Wofford enters the 2024 Southern Conference Championship presented by Holston Gases with its season on the line. The Terriers are the No. 5 seed and will first play No. 8 The Citadel in a single-elimination play-in game. The victor advances to the double-elimination portion of the event with the loser being eliminated. Wofford enters the tournament at 35-17 (12-8 SoCon) after taking two-of-three at Samford over the weekend. The Citadel is 21-31 (3-18 SoCon) and enters on a good note, taking two-of-three as well at Mercer. The series between the Terriers and Bulldogs dates back to 1899, making it one of Wofford's oldest match-ups. The Terriers own a 74-53 all-time lead and have won 14-straight contests over the Bulldogs. The schools have only met four times in the SoCon Tournament, and Wofford has won all four meetings. This includes two victories in 2007 to win the championship and then one each in 2008 and 2014, and the squads have not met in the postseason since. Earlier this season, Wofford swept The Citadel in Spartanburg with two of the games being run-rule triumphs. Wofford will turn to ace RHP Zac Cowan (7-2, 3.59 ERA) on the mound with The Citadel set to counter with RHP Ben Hutchins (3-5, 4.50 ERA).
 
QUICK HITS
• Wofford tops the country in triples (30) while ranking second in batting average (.343), OBP (.449) and scoring (10.4).
• The Terriers are outscoring their opponents 539-306 this season with those 539 runs a new program record.
• Daniel Jackson has been named the SoCon Freshman of the Year, only the third such honoree in program history. He also earned Second-Team All-SoCon honors.
• Zac Cowan, Dixon Black and Marshall Toole earned First-Team All-SoCon recognition.
• Mike Eggert (Second-Team All-SoCon, media) was also honored in the year-end balloting with Tyler Bak, Kenny Michaels and Camden Wicker joining Jackson on the All-Freshman Team.
• Wofford's comeback from down 10-0 to win against ETSU on May 12 marks the first-ever 10-run comeback in the program's Division I era.
• Wofford's 136 stolen bases are currently seventh in the nation.
• Marshall Toole's 38 steals are fourth in the nation, and he is one shy of Wofford's single-season record.
• With 30 triples this season, the Terriers have set a new program record for triples in a season. Marshall Toole's nine three-baggers are a new program record for a season.
• Jack Renwick has broken Wofford's career program records for stolen bases (93) and runs scored (190).
• The Terriers have four of the top-10 batting averages in the SoCon with Marshall Toole (.389) topping the league.
• With 105 punchouts, Zac Cowan is just the 10th Terrier ever with 100 or more in a season. He leads the league and ranks 16th nationally.
• With 136 steals this season, Wofford has now stolen 100 or more bases in 11-straight full seasons dating back to 2013, the longest active streak in Division I.
 
SCOUTING THE BULLDOGS
The Citadel is a slick fielding squad, touting the second-most double plays turned (37) in the conference and the second-best fielding percentage (.979). The Citadel has hit .264 as a team this season with 29 home runs. The staff's ERA is 6.24 with 397 strikeouts. The Bulldogs own just three conference wins all season but enter the tournament on a good note, winning their only SoCon series of the year by taking two-of-three from Mercer. The only Bulldog honored as an All-SoCon player was senior pitcher Luke Kissenberth, who earned a nod to the media's second team. Garrett Fulmer was also named a member of the all-freshman team. Wells Sykes leads the team offensively with a .340 average and 65 total hits, including six triples to rank second in the league behind Wofford's own Marshall Toole. Leading the charge on the mound for the Bulldogs is the projected starter Ben Hutchins who boasts a 4.50 ERA with a 3-5 record. His three saves in relief are eighth in the league, and his 1.22 WHIP ranks third.
 
