Furman Set To Face Wofford In 2007 SoCon Tournament First Round Action

May 21, 2007

GREENVILLE, S.C. -- The No. 8 seed Furman Paladins will open 2007 Southern Conference Baseball Tournament play Tuesday against the No. 9 seed Wofford Terriers in a noon game at Charleston's Joseph P. Riley Park.

Tuesday's first round game between the Paladins (19-35, 11-16 SoCon) and Terriers (25-31, 8-19 SoCon) will be a single elimination contest with the winner advancing to play No. 1 seed College of Charleston at 1:00 Wednesday and the loser going home.

All Furman games will be carried live over Greenville radio station WOLT-FM 103.3 with Robbie Ross calling play-by-play and former Paladin standout Clint Hill handling color commentary.

Furman dropped two of three games to Wofford in Spartanburg earlier this month, but the Paladins have won eight of the last 10 meetings between the two schools. Furman is 2-0 versus Wofford in SoCon Tournament action, with the last meeting, a 7-5 Paladin victory, coming in 2002.

Furman is slated to start senior right-hander Matt Klinker (5-5, 4.56 ERA) against Wofford. The West Chester, Ohio, product is coming off the most impressive outing of his career, a complete game, three-hit victory in the Paladins' 4-2 triumph over The Citadel last Thursday. Against the Bulldogs, Klinker threw only 88 pitches and retired the final 13 batters he faced, recording all six of his strikeouts from the fifth inning on. He faced only 29 batters, two above the minimum.

Klinker was the starting and wining pitcher in Furman's 11-2 victory over Wofford on May 4. He worked 7 2/3 innings, allowing only five hits and two runs while recording a season high nine strikeouts.

Furman heads into SoCon Tournament action having won five of its last six games, including a 6-3 win over then nationally 16th-ranked Clemson on May 9.

The Paladins own a 27-24 league tournament record and have won two championships, with the first coming in 1991 and the second in 2005, when Furman barely qualified as the No. 8 and final seed before defeating No. 1 seed College of Charelston, No. 4 seed Elon, and No. 2 seed Georgia Southern twice en route to the title.