Baseball | 02.05.2022

LUBBOCK CHRISTIAN (0-0, 0-0) vs.
ARKANSAS-FORT SMITH (0-0, 0-0)
Sunday, February 7 – 1 p.m. (DH)
Hays Field – Lubbock, Texas
 
LEADING OFF
The weather in Lubbock (and much of Texas) this week sure doesn't make it feel like it, but it is (finally) officially baseball season. In fact, the weather has already affect the series, pushing everything back one day to avoid playing in the below-freezing temperatures expected for much of Friday, which was originally scheduled as opening day. Lubbock Christian University will begin their 2022 campaign and the 52nd season in program history at 2 p.m. on Saturday, hosting Arkansas-Fort Smith at Hays Field for a four-game series. The Chaparrals finished the 2021 season with a 23-24 overall record and returned much of the roster from a year ago, while also adding a number of impact newcomers.
 
THE CHAPARRAL NINE

• The Chaps won seven of their final 11 games in 2021, reaching the LSC Tournament championship game
• LCU returns six of the eight players with the most starts at each position from a year ago
• The last time Lubbock Christian started the season at home was 2018, when they hosted Regis
• 48 of the 50 regular season games scheduled for the Chaps will be Lone Star Conference play
• Arkansas-Fort Smith finished eighth in the LSC last year with a 14-19 overall record
• LCU posted a 6.09 staff ERA in 404.2 innings of work during the 2021 season
• Infielder Carson Ogilvie was recognized as an impact transfer to watch by the D-II Report
• The Chaps hit .301 as a team last year and crushed an LSC-leading 72 home runs

 
ON YOUR MARK.. GET SET…
It's go time for the Chaps, who are seeing their latest start to the season since 2018, when Opening Day was Feb. 9 against Regis. The latest LCU has ever started a season was way back in 1973, when the season-opener wasn't played until March 12. Lubbock Christian is 33-18 all-time in season-openers, including a 14-4 record in the 18 seasons under head coach Nathan Blackwood. The Chaps dropped last year's season-opener against Central Missouri 7-5, but won the 2020 season-opener against St. Edward's 3-1. 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.

LEADING THE PACK
For the 19^th consecutive season, the Lubbock Christian baseball team will be led by Nathan Blackwood. A Lubbock native and graduate of LCU himself (1995), Blackwood has an amassed a 688-310 all-time record and is due for several career milestones this season. Already the longest tenured coach in school history, he needs just eight wins to surpass College Baseball Hall of Fame member Larry Hays as the winningest Chap coach all-time. After he reaches that mark, he'll need just four more wins to hit the 700 mark. Blackwood has the 24^th most wins among active Division II head coaches, and everyone ahead of him has at least 20 seasons as a head coach.
 
HELPING HANDS
Blackwood has two full time assistants on his staff in Hector Limon and Jermaine Van Buren, both of whom are in their third season with the Chaps. Limon is a local product who graduated from Estacado and played for the Chaps in the 1980s. He was inducted into the school's Hall of Honor in 1998. After graduation, he spent more than 20 years teaching and coaching. Van Buren was drafted by the Colorado Rockies in the second round of the 1998 MLB Draft out of high school and pitched professionally for nine seasons. He had two stints in the big leagues, one with the Chicago Cubs and another with the Boston Red Sox.
 
GUESS WHO'S BACK
Well, it's nearly everybody. Only three players who saw significant playing time in 2021 are no longer on the team. Seven players hit better than .280 last season and six of them are back, including ABCA Second Team All-American Luis Navarro and ABCA All-Region Second Team pick Larry Leitha. The Chap also return six pitchers who had at least 25 innings of work in 2021, including three players who made at least seven starts (Armando Valle, Shandon Herrera and Tyler Hardwick) and a pair of relievers who made 18 appearances each (Cade Acrey and Peyton Hutson). Also returning on the mound for 2022 is Ty Stephenson, who made just five starts last year before injury but was the ace of the 2021 staff with a 3.45 ERA.
 
