FLORENCE, S.C. – The 29th-ranked Francis Marion University baseball team will begin a nine-game homestand this week by playing host to Newberry College on Wednesday night (March 28) at 7 p.m. and Brown University on Thursday (March 29) at 2 p.m. Please note the time change for the Brown game as it was originally set for 1 p.m. on Cormell Field.

Swamp Fox Club passes and FMU student IDs are accepted, while general admission tickets are $3 for adults and $2 for students.

The Patriots are 21-13 overall and are appearing in the Collegiate Baseball Top 30 poll for the 42nd consecutive week. Each of FMU’s last seven losses has been to a nationally ranked opponent.

Newberry is 14-20 heading into a Tuesday contest at August State University prior to traveling to Florence.   FMU leads the all-time series 38-34, which constitutes the third-most visited series in team history.

Brown is 4-9 with a two-game series at The Citadel, Tuesday and Wednesday, before coming to Florence. This will be the first-ever meeting between the two schools, and the first NCAA Division I opponent for Francis Marion since an 8-4 loss to Coastal Carolina University on April 2, 1991.

Thursday’s contest will be the first for the Patriots against an Ivy League school since the 1970’s. FMU beat Yale University in six of seven meetings between 1974 and 1978.

Other upcoming home games for FMU include a three-game Peach Belt Conference series with UNC Pembroke this weekend (March 31-April 1), a single game against Limestone College on April 4, and another three-game PBC series against Georgia Southwestern State University on April 6-7.

Senior right-hander Brooks Sinquefield (2-3 record, 6.11 earned run average) will start Wednesday’s game against Newberry, while freshman southpaw Cory Deering (2-0, 0.49 ERA) will take the mound against Brown.

The catcher-designated hitter tandem of senior Michael Ward and sophomore Jared Barkdoll paces the Patriot hitting attack. Ward is batting .368 with seven home runs and 30 runs batted in. His 18 doubles are four shy of the team’s single-season record. Barkdoll is hitting .363 with 10 doubles, two homers, and 29 RBIs.