HEARTLAND CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT
St.MARY'S (23-25, 4-Seed) vs No.9 LUBBOCK CHRISTIAN (36-13, 1-Seed)
Friday, May 12 – Noon
The Depot at Cleburne (Cleburne, Texas)
Radio: KJTV am950/100.7fm
All-Time Series: All-Time Series: LCU leads 15-12 
Tweet #LCUvsStMU | Tweet #HeartlandBASE
 
Lubbock Christian University opened the 2017 Heartland Conference Tournament with a 12-8 loss to No.4-seed St. Edward's Thursday and falls into the elimination bracket, where they must win two games Friday in hopes to move to Saturday's championship round, where they would have to win twice more to claim their first Heartland Conference Tournament title. Needing four wins, LCU must at least get their first win of the tournament Friday, as they face St. Mary's at noon for their seventh meeting this season.
 
HEARTLAND CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT SEEDS
1-Lubbock Christian
2-Arkansas Fort Smith
3-St. Mary's
4-St. Edward's
 
RANKINGS (as of 5/10/17)
LCU: No. 9 (Perfect Game), No.16 (Collegiate Baseball News), No.18 (NCBWA), No. 20 (d2baseballnews.com)
  
IF LCU WINS
If the Chaps defeat St. Mary's University, then St. Mary's is eliminated from the tournament and LCU would advance to a 7 p.m. elimination game later Friday against the losing team of a 3:30 p.m. winner's bracket game between Arkansas Fort Smith and St. Edward's. The winner of the 7 p.m. game will return Saturday at noon to face the only undefeated team remaining in the tournament and having to defeat that team twice to starve off elimination.
 
IF LCU FALLS
If the Chaps lose their noon tilt with the Rattlers, they will be eliminated from the Heartland Conference Tournament.
 
IN THE REGION
A look at how regionally ranked teams in the South Central Region fared Thursday and what they face Friday. The top six teams in the region advance to the South Central Region Tournament, which is part of the NCAA Championships.
 
1. Angelo St. | Defeated Cameron 8-5… Plays West Texas A&M
2. Colorado Mesa | Defeated CSU-Pueblo 19-0… Plays Colo./Mines      
3. Lubbock Christian | Lost to St. Edward's 12-8… Plays St. Mary's
4. West Tex. A&M | Defeated Tx.A&M-Kingsville 3-0… Plays Angelo St.     
5. Tex. A&M-Kingsville | Lost to West Texas A&M… Plays Cameron          
6. Ark.-Fort Smith | Defeated St. Mary's 6-3… Plays St. Edward's
7. Tarleton St. | Not in Conference Tournament
8. St. Edward's | Defeated LCU 12-8… Plays UAFS
   
SERIES NOTABLES WITH StMU
.133 | LCU is 2-for-15 (.133) against StMU this season in bases-loaded at-bats.
.228 | The Chaps have held StMU to a .228 batting average in the six games this season, while hitting .340 at the plate.
.579 | Ryan Rogers leads LCU in this season's six-game season series with StMU, going 11-for-19 at the plate with seven RBI.
.600 | LCU was 12-of-20 (.600) on Saturday with runners in scoring position, going 7-of-10 in the second game.
8 | Ryan Rogers (8-for-11) and Chase Simmons (8-for-12) each co-led LCU with eight hits in the three-game Heartland Conference series.
47-19 | LCU has out-scored StMU a combined 47-19 in the six games played this season.
 
ALL-TIME SERIES
LCU and St. Mary's have met 27 prior times dating back to 1978 and the all-time series is led by LCU 15-12. LCU leads this season's series 6-0. Prior to 2014, the two teams had not met since Feb. 5, 2000. LCU is 6-8 all-time against StMU away from Hays Field, including 0-1 in Heartland Conference play after the Rattlers eliminated the Chaps last season in Belton, Texas. LCU went 2-2 against StMU last season, winning two of three games of a Heartland Conference series in Lubbock before falling at the tournament.