NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Fresh off its first road trip of the year, the Belmont baseball team (9-7) will return home to host a pair of non-conference games at Rose Park this week. The Bruins will take on Middle Tennessee (10-6) on Tuesday and host Valparaiso (4-10) on Wednesday.
Belmont won one in a three-game series at Auburn this weekend, but lost the other two contests by a total of two runs. The Tigers marked the second SEC team that the Bruins have defeated this year after topping Vanderbilt 6-5 earlier in the week. It marks the second straight season BU has achieved the feat. Belmont won at Mississippi State and Tennessee in 2011.
Middle Tennessee comes to Nashville with a record of 10-6, and just took two out of three at home against Ball State. Just as Belmont did early in the season, the Blue Raiders fell to Kansas and defeated Saint Louis as a part of the Music City Classic. Ethan Williams leads MTSU at the plate with a .350 batting average and five doubles.
Valparaiso hasn't faired as well in the early part of the 2012 season. The Crusaders are 4-10 and will play at Winthrop Monday night before heading to Nashville. Valpo is in the middle of a six-game losing streak, which includes getting swept by former Atlantic Sun competitor Campbell this past weekend. Tanner Vavra and Andrew Bain lead the Crusaders at the plate with identical .305 batting averages.
Both games this week can be followed through BelmontBruins.com's Live Stats. Each can also be heard live via the Bruins Sports Network with play-by-play from Rich Tiner. Don't forget to follow the Belmont Baseball Twitter feed for all the updates on Bruin Baseball.
