hitter for the Bulldogs.
• On April 6, Sears was awarded the Southern Conference Pitcher of the Month award for March after finishing 3-0 with a 1.43 ERA and 55 strikeouts in 37.2 innings pitched.
• The Bulldog southpaw was also selected the SoCon Pitcher of the Week for then the second time the season and fourth time of his career on March 27. Sears struck out a career-high 20 batters at home against VMI in a two-hitter on March 24 to earn the award.
• Sears' performance against VMI ties him for the program record for strikeouts in a game and is tied for second all-time in the SoCon. 20 strikeouts is also the highest in a single game this season in Division I.
• Along with his 19 strikeout performance last year at VMI, Sears now has two of the top-six strikeout totals in SoCon history.
• Sears was also selected as one of Collegiate Baseball's National Players of the Week, March 24th's Pitcher of the Night by D1Baseball.com, College Sports Madness SoCon Player of the Week and was featured in USA Baseball's Golden Spikes Award Gold Standard Performance of the Week poll.
• The Citadel offense exploded for a record 34 runs on Tuesday, Feb. 14 against Winthrop. The Bulldogs also set records for hits (34), RBIs (31), margin of victory (26) and at-bats (56).
• The 34 runs remain the highest single-game total in NCAA Division I this season, topping 32 runs scored by both McNeese and South Alabama.
• The offense had multiple players with career days against Winthrop as five Bulldogs recorded at least four hits, five finished with four or more RBIs and four more scored at least four runs.
• Barrett Charpia drove in nine RBI on a 5-for-8 day at the plate. The senior smacked two home runs, driving in the second most runs by a Bulldog in program history. Charpia's nine RBI are tied for the third most in a single game in Division I this season.
• Charpia was selected the D1baseball.com Player of the Day and was one of four players nominated for the Golden Spikes Gold Standard Performance of the Week.
• Jonathan Sabo also finished 5-for-9 with two home runs against Winthrop. The junior transfer scored six runs and drove in five more.
• Sabo and Taylor Cothran each tied the program record with six runs scored apiece. The last time the feat was accomplished by a Bulldog was in 1998 by Jerry Simmons.
• William Kinney tied The Citadel record with four doubles in a six-hit ball game for the junior. The shortstop became the first Bulldog to hit four doubles in a game since Mark Mitchum did so in 1979. Kinney also posted career highs of six RBI and five runs scored.
• Cothran and J.D. Davis each posted their first career four-hit games against Winthrop. Ben Peden finished 3-for-6 with four runs scored and four RBI.
• Taylor Cothran and Cole Buffington each smacked their first career home runs at Western Carolina. Both home runs were of the solo variety. Buffington hit his on Friday, March 31 while Cothran crushed his first home run on Sunday, April 2.
• Jeffery Brown picked up his first career hit in the ninth inning against South Carolina on March 28, legging out an infield single.
• Will Pillsbury earned his first career win on March 26 vs VMI in a 4-2 victory. The freshman struck out five batters in 5.1 innings of work, allowing just two runs.
• Sears walked his first batter of the season against C of C on March 3 after beginning 2017 with 21 strikeouts in 13.2 innings before allowing his first free pass.
• Sears was selected the SoCon Pitcher of the Week for the first time this year on Feb. 27 after striking out 12 batters in a 4-0 victory over Delaware State.
• Kinney drew a walk-off walk in the bottom of the 10th inning on Saturday, March 18 against Dartmouth in an 8-7 victory. Kinney led the offense with a 3-for-5 day, two RBI, a run scored and a triple.
• The Bulldogs walked a season-high 13 times on Tuesday, March 1 in a 9-8 victory over Presbyterian College. It is the most walks in a single game for The Citadel since 2007.
• Barrett Charpia walked four times in the game, the most for a single Bulldog player since 2007 as well.
• Charpia hit a walk-off single on Feb. 25 against Delaware State in The Citadel's 6-5 victory.
• Relief pitcher Aaron Lesiak earned the win in relief against his former team on Feb. 27 vs Presbyterian.

For more information on The Citadel baseball follow @CitadelBaseball or visit CitadelSports.com.