CONSISTENCY IN THE SOCON
Since the 2015 season, only one school has posted .500 or better records in SoCon play every season - Wofford. The Terriers were 13-10 in 2015, 12-12 in 2016, 13-11 in 2017, 15-9 in 2018 and 14-9 in 2019. In 2021, the Terriers were 21-9 and finished 16-4-1 in 2022. With a sweep of The Citadel in the final series of 2023, the Terriers finished with a 12-9 league clip to keep the streak alive, extending it to eight seasons in a row with a .500 or better SoCon record. With a 12-8 mark this season, the streak has stretched to nine seasons in a row at .500 or better in league play.
 
THE JACK ATTACK
Nobody has embodied the Wofford small ball philosophy quite like Jack Renwick. His 28 sacrifice bunts last season topped the nation by a mile, 15 more than the next-closest players. A senior, he is Wofford's career leader in sacrifice hits with 51 and counting. The previous mark was 29, originally set by Alex Lee (2008-11). Renwick's career total is good enough to rank in a tie for second all-time in Southern Conference history (Jackson Ware, Mercer). Renwick is two shy of the leader, College of Charleston's Brett Gardner with 53. Renwick is the nation's current active career leader in sacrifices with his 51 topping the 35 of Bradley's Ryan Vogel. His 28 sacrifices last season are a new single-season program record, topping the prior mark set in 2013 by Alex Paradowski. With 93 career stolen bases, Renwick is now the Wofford career record holder, topping the prior mark of 85 set by Brett Rodriguez (2017-20). Those 93 swipes are the fifth most among active players in Division I baseball. Renwick has claimed another record as he has scored a total of 190 runs in his career, topping former teammate Lawson Hill (2018-22). Climbing the Wofford hits leaderboard, Renwick's 236 base knocks have him seventh on the all-time Terrier hit list. Of those hits, 55 have been doubles, which is the fourth-most doubles in a Terrier career and two shy of third-place John Dempsey (57). On top of it all, this season Renwick is batting .344 with 51 runs scored and 47 RBI alongside an on-base mark of .404 and slugging percentage of .497. Renwick owns 67 hits with 15 doubles and a trio of homers. He is a perfect 14-of-14 on stolen base attempts.
 
COWAN THE K MAN
Sophomore Zac Cowan has been a key piece of the Wofford rotation, proving every bit deserving of the Preseason All-SoCon Team selection he received after an All-Freshman Team nod as a rookie. He has elevated to a First-Team All-SoCon honoree this season. The right-hander has been the staff's K man, tallying 105 punchouts for first in the SoCon and 16th in the nation. He tossed 13 strikeouts against Lafayette, a career high at the time. But he outdid himself at Mercer on April 19 with 14 punchouts in 9.0 innings of work. Those 14 punchouts are the fifth most in a game in program history and his new career high, earning him SoCon Pitcher of the Week honors. He boasts three total double-digit strikeout efforts. He is just the 10th Terrier ever with 100 or more strikeouts in a season the first since 2021 when Elliot Carney recorded 107. With a strikeouts per nine innings rate of 10.46, he is second in the league. Cowan is 7-2 over his 14 starts with those seven wins fourth in the conference. Cowan has tossed 90.1 total innings with a 3.59 ERA, allowing only 40 runs (36 earned) on 82 hits. Of note, he has issued just 26 walks to his 105 strikeouts, and he is holding opponents to a .239 average against. That ERA is the second best in the SoCon. Cowan's 4.04 strikeout-to-walk ratio checks in at third in the conference, and his 1.20 WHIP is second. He boasts three unofficial complete games, tossing all 7.0 innings in three run-rule triumphs. He shutout VMI on March 29 before going the distance against Western Carolina on April 26 and the replicating the feat against ETSU on May 10. Alongside his pitcher of the month honor for March, Cowan has twice been named SoCon Pitcher of the Week (April 22 and May 13).
 
