METROPOLITAN STATE OF DENVER (4-4)
at No.10 LUBBOCK CHRISTIAN (3-4)
Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018 – 5 p.m.
Hays Field (Lubbock, Texas)
Radio: 100.7 FM The Score
All-Time Series: No Prior Meetings

 
No.10 Lubbock Christian University continues their season-opening 11-game homestand Thursday opening a four-game series against Metropolitan State University of Denver. After a tough series against Regis, in which LCU lost three of four games, LCU bounced back to take two of three games against No.20 Angelo State. LCU won the last two games of the series against ASU for their first win streak of the season.
 
RANKINGS
LCU: No.10 (Perfect Game), No.32 (Collegiate Baseball News)
MSUD: N/A
 
SCHEDULED STARTING PITCHER
 
LCU – Chandler Casey (1-1, 0.00 ERA)
The reigning Heartland Conference Pitcher of the Week is scheduled for his first start in a LCU jersey. His prior two appearances have been in relief and he has combined to go 6.2 innings with one unearned run allowed off six hits. The righthanded pitcher from Lubbock, Texas also has six strikeouts. He went 8-3 last season at Odessa College, where he made 13 starts.        
 
MSUD – Hunter Hogoboom (0-1, 11.57 ERA)
Hunter is scheduled for his second start and third appearance of the season. His prior two outings have been short appearances, combining for 4.2 innings. He has issued seven walks and has five strikeouts this season, allowing six runs off six hits.  
  
BACK-TO-BACK HONORS
The Heartland Conference recognized LCU pitcher Chandler Casey with Pitcher of the Week honors for last week's action, marking the second consecutive week a Chaps pitcher has received the honor. Casey received the win in the middle game of a three-game series against No.20 Angelo State. The right-hander came in for a relief outing, with LCU down 5-3, and kept ASU off the scoreboard the rest of the way with 4.2 innings of shutout pitching. He held ASU to three hits, while LCU's offense scored nine unanswered runs. The win in relief was his first win as a Chap.This is Casey's first pitcher of the week award. Callan Johnson received the honors last week.      
 
STREAKS
LCU's Logan Nethercot has a four-game hit streak heading into the Metro State series. Nethercot, who leads LCU with three multi-hit games, is hitting .467 (7-for-15) during the streak. He is also the only Chaps player that has reached base safely in all seven games this season.
 
SEVENS
Will Clark (7-for-22, .318), Logan Nethercot (7-for-23) and Andrew Pratt (7-for-25, .280) co-lead LCU this season in hits, as each has seven hits. The trio each had five hits in the series against Angelo State. Pratt also leads LCU with seven RBI, with all coming in the second game (Sunday) of the series against ASU.
 
WILLS ON WHEELS
Last season, LCU's stolen base leader was Brent Stewart, who was 8-for-8 on the base paths.  Will Clark is on a pace to easily surpass that mark, as he is 5-for-5 in seven games this season in stolen base attempts. The Chaps are averaging 1.0 stolen bases per game this season. They averaged 0.5 stolen bases per game last season.
  
FIVE THINGS ABOUT MSUD
- The Roadrunners are coming off a 27-25 season in 2017. They went 7-13 on the road and 8-9 in non-conference play. This season, MSUD is 4-4 and the series against LCU marks their first road trip of the season.
- MSUD finished the 2017 season in third place of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference with a 19-16 conference record. They are preseason picked sixth in the RMAC.
- The Roadrunners had four players named to the RMAC Preseason All-Conference Team: Cale O'Donnell (1B), Trent Maloney (3B), Sean Kennedy (OF) and Hunter Donaldson (OF).
- Sean Kennedy (.556) and Donny Ortiz (.533) each are hitting over .500 for the Roadrunners this season. Ortiz is their team leader in hits with 16.
- MSUD has a team batting average of .373 and a team ERA of 7.33.
 
HISTORY WITH MSUD
The series marks the first time the two programs have ever met.