No.6 LUBBOCK CHRISTIAN (33-11, 16-4) at ARKANSAS FORT SMITH (27-17, 14-6)
Friday, April 28, 2017 – 1 p.m.
Crowder Field (Fort Smith, Ark.)
Radio: Online Only
All-Time Series: LCU leads 6-3
Tweet #LCUvsUAFS | Tweet #HeartlandBASE
 
No.6 Lubbock Christian University closes out their stay in Fort Smith, Ark. Friday with a rubber match of their three-game Heartland Conference series against Arkansas Fort Smith. The two teams split Thursday's doubleheader and St. Mary's won their single game at Newman to shift the standings. LCU leads the conference with a 16-4 record and are 1.5 games ahead of StMU (14-5) and 2.0 games ahead of UAFS (14-6). The marks the final road game of the regular season for the Chaps, who return home for a three-game series next weekend hosting Rogers State.
 
PROJECTED STARTING PITCHERS
 
LCU – Russell Reber (8-1, 3.78 ERA)
Friday marks Reber's 13^th start of the season. He is coming off a six-inning outing Friday at Oklahoma Panhandle State in which he allowed just one hit and combined with three other Chap pitchers for a shutout victory, which is his only win in his last four starts after a string of five straight wins. He went five innings against Newman and allowed two unearned runs (none earned) off five hits, but went without a decision Saturday. Last season, Reber went 6.1 innings against UAFS without a decision in a 5-4 win (Mar. 24, 2016). He allowed three runs off seven hits and struck out five batters.
 
UAFS – Tyler Nelson (5-5, 3.18 ERA)
Nelson is set for his 10^th appearance this season. His prior nine have all been starts, coming off a 6.1 inning performance at Oklahoma Christian, where he held the Eagles to one run off three hits, but suffered the loss in a 1-0 decision. He has topped over 100 pitches in five of his starts this season (five of the last six appearances). Nelson suffered the loss last season (Mar. 24) at LCU allowing the winning run off two hits in 0.1 innings. 
 
RANKINGS (as of 4/27/17)
LCU: No.6 (NCBWA), No. 7 (Perfect Game), No.14 (Collegiate Baseball News), No. 16 (d2baseballnews.com)
 
UAFS: N/A
 
IN THE REGION
The NCAA released their first regional rankings of the season and LCU, who is playing in their second season postseason eligible, made their debut at No.3 in the South Central Region Poll. The top six teams in the final region poll will advance to the South Central Region Tournament as part of the NCAA Championships, with hosting privileges for the No.1 ranked team.
 
1. Angelo St.
2. Colorado Mesa       
3. Lubbock Christian  
4. West Tex. A&M      
5. Tex. A&M-Kingsville           
6. Tarleton St. 
7. Ark.-Fort Smith       
    St. Edward's          
 
LOOKING BACK
Two solid pitching performances summarized a Heartland Conference doubleheader split Thursday afternoon at Crowder Field. Arkansas Fort Smith used a complete-game two-hitter from Hayden Harvey and a five-run third inning to hand No.6 Lubbock Christian University their first shutout loss of the season, but LCU rallied from the 5-0 loss with a three-hitter from Daniel Crooks en route to a 5-2 win in the second game.
  
STREAKS
With LCU held to two hits in Thursday's series opener, many Chaps streaks have been reset. Jaime Bustamante has the Chaps active hit-streak lead with hits in his last three games. Caleb Koedyker has the active lead in consecutive games reaching base safely with the streak at seven games. 
 
SERIES BY THE NUMBERS
.125 | LCU (3-for-18) and UAFS (1-for-14) combined to go 4-for-32 (.125) at the plate in two-out at-bats Thursday.
.500 | Jaime Bustamante leads LCU with a .500 batting average in the series, going 4-for-8 at the plate Thursday.
2-for-2 | UAFS was 2-for-2 with the bases loaded Thursday.
4-for-4 | The Lions are a perfect 4-for-4 scoring the runner home from third base with less than two outs in the series.
 
HISTORY WITH UAFS
LCU has a 6-3 all-time series lead over UAFS. The Chaps won two of three games in last season's three-game series in Lubbock. Due to snow, the two teams only squeezed in one game of a scheduled three game series in Fort Smith in 2015. LCU had been 0-6 all-time on Arkansas soil (0-2 against UAFS and 0-4 against the University of Arkansas) until Thursday's 5-2 win to place them 1-6 all-time in games played in The Natural State.