CHARLESTON, S.C. - Overshadowed by the long-anticipated debut for the new lights at CSU Ballpark is a key Big South Conference baseball series which begins on Friday night as Charleston Southern hosts Presbyterian.

Friday's series opener begins at 7 p.m. at CSU Ballpark, but the festivities outside of the stadium begin with a block party at 5 p.m. and will continue through a postgame fireworks show.

Bucs' Head Coach Stuart Lake says his players and alumni can feel the buzz around what is a big weekend for the CSU program.

"This is one of those nights you could say has been coming for a long time," Lake said Thursday. "The alumni, the team, the entire program is excited about a big night CSU Baseball."

Charleston Southern vs. Presbyterian

CSU Ballpark - April 19-21

Live Stats - Live Video

Weekend Starters - CSU vs. Presbyterian

Friday, 7 p.m. - RHP Ryan Gunther (4-4, 4.29 ERA) vs. LHP Beau Dees (5-2, 2.05 ERA)

Saturday, 6 p.m. - LHP Tory Schroff (4-2, 3.49 ERA) vs. RHP Chandler Knox (2-4, 5.53 ERA)

Sunday, 2 p.m. - RHP Kevin Buran (2-6, 3.52 ERA) vs. RHP Bud Jeter (5-2, 1.99 ERA)

Lake expects his team to put the excitement behind them and focus in on baseball on Friday night. The Bucs will have to just that, playing a key South Division series at home.

CSU has been at its best at CSU Ballpark.

The Bucs are 13-7 at home and 5-1 in Big South play. They'll look to ride the momentum of a three-game winning streak into this weekend's series. CSU exploded for 20 hits on Wednesday night in an 11-5 win at Savannah State.

The Bucs are two games back of the Blue Hose and Gardner-Webb in the South Division standings and need a series win to climb back into the race for the top half of the standings. Everyone is chasing division leaders Campbell (11-4) and Coastal Carolina (10-2).

"It's coming down to these games now," Lake said. "This second half of this season you're starting to see the league take shape. Presbyterian is 7-5 in the league and coming in with a very good team. We have to hold serve and win a couple of games at home."

Lake would take the same production from his starters he received last weekend in a series win over VMI. The three Bucs starters combined for 26 strikeouts and only five earned runs in over 22 innings of work.

Senior RHP Ryan Gunther set a career high and a new CSU season high in strikeouts with 10. Fellow senior RHP Kevin Buran tried to catch him on Sunday with nine, both in wins.

Presbyterian leans heavily on its weekend starters to carry the load. PC starters RHP Bud Jeter and LHP Beau Dees are both 5-2 and have two of the top ERAs among starters in the Big South.

"You start looking at their starting pitching and it has been fantastic," Lake said. "Ours has been pretty good too, especially of late. I would think we'll have some starters get into (the late innings) and they'll end up deciding the weekend and the series."

After a March lull, the Bucs' bats are returning to their early-season form. CSU has reached double digits in hits in nine of their last 13 games and are averaging 13 hits per game over their last five games. Three Bucs each had four hits in Wednesday night's onslaught at Savannah State.

Centerfielder Bobby Ison continues to lead the Bucs in batting average at .351 after a 4-for-6 night on Wednesday, one point ahead of Zack Hagaman's .350 average.

The Bucs are fourth in the Big South in team batting average at .288, while Presbyterian is 11th. The Blue Hose are sixth in the league in team ERA, but have allowed only 118 walks this season, one shy of the league lead.

-CSU-