OKLAHOMA PANHANDLE STATE (5-31, 1-13) at No.12 LUBBOCK CHRISTIAN (24-1, 10-4)
Saturday, April 9 – 1 p.m.
Hays Field (Lubbock, Texas)
Radio: Online Only
All-Time Series: LCU leads 45-4
Tweet #LCUvsOPSU
 
PROJECTED STARTING PITCHERS
LCU – Russell Reber (3-1, 3.64 ERA)
OPSU – Tristan Hubler (1-4, 9.90 ERA)
 
RANKINGS
LCU: No. 15 (Collegiate Baseball Newspaper), No.22 (NCBWA), No.24 (Hero Sports), No.28 (D2Baseball News).
OPSU: Unranked
 
THE OPPORTUNITY IS THERE
Lubbock Christian University will seek to complete a task that they have not done this season: a three game conference sweep. LCU, 24-10 overall, has gone 2-1 in their prior four conference series and they enter Saturday 2-0 against Oklahoma Panhandle State University after a doubleheader sweep. LCU, winners of four straight conference games, are tied atop the Heartland Conference standings with a 10-4 conference mark alongside St. Edward's and LCU has the tiebreaker with SEU. OPSU is 10th in the conference.
 
FRIDAY FLASHBACK
Lubbock Christian University combined for 19 runs in their Heartland Conference doubleheader, sweeping Oklahoma Panhandle State with a 5-1 and 14-1 win Friday at Hays Field.
 
STREAKS
Hunter McFall enters Saturday's game on a 17-game hit streak and has reached base safely in 19 consecutive games. McFall has a 14-game conference hit streak (at least one hit in all conference games). The hit streaks are the longest by a Chap this season.
 
LOOKING FOR A REBER REPEAT
LCU will start Russell Reber on the mound. He is 3-1 on the season with a 3.64 ERA. His last outing was last Saturday at St. Edward's and he pitched his first complete game of the season for LCU. He allowed one run off four hits in 86 pitches thrown. Reber allowed one hit over the final 18 batters he faced. He has not gone less than five innings per start and holds a 2.55 ERA in conference games.
 
ON THEIR HILL
The Aggies did not pitch their scheduled starter in Friday's second game, so it turns into a question if they will go with Saturday's scheduled starter Tristan Hubler (1-4, 9.90 ERA). Hubler, a junior, last appeared on the mound on Apr. 2 against Texas A&M International and allowed two runs off two hits in 2.1 innings. He has 10 strikeouts in his last 10.1 innings pitched.
 
SERIES NOTABLES
- LCU has out-hit OPSU 27-12 overall in the series and 8-1 in extra-base hits.
- LCU has six players with at least two RBI in the series.
- Brett Wilhelm and JP Rousseau of LCU are each 3-for-5 in the series (.600).
- Chase Simmons and Brandon Urquizo each have three RBI in the series.
- The Chaps have eight two-out RBI in the series, with Urquizo having three of them.
 
ALL-TIME SERIES
The Chaps swept the three-game series last season in Goodwell, Okla. and swept the prior series at Hays Field in 2014. That 2014 series marked their first meetings since Feb. 20, 2001. The Chaps are 45-4 overall and 30-2 at Hays Field against the Aggies all-time. The last win for OPSU came on Feb. 27, 1999, as LCU has won 14 consecutive meetings heading into Saturday.