NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Belmont baseball team will cap off its 13-game home stand to start the 2012 season with a pair of contests at Rose Park this week. The Bruins will host cross-town rival Vanderbilt on Tuesday at 4:00 p.m. and future conference opponent Murray State on Wednesday at 4:00 p.m.
The Commodores ended Belmont's historic run a year ago, defeating the Bruins in the Regional final before advancing all the way to the College World Series semifinals. Vanderbilt comes across town with quite a different resume in 2012. The 'Dores are 4-7 and find themselves out of the national polls, after losing a number of talented players off of last year's squad. Vandy currently holds a team batting average of .258 and a team ERA of 5.53, but has recently righted the ship sweeping Rhode Island this past weekend.
Murray State is currently 8-4, and was holding a six-game winning streak before falling to Central Arkansas in the final game of the weekend series. The Thoroughbreds swept South Dakota State in a three-game series, but dropped two out of three at home to Valparaiso to open the season. Murray State is batting .282 as a team and holds an ERA of 4.19. The 'Breds' Ty Stetson leads the offense with a .375 average, 10 runs scored, and two triples.
With Tuesday being the first meeting between Vanderbilt and Belmont at the brand new E.S. Rose Park, Nashville Mayor Karl Dean will be throwing out the game's first pitch at 3:45 p.m.
There are a number of parking lots available for fans. Click Here for a rendering of Rose Park and its surrounding areas, and then take the following parking locations into account for Tuesday's contest.
1. Community Center off of Edgehill
2. Lot below the swimming pool off of Edgehill
3. 12th Avenue / Olympic lot
4. Carter Lawrence School lot after 3:45 pm
Livestats and live audio will be available for both games this week. Rich Tiner will be on the play-by-play for the Bruin Sports Network.
