The Wofford college baseball team leads the nation in both home runs and home runs per game. With 60 bombs in 34 games this season, the Terriers are averaging 1.76 homers per game and are on pace to break the school’s single season home run mark of 78 which was set in 1992.
Wofford is also among the top-5 in the nation in team slugging percentage (.541) and the top-35 in runs scored per game (7.6).
The Terriers have mashed more bombs this season than Florida Atlantic (58) and South Carolina (57), while also leading both teams in homers per game. Fourteen players have gone yard this season for Wofford, while 10 have slammed more than one homer.
Wofford lays claim to two of the premier power hitters in the Southern Conference in Brandon Waring and Shane Kirkley. Both players appear on the nation’s top-20 home run list ? one in the top three ? and lead the Southern Conference in the same category.
Waring, a junior third baseman from West Columbia, S.C. (Airport HS), leads the team and the conference with 15 homers this season, which also ties him for the third most round-trippers in the nation. Waring is also second in the country with a .902 slugging percentage, making him one of only two players in the nation to boast a mark above .900. He is close to eclipsing two of Wofford’s single season records, including runs scored ? he currently has 45 and needs 12 more to tie ? and home runs in a season, needing only five more to tie the current mark.
Kirkley, a junior second baseman from Lugoff, S.C. (Lugoff-Elgin), is second on the team with 11 homers and a .683 slugging percentage. With 30 home runs since his freshman season, Kirkley holds the school’s Division I career home runs record, surpassing the previous total of 20 set by David Long from 2004-05.
Senior John Brandt, junior Keith Munns and freshman Michael Gilmartin have each added five or more blasts this season. Gilmartin, a switch-hitter, has mashed six, with two coming from the left side of the plate.
Wofford’s power surge is not just limited to its home stadium at Russell C. King Field. The Terriers have blasted 13 home runs in seven road games this season for a 1.86 home runs per game average in opponents’ parks, a mark that is noticeably larger than the team’s average in home games (1.76).