New lineup additions spur turnaround

Furman junior Jason Costa

Furman carries a four-game winning streak into its home weekend series against ETSU which begins Friday at 6 p.m. That streak came after a nine-game losing skid that included some stunning, heartbreaking losses during the toughest portion of the schedule.

While improvement has been seen in all phases of the game during the turnaround, specifically some Paladins looking to take command of a spot in Coach Brett Harker's lineup have done just that.

Hitting-wise, no one has done that quite like junior Jason Costa. Costa is in his first year at Furman from national JUCO power Walters State.

Even though Costa has started only 20 games, he ranks second on the team in batting (.333), home runs (4), slugging (.543) and on-base percentage (.426). Costa saw limited early playing time as the Paladins' backup catcher, but he's started each of the last 14 games splitting time as designated hitter and catcher.

"I challenge guys all the time telling them, 'they make the lineup, I don't,' and he's forced his way in," Harker said. "He's such a good leader of this team and that doesn't happen often in your first year coming from a junior college.

"He's got baseball savvy with a little bit of an old-school, blue-collar work ethic and boy, can he hit."

Costa's move to DH has shifted Jabari Richards back to the outfield, and the 2016 SoCon Freshman of the Year has rallied after a slow start this season in which he didn't start against left-handed pitchers.

Richards has started each of the last seven games and batted .357, with seven runs and four RBIs, raising his season average to .284. In Furman's most recent win Wednesday, Richards hit a long homer to centerfield off a Presbyterian left-hander.

"I think Jabari has his confidence back and that's when he's really dangerous," Harker said. "Last year, he was almost all the opposite field (hitting). This year, he can drive it to right field and that makes defense tough. He's learned to hit it where it's pitched."

While Furman has committed a SoCon-worst 47 errors this season, the Paladins have only made one during the four-game winning streak. Comparatively, Furman committed 15 errors during the nine-game losing streak, including 10 in the final three games of it.

The recent run of solid defensive play has coincided with Bret Huebner's return to the starting lineup at shortstop. While Furman is 15-20 overall (4-8 SoCon), the Paladins are 10-9 when Huebner has started at short. Huebner has also come through offensively of late as he's gone 5-of-11 with four runs and three RBIs over the last three games pushing his season average up to .266.

"All we've ever asked him is to make the routine play and give us a chance at the tough play ... along with things that are never going to show up in the boxscore, and he's done really well at those," Harker said.

While some lineup tweaks have provided a spark, season-long stalwarts such as Brandon Elmy and Carter Grote have remained hot during the turnaround. Elmy (.356/6/26) leads the Paladins in batting, homers, doubles (12) and slugging (.566), while Grote (.324/2/29) leads in RBIs, triples (5) and on-base percentage (.429).

*Photo provided by Furman University.