LEXINGTON, Va. – The VMI baseball team closes out its 2021 regular season schedule later this week at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) in a Southern Conference series. The teams will play a single game Thursday at 4 p.m. and a doubleheader Friday starting at 1 p.m.

The Keydets are alive in the hunt to reach the conference post-season tournament after taking two of three from ETSU last weekend. Red-shirt senior Jacob Menders earned SoCon Pitcher of the Week honors after a stellar performance in the first game of a doubleheader on Senior Day. He held the Bucs to just five hits, two walks and one earned run in a nine-inning complete game effort to earn the win. Menders has given VMI over six innings of work in each of his last five starts with four victories in that span. He leads the Keydets in wins, innings pitched, strikeouts and complete games this season.

Red-shirt freshman centerfielder/left-hander pitcher Trey Morgan hit .500 against ETSU. He earned the save on the hill Friday night and was responsible for all three runs in VMI's 3-1 win Saturday in the first game of a doubleheader, scoring the first and driving in the other two with a double to break a 1-1 tie in the eighth. Morgan also had five RBI and a stolen base in the series.

Red-shirt sophomore Nathan Light was outstanding for seven innings Friday as VMI held on for a 6-5 victory over visiting ETSU. Light, a left-hander, allowed just five hits, two walks and one earned run with five strikeouts to earn his third win of the season.

The SoCon Tournament will feature each of the two division winners, and the two teams with the next two best records/winning percentage after that will also qualify (regardless of division). The Keydets need to sweep UNCG and have Western Carolina University lose all three of its games this weekend vs. The Citadel; combined with ETSU winning no more than two games at Samford.