No.16 LUBBOCK CHRISTIAN (16-8) at TARLETON STATE (16-7)
Saturday, March 18, 2017 – 1 p.m.
Cecil Ballow Complex (Stephenville, Texas)
Radio: Online Only
All-Time Series: LCU leads 16-6
Tweet #LCUvsTSU
 
Lubbock Christian University and Tarleton State, completing their first series since the 1997 season, are scheduled for the rubber match of their three-game non-conferecne series Saturday with a nine-inning game set for 1 p.m. The game wraps up a 10-game road trip for LCU, who is 7-2 in the span. The Chaps take a 7-5 road record into the game and a 2-4 record against Lone Star Conference squads. Three of the four losses to LSC teams have come with LCU leading while heading into the bottom of the eighth inning
 
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
 
LCU – Russell Reber (5-0, 2.98 ERA)
Reber leads LCU in wins (5) and has registered a win in his last three starts, with his last start coming in Oklahoma City at Oklahoma Christian. He went the distance with a nine-inning complete game, allowing two runs off eight hits. Reber has allowed four earned runs over his prior 23 innings pitched and six over his last 29 innings. Reber averages over seven innings an appearance this season and has not had an outing shorter than six innings.
 
TSU – Colby Fowler (2-1, 3.24 ERA)
The Hill College transfer collected a win on Mar. 11 at Cameron going 6.2 innings scorless with five hits allowed. He has only allowed more than one run in two of his seven appearances.
  
LOOKING BACK
It has been 20 years in the making; Lubbock Christian University playing a baseball series with Tarleton State University. The No. 16 Chaparrals rallied for a 5-3 win in the opener before the two teams played a bizarre-filled extra inning contest capped by a two-run walk-off home run by Jake Hasbrouk in the 12^th inning to provide the Texans a 5-3 win to split the doubleheader Friday afternoon at Cecil Ballow Complex.
 
STREAKS
The current streaks leader in hits for the Chaps is Ryan Rogers, who has hits in eight consecutive appearances.  Brandon Rix and Josh Narvaiz are each not far behind with a six-game streak. Rix has an active streak of 17 consecutive games reaching base safely. The season high is 18 by Tony Reyes.
  
SERIES NOTABLES
.429 | Francisco Rodriguez led TSU going 3-for-7 at the plate in the doubleheader.
1-for-4 | LCU is 1-for-4 in the series in getting the run across with a runner at third and less than two outs.
3 | Ryan Rogers leads LCU with three RBI in the series. He has produced three of LCU's seven in the series.
4-1 | The Texans have a 4-1 series advantage in home runs.
5 | Tony Reyes (5-for-8, .625) and Brandon Rix each co-lead LCU in the series with five hits.
8-1 | In the series, LCU batters have produced eight walks, while their pitchers have allowed one.
22-13 | LCU has out-hit Tarleton in the series.
23-8 | The Chaps have had 23 at-bats with runners in scoring position in the series, while TSU has had eight, however LCU's advantage of hits with runners in scoring position is 4-3.
24 | The Chaps have stranded 24 runners in the series, with 10 in the opener and 14 in the second game.
100% | Chaps starting pitchers were 14-for-14 on not allowing the lead-off Texans batter aboard Friday. Both team's starters in the second game were 7-for-7 keeping the opposition's lead-off batters off base.
 
HISTORY WITH TARLETON
Prior to Friday, It had 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 16-6 and 5-6 all-time in Stephenville. This is the first series between the two schools in Stephenville since 1996. LCU has won six of the last seven meetings.