NEW BLOOD
Even though the Chaps returned most of their 2021 roster, several new players were also added who could make an impact this season. Infielder Carson Ogilvie comes to the Chaps after leading his Hill College team in average, on-base percentage and home runs last season, and catcher/first basemen Jarred Gibson transferred in after hitting .407 with a .508 on-base percentage at Midland College in 2021. On the mound, LCU added Ethan Coombes, who had 82 strikeouts in 55.2 innings pitched and already has LSC experience from his time at Eastern N.M. They also got transfer Tanner Bercier, a Canada native who had a 0.59 ERA in 15.1 innings at USAO last season before suffering an injury.
 
PRESEASON PICKINGS
In the 2022 LSC Preseason Poll, which reflects the opinions of LSC head coaches, sports information directors and various media representatives throughout the region, Lubbock Christian was picked to finish sixth. The Chaps received votes but did not appear in the NCBWA preseason South Central Regional Poll, and they did not have any NCBWA Preseason All-America or All-Region selections. Ogilvie did earn recognition prior to the start of the year as a Division II impact transfer to watch by Wayne Cavadi of the D-II Report.
 
FRIENDLY CONFINES
The Chaparrals play a total of 26 home games this season, beginning with the four this weekend against  Originally dedicated on April 29, 1978 as Chaparral Stadium, the complex was renamed Hays Field in 1999 to honor the L.D., Pearl, Larry, and Daren Hays families for their dedication and commitment to the ideals and values of Lubbock Christian University. The playing dimensions of Hays Field measure 340 feet down the lines, 380 feet to the power alleys, and 400 feet to straight away center. LCU was 10-11 on their own turf last year and the program is 1,117-337 in home games all-time.
 
2021 RETROSPECTIVE
Lubbock Christian played a 40-game regular season in 2021 along with seven games in the playoff. Like 2022, most of the 2021 season's games were in-conference, where the Chaps went 17-19. They finished seventh in the league standings, but went into the conference postseason tournament as the six seed, as UT Tyler was still ineligible for postseason play due to their transition to the D-II level. LCU got hot in the second half of the season, winning 16 of their final 23 games of the year. This included a first round upset of Texas A&M-Kingsville in the LSC Tournament, after which the Chaps advanced all the way to the championship game before seeing their season come to an end.
 
LOOKING FURTHER BACK
Way back in 1962, when Lubbock Christian College was still just a two-year school, there was a group of students who "simply wanted to play ball." Les Perrin heard their cry and agreed to be the sponsor and coach of LCC's first baseball team. He held that post for five seasons before the program was disbanded, but that was just the beginning of baseball on campus. Starting with the 1970-71 school year, LCC transition to four-year status and athletic director/coach Larry Hays re-started the program with the '71 season. Hays led the program into the spotlight quickly, getting to the NAIA World Series for the first time in 1977. The Chaps made four more World Series appearances under Hays, winning a National Championship in 1983. Jimmy Shankle followed Hays as head coach and had a 1991 WS appearance. They went to the WS four more times under Blackwood, winning the title again in 2009 before transitioning to the NCAA in 2013. Since the transition, they have won three conference titles and reached the NCAA Regional three times as well. All-time Lubbock Christian is 2,167-1,069 (.672).
 
SCOUTING THE LIONS

• UAFS was picked to finish ninth in the 2022 LSC Preseason Poll
• Todd Holland is in his seventh season as the UAFS head coach and has a 477-340 record as a Division II head coach
• The Lions' top hitter from a season ago – Brooks Sunny – returns for the 2022 season
• UAFS was one of the better pitching teams in the league in 2021, ranking fifth in the LSC with a team ERA of 6.02
• The Lions struggled to hit last season though, hitting .264 for the year, which was the fourth-worst average in the league

 
THE SERIES WITH THE LIONS
Lubbock Christian and Arkansas-Fort Smith have been meeting on the Diamond since 2014, and the Chaps lead the all-time series 16-7. Last season, they met four times. Once in the Houston Classic at Minute Maid Park, and three more times in Fort Smith, Ark. LCU won three of the four meetings.