NO. 23 LUBBOCK CHRISTIAN (11-3, 9-3, LSC) at
NO. 17 ANGELO STATE (13-3, 13-3 LSC)
Friday, March 4– 6:30 p.m.
Foster Field – San Angelo Texas, Texas
 
LEADING OFF
Riding a four-game win streak and claiming victories in nine of their last ten contests overall, Lubbock Christian University faces its toughest test of the young season this weekend with a top-25 matchup against Angelo State. The Chaps enter the series ranked No. 23, while the Rams are ranked No. 17. LCU and ASU already have three common opponents on the season in Arkansas-Fort Smith, Oklahoma Christian and St. Mary's. The Chaps have gone 9-3 against those three teams, while the Rams have gone 11-1. ASU also has a series split against UT Tyler, who the Chaps will not play until the last week of the regular season. The Chaps other weekend of games was this past one, when they swept two games from NMHU.
 
THE CHAPARRAL NINE

• The Chaps have outscored their opponents 130-91 so far this season
• Lubbock Christian's .333 team batting average is the second-best in the Lone Star Conference
• LCU and ASU met six times during the 2021 season, with the Rams holding a 4-2 advantage
• Angelo State's 2021 campaign ended at the NCAA D-II College World Series
• Chap catcher/first basemen Jarred Gibson has a hit in all 14 games this season and is batting .434
• LCU skipper Nathan Blackwood needs just one more win to reach the 700 mark for his career
• The Rams are coming off a sweep at St. Mary's on Sunday and Monday
• Lubbock Christian pitching held New Mexico Highlands to a .220 batting average last weekend

 
FIRST THINGS FIRST
Lubbock Christian has done a good job so far this season of getting out of in front of opponents early. The Chaps have scored 15 runs in the first inning while allowing only six. LCU is 6-1 when they score in the first inning, and 8-1 when they are the first team on the board overall. They are 2-1 when allowing opponents on the board in the first frame, and 3-2 when the opponent scores before them. The Chaps scored in the first inning of both games last weekend against New Mexico Highlands and two of the four games against St. Mary's the weekend before.
 
I'VE GOT THE POWER
Heading into the weekend matchup, LCU ranks No. 15 nationally in both slugging percentage and home runs. Chaparral hitters are batting .333 overall, but their 22 long balls lead the Lone Star Conference, and they have added in 27 doubles and five triples for a slugging percentage of .565. Two players on the LCU squad – Eduardo Acosta and Jarred Gibson – have slugging percentages over the .700 mark at .758 and .717, respectively. Acosta has a four doubles and leads the team with four home runs. Gibson is tied for the team lead in doubles with five, and he also has two triples and two home runs. Four other Lubbock Christian players have multiple home runs on the year, and 10 Chaps have homered overall.  
 
WALKIN' ON SUNSHINE
The Chaps have also done a solid job of putting runners on base without them having to swing the bat. LCU ranks third in the conference with a .444 on-base percentage this season, including two players – Acosta and Luis Navarro – who are reaching base more than half of the time they come to the plate. Navarro has the best OBP on the team at .557, and the Panama native ranks second in the conference and 14^th nationally with 15 walks this season. Three other Chaps also have reached the double-digit walk mark already, and LCU is tied for third in the league with a total of 76 walks this year.
 
BEHIND THE DISH
This weekend the rubber will meet the road as the Chaps, who come in with a .500 stolen base allowed percentage that is best in the conference, meet the Rams, who have swiped a league-leading 56 bags already this year. Twelve players have attempted to steal against LCU's stable of catchers and they have been successful only six times. Both Gibson and Jaxson Edwards have caught two runners stealing so far this season, and Navarro has nabbed one batter, although he has not seen as much time behind the plate as the other two. Three different Angelo State players – Jackson Hardy, Austin Beck and Justin Lee – have swiped eight bases this season.
 
EVERYONE PITCHES IN
In the second and final game of the series against New Mexico Highlands, the Chaps notched their first shutout of the 2022 season. Ethan Coombes and Tyler Hardwick did the job, combining two allow just six hits in seven innings of work. Neither pitcher walked a batter in the game. Overall, LCU's pitching staff has an ERA of 6.03, which ranks right in the middle of the conference. The Chaps have 122 strikeouts in 109.0 innings pitched though, and they are holding opponents to a .281 batting average. Cannon Davis has been the overall most effective pitcher, allowing no earned runs with 10 strikeouts in 7.0 innings of work out of the bullpen.
 
STREAKS AND MULTIS
Three Chaparral players have reached base in every single game so far this season. Gibson has done it all with the bat, as the only LCU player with hits in all 14 contests. He is also the team-leader in multi-hit games with eight. Acosta and Navarro have also reached base in all 14 games but have had at least one game without a hit. Navarro's reach base streak goes back even further and is at 52 games overall, as he reached base in the final 38 games of the 2021 season as well. The last game he did not reach base in was on Feb. 22, 2021, against St. Mary's. The Panama native also leads the team with five multi-RBI games.
 
ON THE ROAD AGAIN
Lubbock Christian has played only one road series prior to this weekend and they swept it, beating Oklahoma Christian in four straight games the second weekend of the season. Acosta was the top hitter in that series with a .438 batting average, and four other LCU hitters posted averages above the .300 mark. The Chaps were great on the mound against OC, posting a 2.53 ERA and .208 opponent's batting average across the four games. The Rams play their home games at Foster Field at 1^st Community Credit Union Stadium. Originally the home of the independent league San Angelo Colts, the stadium was renovated prior to the 2016 season. Its dimensions are 325 down the lines, 370 to the gaps and 395 to dead center. ASU is 5-3 on their home turf this season.
 
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 3,250 games throughout all those years, posting an overall program record of 2,178 wins and 1,072 losses in that time. For the last 18 seasons, it has been head coach Nathan Blackwood leading the program, and he has a 699-313 record in that time.
 
SCOUTING THE RAMS

• Angelo State is coming off a series sweep at St. Mary's in which they out-scored the Rattlers 49-7
• Kevin Brooks has been the only head coach for the Rams since the baseball program was reinstated in 2005, boasting a career record of 648-313
• The Rams have also drawn 76 walks this season, and their team on-base percentage of .452 ranks second in the LSC and 17^th in the nation
• Outfielder Justin Lee is the reigning LSC and South Central Region Hitter of the Week after hitting .500 with nine RBI against St. Mary's
• Opponents are only hitting .258 against the Ram pitching staff, but they have a staff ERA of 4.68 so far this season

 
THE SERIES WITH THE RAMS
Lubbock Christian and Angelo State first met on the diamond in 2010, splitting a season series two games apiece. The two teams have faced off every year since 2013 now, and Angelo State leads the all-time series 24-13. In 2021, they met six times with the Chaps winning two. Two of those meetings last year were in the Lone Star Conference Tournament, which ASU hosted and won. LCU's last series win over Angelo State was in 2019, when the Chaps took two out of three games in San Angelo.