Baseball | 03.23.2022

LUBBOCK CHRISTIAN (20-, 18-6, LSC) vs.
ST. EDWARD'S (18-10, 18-10 LSC)
Friday, March 25 – 6 p.m.
Hays Field – Lubbock, Texas
 
LEADING OFF
It's the Lone Star Conference, which mean's Lubbock Christian University faces another tough task this weekend. After a gritty series win last weekend at Texas A&M-Kingsville, the Chaps return home to take on St. Edward's, who is right behind them in the league standings. SEU enters the weekend with the exact same amount of LSC wins as LCU, but the Hilltoppers have played one more league series than the Chaps and are 18-10 in league play overall. Lubbock Christian ended St. Edward's' season in 2021, beating them in the LSC Tournament, but the Hilltoppers won two of the three games in Austin when the two teams met in the regular season.
 
THE CHAPARRAL NINE

• The Chaps rank No. 8 nationally and lead the LSC with a team slugging percentage of .577
• Lubbock Christian RHP Shandon Herrera notched his second complete game of the season last weekend
• LCU and SEU split the season series 2-2 during the 2021 season
• The Hilltoppers are coming off a series loss against St. Mary's where they only salvaged the final game
• Chap infielder Eduardo Acosta ranks fourth in the LSC in batting average at .410
• LCU moved back into the national rankings this week at No. 24 in the NCBWA poll
• SEU ranks fifth in the LSC in both batting average (.302) and ERA (5.36)
• Lubbock Christian leadoff batters are reaching base at a .416 clip (84-202) for the season

 
FOR STARTERS
The Chaps are coming off a series win at Texas A&M-Kingsville, where they took three out of the four contests, despite scoring just 18 runs in the series. They were able to accomplish the feat thanks to several impressive starting pitching performances. LCU's rotation of Tyler Hardwick, Ethan Coombes, Shandon Herrera and Ty Stephenson combined to post a 3.75 earned run average and .236 opponent's batting average in the four games against the Javelinas. Both Coombes and Herrera notched complete games in the doubleheader (seven innings), and Coombes had the first complete-game shutout of the season by a Chaparral pitcher.
 
IN THE BEGINNING
Lubbock Christian has done a good job this season of getting out in front of their opponents and scoring first. The Chaps have outs-scored their opponents this season 26-7 in the first inning of games. LCU hitters have a .367 batting average and .444 on-base percentage in the initial frame, while Chap pitchers have limited opponents to just a .229 batting average in the first. Designated hitter Mason Donohoe has the best offensive numbers in the first inning, with four hits in six at-bats, including one home run. Eduard Acosta has been LCU's main leadoff batter this season. He has a .529 on-base percentage in the first inning and leads the team with seven runs scored in that frame. On the mound, both Coombes and Stephenson have yet to allow a first inning run this year.
 
POWERHOUSE
Despite leaving the yard just one time in the four games combined in South Texas, Lubbock Christian still ranks No. 9 nationally in home runs and leads the Lone Star Conference in that category by a healthy margin. The Chaps have hit 43 round-trippers in total this season, well ahead of St. Edward's and UT Permian Basin, who are tied for second with 26 apiece. Chap center fielder Larry Leitha leads the team and is tied for the LSC lead with eight this year. He had the only LCU homer against the Javelinas. Three other LCU players have at least five. The Chaps also have 56 doubles and 10 triples, leading the LSC and ranking No. 8 nationally with a .577 slugging percentage.
 
WALK THIS WAY
Despite their penchant for hitting the ball and hitting it hard, the Chaparral sluggers are not ones to just hack away at the plate all the time In fact, their team on-base percentage of .431 is the third-best in the conference and their 127 walks are the fourth-most. Luis Navarro has the best on-base percentage on the team, reaching in 50.4 percent of his plate appearances so far this season. He is also the team-leader with 20 walks followed by Caden Hensley (17) and George Mendazona (16). Overall, eight of the regular nine Chaparral starters have their on-base percentage better than .400.
 
NATIONALLY KNOWN
Last week, Lubbock Christian moved back into the national rankings, sneaking into the National Collegiate Baseball Writer's Association top-25 after their sweep of Texas A&M International. This week, the Chaps moved up another two spots for their highest ranking of the season at No. 21. LCU drew 94 points in the poll, just five behind No. 20 North Greenville. Angelo State (#10) and West Texas A&M (#4) are the only other two LSC teams in the poll. The Chaps are also now ranked in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper top-30 poll, where they sit at No. 23 with 44 points.
 
STREAKS AND MULTIS
Jarred Gibson was the last Chap to have reached base in every single LCU game this season, and his streak came to an end in the first game of the series at TAMUK, ending it at 22 games. The longest current reached base streak belongs to Larry Leitha, who has been on base in 18 straight contests. Acosta and Carson Ogilvie are tied for the longest hitting streaks on the team at eight games apiece. Navarro is still leading the team in both multi-hit and multi-RBI games. He has 12 multi-hit games and eight multi-RBI games. Acosta, though, has the most games with more than two hits, having collected three three-hit games and a pair of four-hit games.
 
FRIENDLY CONFINES
Lubbock Christian is halfway through their 24-game home slate for the 2022 season heading into this weekend's games. 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 is 11-3 on their home turf this year, including eight straight wins, and the program is 1,128-340 in home games all-time.
 
2000 AND COUNTING
Since the inception of LCU's baseball program in 1971, the Chaparrals have been one of the best baseball teams at whatever level they were playing. Lubbock Christian has played 3,261 games throughout all those years, posting an overall program record of 2,187 wins and 1,075 losses in that time. For the last 18 seasons, it has been head coach Nathan Blackwood leading the program, and he has a 708-316 record in that time.
 
SCOUTING THE HILLTOPPERS

• St. Edward's is one of five other teams with a winning record (besides LCU) in the Lone Star Conference at 18-10 on the year
• Bryan Faulds is in his first year leading the Hilltoppers after spending the previous four seasons as the SEU pitching coach
• Stacey Bailey, a transfer from Grayson County CC, leads the SEU offense with a .400 batting average. He is also tied for the league lead with eight home runs
• Opponents are hitting just .265 against the Hilltopper pitching staff this season, but they have walked 125 batters, which is the fifth-most in the conference
• St. Edward's does not commit many errors, and their .970 fielding percentage is the second-best in the LSC

 
THE SERIES WITH THE HILLTOPPERS
Lubbock Christian and St. Edward's have been meeting on the diamond since 1986, and the Chaps lead the all-time series 33-22. Most of the meetings have come in the last eight seasons, when LCU moved to NCAA Division II and joined the Heartland Conference. In 2018 alone, the Chaps and Hilltoppers faced off 10 times, with SEU winning eight of them. Last season, St. Edward's took two out of three in the regular season series, and the Chaps beat them once in the LSC Tournament.