THE D.J. IS JAMMING
Freshman catcher Daniel Jackson has not skipped a beat in his transition from high school ball to the college game, bursting onto the scene to be named SoCon Freshman of the Year. He is just the third Terrier to ever garner the honor and the first since Hayes Heinecke in 2019, and he adds in All-Freshman Team and SoCon-Team All-SoCon honors. Jackson has quickly become the club's starting backstop and boasts a .363 batting average with a .456 on-base mark and .596 slugging clip. Jackson has scored 40 runs and driven in 58. With 62 total hits, he touts eight doubles and 10 homers. His RBI are ninth in the conference, and he touts the seventh-best batting average. A model of consistency, Jackson has recorded at least one hit in 39 of the 46 games he's played. He also touts an outstanding 41-game on-base streak, tied for second longest by a Terrier since 1999. He is one game short of matching Marshall Toole's top mark of 42 that was set earlier this season. Furthermore, he has kept rocking into SoCon play with a .397 average in league games with an .794 slugging clip. He has driven in 27 runs during league play and touts a .512 on-base clip. Seven of his 10 long balls have come against SoCon opposition.
 
SETTING THE TABLE
Marshall Toole has thrived has the Terrier lead-off hitter all season, but he is not the only one to thrive when leading off. With an overall batting average of .389 and on-base mark of .478, Toole is doing his job quite well. But when specifically leading off an inning, Toole is even better at setting the table for his fellow hitters. The junior succeeds 41.3 percent (38-for-92) of the time as a lead-off hitter at getting on base. Nine other Terriers are reaching at least 40 percent of the time as lead-off hitters with at least 10 lead-off opportunities this season: Tyler Bak (42.9), Dixon Black (42.5), Adam Haber (40.0), Tyler Hare (46.2), Gunnar Johnson (41.7), Andrew Mannelly (51.9), Lucas Manning (73.3), Brice Martinez (54.1) and David Wiley (41.7). In all, Wofford hitters reach base 44.1 percent of the time to lead-off an inning, succeeding 195 times in 442 tries.
 
GOING ON THE OFFENSIVE
The Wofford offense has been almost unstoppable so far in 2024, totaling 539 runs through 52 games of the season to already top the previous program record for runs in a season (499, 2023). At an average of 10.4 per game, the Terriers are second in the country in scoring per game. This is aided by the country's second-best on-base percentage (.449) and batting average (.343) and fifth-most hits (618). With 30 triples, the Terriers also top the nation and have set a new single-season program record. Wofford has scored double-digit runs in 24 games so far this season and outscored its opponents 539-306. The Terriers have recorded 20 or more runs four times, including twice scoring 29 runs, a new single-game program record. Three of Wofford's 20-plus scoring outings totaled 27 or more runs, making the Terriers one of only four teams in the nation to do so at least twice (Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Texas Tech and FDU). The Red Raiders and Knights have done so twice with the Lions matching Wofford at three times, but two of those instances were against Division II opposition. Therefore, Wofford is the only program in the nation to tally 27 or more runs against Division I opposition three times this season. Wofford has recorded double-digit hits 31 times and in each of the last eight games.  It has been a balanced attack, as six of the eight qualified Terrier hitters are batting over .300.
 
ICE IN THEIR VEINS
A few Terriers have stepped their performances up when the stakes are higher this season, posting high batting averages in key situations. Dixon Black has been one of the most clutch Terriers, tallying a batting average of .514 (37-for-72) with runners in scoring position and a .389 clip (21-for-54) with two outs. Andrew Mannelly hits .426 with runners in scoring position (20-for-47). Brice Martinez hits .394 (28-for-71) with runners in scoring position, and with two outs his average sits at .405 (34-for-84).  Lucas Manning adds a runners in scoring position mark of .407 (11-for-27) with a clip of .381 (8-for-21) with two outs. Similarly, Jack Renwick is batting .405 with runners in scoring position (30-for-75) and .379 (25-for-66) with two outs. Daniel Jackson owns a runners in scoring position clip of .441 (30-for-68), and Marshall Toole is hitting .478 (33-for-69) in that situation. With two outs, Jackson is hitting .375 (24-for-64) with Toole batting .387 (24-for-62).
 
ON DECK
With a win, Wofford would play again tomorrow afternoon at 3:00 p.m. against No. 4 Western Carolina. That will be in the double-elimination portion of the bracket with Wofford looking to continue to advance.