FLORENCE, Ala. (May 8, 2025) – The University of North Alabama baseball team welcomes the Eastern Kentucky Colonels for the final home series at Mike D. Lane Field at Bank Independent Stadium this season starting Friday, May 9 at 7 p.m.
Live stats will be available via StatBroadcast, while live video will not be available due to ongoing construction. However, a booth cam with play-by-play will be provided by the 'Voice of the Lions'
Benjamin Ray and his partner,
Grant Wakefield. All links will be made available at RoarLions.com.
North Alabama at Eastern Kentucky
Friday, May 9, 2025
7:00 p.m.
Live Stats |
Booth Cam
North Alabama at Eastern Kentucky
Saturday, May 10, 2025
2:00 p.m.
Live Stats |
Booth Cam
North Alabama at Eastern Kentucky
Sunday, May 11, 2025
12:30 p.m.
Live Stats |
Booth Cam
NOTES
THE RUNDOWN: The University of North Alabama baseball team won against UT Martin for the seventh straight time in the all-time series, winning 2-1 on the road in Martin, Tenn. This is the second win over the Skyhawks in as many weeks. The Lions had six hits for the afternoon, but two of those came in pivotal moments with two outs on the board.
Petey Craska, the hero of the story, had two of the six hits. His second hit was a double in the top of the ninth to score
Leighton Jenkins for a go-ahead RBI double. The UNA pitching crew was strong, only allowing UT Martin to three hits for the game. The Skyhawks' first hit came in the bottom of the fifth. The .107 batting average that UTM was limited to is the third-lowest allowed by UNA this season.
SERIES HISTORY: This will be the 16th all-time meeting between the two programs. The Lions won this previous series earlier this season. North Alabama dropped the final game on a walk-off home run in extra innings, 6-5. Before that series, the Lions had never won a series before and only had one win throughout the matchup. This is the first time that EKU is playing in Florence, Ala. since 2023; UNA lost all three of those games. However, the lone win before this season came in 2022 at Mike D. Lane Field, 10-1.
SCOUTING THE COLONELS: Eastern Kentucky is 10-39 this season and 7-21 since the Colonels last placed UNA. EKU holds a 7-17 conference record and recently just won their series over Central Arkansas with two wins, 8-3 and 9-5. They lost their final home game on Tuesday, May 6 to Miami (OH), 11-1. The Colonels have amassed only one win this season when playing on the road. That came against Lipscomb by a score of 7-4. EKU currently sits in last place of the Gold Division.
FAREWELL, SENIORS: The Lions host senior day on Sunday, May 11 against EKU at 12:30 p.m. North Alabama is recognizing 10 graduates from the program. Captains
Jonathan Lane and
Brycen Parrish are among the group while
Zak Majer,
Carson Howard and
Quinn Petty add on as the only other four-year Lions.
Anthony Pingeton and
Caleb Menina are the other two players with established residency while newcomers
Jayden Sloan,
Dylan Morrill and
Kyle Lewis round out the 2025 class. These 10 players have combined for a total of 468 games played during their time at North Alabama.
MILESTONE MARKER: The Lions recently tied for the most wins in the Division I era with 18 on Tuesday, May 6 over UT Martin. The next win will get the Lions to 19, marking the best in school history since the transition. Since 2020, the team has improved in wins each season with the most being five wins from 2021 to 2022. Each of these years has seen at least a two improvement from the year prior. The Lions have seven games remaining this season.
PEAK POINT: North Alabama recently won their 11th ASUN game of the season, marking the most conference wins in a season since moving to Division I. The Lions won 10 conference games last season, the most since entering the Division I era and the first time reaching double digit wins in conference play at that time. The Lions won seven in 2019, no conference matchups in 2020, six in 2021, five in 2022 and eight in 2023. North Alabama has six conference games — including this weekend — left this season.
STAMPED IN THE HISTORY BOOKS: Captain and second baseman
Jonathan Lane earned his 206th career hit on Sunday, May 4 against Lipscomb. He put a heater on the shortstop and beat out the throw for the single. With that hit, he passed the great former MLB standout Josh Willingham for fourth all-time in the history books in career hits. After his 200th hit, he joined UNA Hall of Famers James Barksdale (261), Douglas Hargett (243) and Willingham (205), as well as 2018 graduate Kyle Hubbach (215).
HOW IT PLAYS: The ASUN moved to two divisions this past season, meaning teams will only play within the division during the regular season. During post season, each division matches up with the other in the first round, including top seeds against four seeds and two seeds against three seeds. Currently listed, the Lions are in a tie for third with Central Arkansas. If the pace keeps up, they will place for third place to end the season and the rights to play Graphite two-seed, who is currently slated as Jacksonville.
CLINCHING SCENARIO: North Alabama is inching toward the program's first ASUN postseason berth and could do it as soon as this weekend with a series win over Eastern Kentucky this weekend. The Lions will need a little help from Lipscomb to take at least one win over Bellarmine for the weekend. This would give North Alabama 13 wins and would remove Bellarmine from contention.
UP NEXT: After the Lions take on the Colonels at home, they travel to Starkville, Miss. to play Mississippi State on May 13 at 6 p.m. This will be UNA's final game against an SEC opponent this season.
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