No.16 LUBBOCK CHRISTIAN (15-7) at TARLETON STATE (15-6)
Friday, March 17, 2017
Game 1: 1:00 PM / Game 2: 3:00 PM                                                     
Cecil Ballow Complex (Stephenville, Texas)
Radio: KJTV am950/100.7fm
All-Time Series: LCU leads 15-5
Tweet #LCUvsTSU
 
 
Lubbock Christian University steps out from their conference schedule for four non-conference games, with a three-game weekend series at Tarleton State University. The Chaparrals opened their Heartland Conference schedule on the road last weekend with a three-game series at Oklahoma Christian, where they won two of three games, and will return to conference play next weekend hosting St. Mary's. LCU's trip to Stephenville, Texas will complete an eventual 10-game road swing. They are 6-1 in the current trip.
 
RANKINGS (as of 3/15/17)
LCU: No. 16 (Perfect Game), No. 23 (d2baseballnews.com), No.27 (Collegiate Baseball Newspaper),
TSU: Unranked
 
PROJECTED STARTING PITCHERS
 
GAME 1
LCU – Ricky Contreras (2-0, 2.75 ERA)
Contreras has made six starts this season and has wins in his last two starts. He averages over 6.5 innings a start, and five of his six starts have been decided late and by one run. He pitched last Thursday at Oklahoma Christian and allowed five runs on nine hits, but went the distance in a complete game 11-5 LCU win. Opponents are hitting .250 off of him this season.
 
TSU – Nathan Hickey (4-1, 1.86 ERA)
The Paris Junior College transfer is coming off a team's 2-1 win over Cameron in which he went 5.2 innings and allowed one run off five hits. He has allowed three hits or less in four of his six appearances this season and has only allowed five extra base hits in 29 innings of work.
 
GAME 2
LCU – Daniel Crooks (3-1, 4.94 ERA)
Crooks is scheduled for his seventh outing and sixth start on the mound. LCU has won the last three games he has appeared in, including starts over West Texas A&M and Colorado State – Pueblo. Against CSU-P (Feb. 26), he allowed one run off four hits in six innings. He has had more strikeouts than innings pitched in five of his six outings and has a team-leading 33 in 27.1 innings on the season.
 
TSU – Evan Pontley (4-0, 2.77 ERA)
Pontley is coming off four innings of no decision work of a 3-2 loss at Cameron, in which he allowed six hits but no runs. He has allowed a low of three runs over the past 13 innings he has pitched and has 15 strikeouts in the span.
 
LOOKING BACK
Russell Reber pitched his third consecutive complete game and six different Chaparrals contributed an RBI, as No.19 Lubbock Christian University defeated Oklahoma Christian 6-2 Friday afternoon at Dobson Field to win the rubber match of their first Heartland Conference series of the season.
 
STREAKS
During their series at Oklahoma Christian, Tony Reyes had his hit streak end at 18 games hit streak. The current streaks leader in hits for the Chaps is Ryan Rogers, who has hits in six consecutive appearances.  Brandon Rix has an active streak of 15 consecutive games reaching base safely.
 
SAC-IT TO ME
LCU leads the Heartland Conference and ranks 15th nationally in sacrifice flies with 13 on the season. Nine different Chaps have at least one sac-fly on the season, with Jaime Bustamante leading the team with three (19th nationally). LCU produced three sacrifice flies in their final game at Oklahoma Christian and the three sacrifice flies were the most since registering three last season (Apr. 12, 2016) against West Texas A&M.
 
TRIPLES
The Chaps lead the nation this season in triples, with 14 on the season. Nine different Chaps have produced a triple this season and Josh Narvaiz ranks tied for 15th nationally with three produced.
 
PUTTING ON THE RIX
Brandon Rix had a solid series against Oklahoma Christian, hitting .429 in the three-game set. He had hits in all three games, including a pair of multi-hit games. In the the opener, he went 3-for-4 with two runs and two RBI. He ranks third on the squad with 27 hits, which ranks seventh in the Heartland Conference.
 
CHAPS BY THE NUMBERS
0.5 | Ryan Rogers leads the Heartland Conference with a rate of 0.5 doubles per game.
 
3 | Russell Reber leads the Heartland Conference with three complete games, ranking tied for fourth nationally.
 
4 | Nick Hooper ranks 14th nationally in saves with a conference leading four on the season.
 
12 | Reagan Lucia has made 12 appearances on the mound this season, which ranks tied for 10th nationally.
 
15 | Logan Nethercot leads the Heart and and ranks 52nd nationally with 15 walks. He reaches at a pace of 0.8 per game, ranking 86th nationally and leads the conference.
 
FIVE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT TARLETON
-The Texans finished last season 20-28, with a 14-21 Lone Star Conference mark and a 9-12 home mark. This season, TSU is off to an 15-6 start and are 8-3 at home. Tarleton is off to their best start since 2011 (16-5).
-The Lone Star Conference has the Texans preseason picked to finish fourth in the conference.
-The Tarleton pitching staff ranks No. 28 in the nation in team ERA and they head into the series with a 3.57 earned run average.
-The Texans rank 16th in Home Runs (26) and 23rd in Home Runs per Game (1.24).
-Blake Adams leads the team with 28 hits and eight home runs. He leads everyday-starters with a .373 batting average.
 
HISTORY WITH TARLETON
It has been 20 years since Tarleton and Lubbock Christian last met (March 18, 1997, with LCU winning 5-0). The 20 prior meetings came between 1988 and 1997, as baseball at Tarleton returned in 1988. Lubbock Christian owns the all-time series lead 15-5 and 4-5 all-time in Stephenville. This is the first meeting between the two schools in Stephenville since 1996. LCU has won the prior five meetings.