UNA Baseball Quick Facts PDF
SAN DIEGO, Calif. - The University of North Alabama will open its 2018 baseball season this Friday, February 2 at "America's Most Scenic Ballpark," the nickname given to Point Loma Nazarene's Carroll B. Land Stadium.

The Lions will make the longest road trip in the history of the UNA baseball program to open the 2018 season against a nationally ranked opponent in the Point Loma Nazarene Sea Lions.

Point Loma's home ballpark sits atop a hill along the Pacific coast with home plate facing the Pacific Ocean.  The nickname of, "America's Most Scenic Ballpark," was coined in an article by Baseball America's writer Kevin Kernan in 1993 and an independent poll conducted by HERO Sports in 2017  confirmed by nearly 3,000 voters that even today the Sea Lions are playing on the most panoramic park in the NCAA.

The three-game series with the Sea Lions begins with a single game on Friday at 4 p.m. Central and a double-header on Saturday beginning at 1 p.m. Central.

Ranked 24th in the NCAA Division II pre-season poll by Collegiate Baseball, Point Loma went 32-17 a year ago (23-13 PacWest) and returns its entire starting outfield, shortstop, two members of its starting pitching rotation and nine other letterwinners.

UNA returns seven position starters and 18 letterman from a team that finished 34-19 a year ago. The Lions picked to finish third in the 2018 Gulf South Conference baseball race in a pre-season vote of the league's head coaches and are ranked sixth the South Region by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.

The Lions are led by three returning All-Gulf South Conference selections from 2017 in senior first baseman Kyle Hubbuch of Mt. Juliet, Tenn., senior pitcher Tyler Joyner of East Brewton, Ala., and junior third baseman Davis Elliott of Brentwood, Tenn.
 
Hubbuch hit .333 with 13 home runs and 55 runs batted in. He ranked among the GSC leaders in virtually every offensive category. Joyner was the 2017 Gulf South Conference Pitcher of the Year after posting a 10-2 record with a 3.21 earned run average and 99 strikeouts. Elliott hit .296 with 44 runs scored for the Lions.
 
Other returning starters for the Lions are outfielders Ben Cooley and T.J. Lockett, shortstop Peyton Sockwell, catcher Logan Carter and designated hitter Brandt Holland.

UNA's seven returning pitchers accounted for 23 of the team's 34 wins a year ago.