No.14 LUBBOCK CHRISTIAN (21-8, 5-1) at TEXAS A&M INTERNATIONAL (6-18, 1-8)
Friday, March 31, 2017 – 1:00 PM | 3:00 PM (DH)
Jorge Haynes Field (Laredo, Texas)
Radio: None
All-Time Series: LCU leads 7-1
Tweet #LCUvsTAMIU | Tweet #HeartlandBase
 
Lubbock Christian University takes a five-game win streak on the road for a Heartland Conference series in Laredo, Texas against Texas A&M International beginning Friday. The Chaps are coming off a three-game series sweep over St. Mary's University, which propelled them to the top of the Heartland Conference standings with a 5-1 conference mark. LCU faces a Texas A&M International squad that has dropped their last three games, which were all to Oklahoma Christian on the road. 
 
Game 1
 
LCU – Ricky Contreras (4-0, 2.70 ERA)
Ricky is scheduled for his ninth start of the season and heads into the start with wins in his last four starts. He has gone the distance in his last three starts, including a seven-inning complete game on Mar. 24 against St. Mary's in which he allowed one run off three hits. Ricky is 1-0 all-time against TAMIU, going seven innings last season (Apr. 15, 2016) and allowing three runs (one earned) off eight hits. 
 
TAMIU – Devon Torres (1-5, 7.64 ERA)
Devon, making his 10^th appearance and sixth start of the season, is seeking to end a streak of eight consecutive appearances without a win. His last appearance came last weekend at Oklahoma Christian, as he allowed five runs (four earned) off three hits in three innings of an 8-5 loss. The lefty has TAMIU's only complete game tossed on the season.  
 
Game 2
 
LCU – Daniel Crooks (3-1, 4.15 ERA)
Daniel is on deck for his ninth appearance and eighth start of the season. Crooks has 45 strikeouts (leads team) in 39 innings on the hill this season. He is without a decision in his last three appearances and is coming off allowing four runs (two earned) off six hits in 4.2 innings against St. Mary's. Crooks has not allowed more than two earned runs in his prior six appearances.
 
TAMIU – Osvaldo Raya (0-3, 7.88 ERA)
Osvaldo is scheduled for his ninth appearance and eighth start of the 2017 campaign. He has gone at least five innings in his last three appearances and allowed five runs off nine hits in five innings at Oklahoma Christian in his last outing. Raya leads the Dustdevils with 31 strikeouts.
 
RANKINGS (as of 3/28/17)
LCU: No. 14 (Perfect Game), No.17 (NCBWA), No. 20 (d2baseballnews.com), No.21 (Collegiate Baseball News)
TAMIU: Unranked
 
LOOKING BACK
Ryan Rogers (six hits) and Chase Simmons (five hits) combined for 11 hits on the day, as the two helped No.16 Lubbock Christian University defeat St. Mary's University 8-5 and 12-7 Saturday afternoon at Hays Field to complete a three-game Heartland Conference series sweep and a six-game regular season series sweep.
 
STREAKS
LCU has a pair of players with an active hit streak surpassing 10 games. Ryan Rogers has a 13-game hit streak and Brandon Rix is riding an 11-game hit streak. The longest hit streak this season, by a Chap, is held by Tony Reyes, who had an 18-game hit streak earlier this season. Reyes currently has an eight-game hit streak. Brandon Rix leads the team with an active streak of reaching base safely at 22 games.  Rogers has reached safely in his last 16 games.
 
SAC-IT TO ME
LCU leads the Heartland Conference and ranks eighth nationally in sacrifice flies with 18 on the season. Ten different Chaps have at least one sac-fly on the season, with Jaime Bustamante leading the team with four (20th nationally).
 
TRIPLES
The Chaps lead the nation this season in triples, with 17 on the season. Nine different Chaps have produced a triple this season, and Caleb Koedyker, Jaime Bustamante and Josh Narvaiz co-lead the team with three each (each rank tied for 35th nationally).
 
NATIONALLY KNOWN
Designated hitter Ryan Rogers has been named National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) National Hitter of the Week for games played from Mar. 20 - Mar. 26.
 
Rogers, who claimed Heartland Conference Hitter of the Week honors this week, helped LCU to a 4-0 week, which included a 3-0 Heartland Conference sweep over St. Mary's with a Chaps team that offensively generated 53 runs in four games. The junior hit .706 (12-of-17) with two doubles, five runs and seven RBI. He had multi-hit performances in all four games, including a pair of four-hit contests. Rogers went 4-of-6 in at bats with the bases empty and 6-for-8 in at bats with runners in scoring position. He produced an RBI in three of the four games, including a 4-RBI performance in LCU's final game of the StMU series. Rogers had a .750 on base percentage and a .824 slugging mark on the week.
 
The Littlefield, Texas native becomes the 11th Chap all-time to be recognized for a NCBWA or NAIA National Player of the Week honor (either Hitter or Pitcher) and he is the ninth Chaps positional player to claim the accolade. The last Chap to receive a National Hitter of the Week honor by the NCBWA was Brett Wilhelm, who received the honor on Feb. 17, 2016 to become LCU's first NCBWA National Hitter of the Week since joining NCAA Div. II.
 
FOUR!
Prior to March 17, LCU had not had a player with a multi-hit game of more than three hits on the season (23 games).  In their last five games, LCU has had seven players produce four-hit performances. Tony Reyes and Ryan Rogers have each completed the task twice.
 
CHAPS BY THE NUMBERS
.314 | LCU is hitting .441 in their current five-game win streak and it has bumped their season average to .314, which leads the Heartland Conference.
.706 | Chase Simmons is hitting .706 in the current five-game win streak, going 12-of-17 from the plate..
 7 | With seven victories (7-0), Russell Reber ranks tied for third nationally and is behind Austin Hutchison (Mt. Olive) and Thomas St. Clair (Lenoir-Rhyne).
 3 | LCU starting pitchers Ricky Contreras and Russell Reber co-lead the Heartland Conference and rank tied for 12th nationally in complete games with three each.
 18 | Logan Nethercot leads the Heartland and leads the conference with 19 walks. He reaches at a pace of 0.8 per game, ranking 51st nationally and leads the conference.
 
FIVE THINGS ABOUT TAMIU
- TAMIU, coming off a 16-32 record last season (7-20 in conference), is 6-18 this season and 1-8 in conference play. They are 3-6 at home this season.
- The Dustdevils are preseason picked eighth in the Heartland Conference. With their 1-8 current conference mark, they are sitting in eighth place (last) in the conference standings.
- Texas A&M International plays home games at both Jorge Haynes Field (on-campus stadium) and Unitrade Stadium (pro stadium). Their series with LCU will be at Haynes Field, where TAMIU is 2-3 on the season.
- Alexander Cabezas leads the conference and TAMIU with a .493 on-base percentage.
- Jeremy Valadez leads the conference and ranks 38th nationally when it comes to being the toughest to strikeout. He has struck out five times in 89 at-bats for a strikeout rate of once every 17.8 at-bats.
 
HISTORY WITH TAMIU
LCU leads the all-time series with an advantage of 7-1 after sweeping their three-game series last season at Hays Field in Lubbock. The Chaps are 1-1 in Laredo, as they split a 2015 series cut short by weather.