LUBBOCK CHRISTIAN (0-0, 0-0) at
ST. EDWARD'S (0-0, 0-0)
Friday, January 31 – 2 p.m.
Lucian Hamilton Field – Austin, Texas
 
LEADING OFF
The 2020 baseball season will begin on Friday at 2 p.m. against St. Edward's, with Lubbock Christian beginning a new chapter in the storied history of its baseball program. It his the 50th season of baseball for the Chaparral program, which began play on March 10, 1971 with a doubleheader sweep of the College of Artesia (14-2, 10-0). It is also the first season for LCU to play in the Lone Star Conference, after that league and the Heartland Conference merged on July 1, 2019. The new conference now features 14 teams, and the Chaps will play a schedule of 50 conference games. The 2020 team also features more new faces than old, as the team graduated eight of their starting nine fielders from 2019 and had the ninth drafted.
 
THE CHAPARRAL NINE

• Lubbock Christian placed third in the 2020 Lone Star Conference Preseason Poll with 396 points
• The January 31 Opening Day is the earliest for the Chaps since 2015 when they also started on that date
• LCU has only started the season before February eight times in the previous 49 seasons
• Chaps played six seasons in the Heartland Conference with a 108-46 (.701) league record in that time
• A total of 24 new players are on the 2020 LCU roster, including 18 position players and six pitchers
• In 49 previous seasons, the LCU baseball program is 2,108-1,019 (.674)
• Thirteen players return from the 2019 roster, including four position players and nine pitchers
• Four players off the 2019 team were taken in the MLB draft, matching a program record

 
SEASON-OPENER
Lubbock Christian is playing its 50^th season-opener on Friday, with a 32-17 all-time record in the first game of the season previously. That includes a 13-3 record in the 16 seasons under head coach Nathan Blackwood. The Chaps won their first eight season openers ever until finally suffering an opening day loss to the University of Texas at El Paso in 1979. LCU's longest streak of losses came from 1997 to 2001 when they lost five straight. Their three losses in season-openers under Blackwood came against California Baptist (2007), Adams State (2014) and Regis (2018). LCU won their season-opener last year 2-1 in 10 innings against Emporia State.
 
EARLY START
Friday's season-opener against St. Edward's is the earliest start to a Lubbock Christian baseball season since 2015, when they also started the year with a doubleheader sweep of Adams State. It is just the eighth time in the past 49 seasons that the Chaps have started a season in January. The earliest start ever has been January 25, which they did in both 2008 and 2009. LCU started the season on January 30 in 2004, and on January 31 in 1998, 1992 and 1985. The latest an LCU season has ever started is March 12 in 1973.

GUESS WHO'S BACK
Although the Chaps lost a large portion of the 2019 team, including all nine starting position players and all but one of the of the pitchers who threw at least 20 innings last year, thirteen players did still stick around for the 2020 campaign. Four of the returners are position players, with another nine on the pitching staff. Both Peyton Maddox and AJ Perez are position players back who saw significant playing time, albeit off the bench, a year ago. Right-handed pitcher Logan McCrummen is the most experience returner, having thrown 46.2 innings across 16 appearances last year, and both Shandon Herrera and Koi Carrillo also were used consistently out of the bullpen.
 
FRESH FACES
Fans of the LCU baseball team in years past may have a tough time early in the season recognizing players out on the field in 2020, with more than half of this season's team new to Lubbock Christian. Of the 37 players on this year's squad, 24 were not on the team a year ago. Six of those new players are pitchers, with the other eighteen competing for positional spots. Four Division I transfers are in the mix, as well as 14 junior college transfers and seven freshmen.
 
MORE FRESH FACES
The Chaps also feature new people in both of their assistant coaching roles, with Jermaine Van Buren taking over pitching coach duties in August and Hector Limon taking over hitting coach duties in November. A native of Mississippi, Van Buren bring extensive professional baseball experience to the position, having pitched at the MLB level for both the Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox as well as a number of other years in the minor league ranks. As a coach he helped build up the Amarillo Baseball Academy as the head pitching instructor and most recently was the pitching coach at New Mexico Military Institute for two seasons. Limon is a former Chap player himself, who was on the 1983 NAIA National Championship team as a freshman. After graduating from LCU, he spent more than 30 years coaching baseball at the high school level in the state of Texas, including most recently at Abernathy High School.
 
LOOKING BACK
The 2019 season was another in a long line of success for the Chaparral baseball program. They finished 35-17 (.673) with a 16-5 league record to claim the Heartland Conference Regular Season Title. It was their third first place finish in the Heartland Conference in six years. Eight LCU players were honored on All-Conference Teams, including Heartland Player of the Year Hill Alexander and Pitcher of the Year Ryan Johnson. The pair were consensus All-Region Selections, while Braden Hayward was honored on pair of All-Region Teams.  The Chaps also reached the NCAA Regional Tournament for the third time in four years of eligibility. LCU's season was capped off with four players selected in the Major League Baseball Draft, matching a program record.
 
FURTHER BACK
Lubbock Christian has played more than 3,000 games throughout the history of their baseball program, which began with the school's transition to senior college status in 1971. The Chaps are 2,108-1,019 all-time for a win percentage of .674. The Chaps competed in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for 43 of those seasons, reaching the NAIA World Series nine times and claiming national titles in 1983 and 2009. LCU began the transition to NCAA Division II status in the 2013-14 school year and became postseason eligible for the 2015-16 year. The Chaps have reached the South Central Regional three times in the four seasons that they were postseason eligible.
 
HOMEGROWN PRODUCTS
Of the 37 players on the 2020 Lubbock Christian roster, more than one fourth (10) played their high school baseball in Lubbock. Six played right across the street from Hays Field at Lubbock Christian High School, as well as one from Frenship, one from Cooper, one from Coronado and one from Lubbock High. There are another two from the immediate surrounding area, playing their prep ball in New Deal and Shallowater.