Lubbock Christian (28-18, 26-18 LSC) at
Eastern New Mexico (22-23, 20-23 LSC)
April 28-30 – Greyhound Baseball Field – Portales, N.M.
 
WARMING UP
The 2023 regular season will come to a close this weekend for the Lubbock Christian baseball team as they take on Eastern New Mexico in a four-game series. The Chaps are riding a four-game win streak, having swept West Texas A&M last weekend to jump the Buffs and move into fourth in the Lone Stat Conference standings. They will be looking to build on their momentum and maintain their fourth-place standing as they wrap up the regular season.
 
FIRST PITCH

• Despite it being less than a two-hour drive away, this will be LCU's first games in Portales since 2014, when they won a midweek game 8-7. The Chaps were supposed to play there in 2021, but due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, ENMU did not hos a single conference home game. In 2015, the two teams played a pair of midweek games at Momentum Bank Ballpark, home of the Midland Rockhounds. LCU did play a preseason scrimmage in Portales prior to the start of the 2020 season
• Lubbock Christian are the two teams tied for the national lead in complete games with 11 apiece. Ryan Markwardt and Andrew Duran lead the Chap pitching staff with four each
• Eastern New Mexico is coming off a series loss at St. Mary's where they salvaged the series with a 10-5 win in Sunday's finale. The Greyhounds are 8-14 on the road this season, but 13-6 on their own field
• The Chaps hit .325 with an on-base percentage of .436 against WT last weekend, while holding the Buffs to just a .231 batting average
• Chap shortstop Carson Ogilvie ranks second in the nation in triples with seven and is eighth nationally with 20 doubles

 
AWARD CENTRAL
Senior Lubbock Christian outfielder Eduardo Acosta was named the LSC Co-Hitter of the Week and National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association South Central Region Hitter of the Week for his performance against WT. With his parents in town from Puerto Rico to watch him for the first time in his Lubbock Christian career, Acosta had a senior weekend to remember. He was 9-for-17 at the plate overall, batting .529 with 15 total bases across LCU's four games. He scored six times and drove in another nine runs. No RBI was bigger than in the series-opener on Friday, when he came up with two outs in the bottom of the 10th and sent the third pitch he saw over the wall in left center for a walkoff home run.
 
REGIONALLY RECOGNIZED
The first round of NCAA South Central Regional rankings were released on Wednesday, with Lubbock Christian University as one of the eight teams under consideration. The first release this season only includes the eight teams currently being considered in alphabetical order. In the following weeks, the teams will be ranked No. 1 to No. 8. The top six teams after the conference tournaments are completed will advance to the NCAA Tournament, with the top two seeds hosting regionals.
 
BIG BOPPERS
The Chaps are hitting their stride at the right time offensively, coming off a series where they hit .325 with six doubles, two triples and two home runs – and that was with the wind blowing in for three out of four games. LCU leads the conference and ranks No. 27 nationally in home runs with 59. LCU also ranks in the top 25 nationally in batting average (No. 12), doubles (No. 14), hits (No. 13), runs (No. 15), sacrifice flies (No. 21), slugging percentage (No. 12) and triples (No. 10).
 
TWO DOWN
Part of Lubbock Christian's offensive success has come in their ability to get clutch, two-out hits. The perfect example came in Friday night's win over WT, when, with two outs in the bottom of the 10th, Brevin McCool homered to tie the game and Acosta homered to win it. As a team, LCU bats .321 with two outs, led by Ogilvie's .389 average. Nate Van Maanen leads the way in two-out RBI with 25.
 
CAUGHT RED-HANDED
Jarred Gibson gunned down yet another runner stealing in the series finale against West Texas A&M, bringing LCU's season total to 25, which is the most in the LSC. The Chaps have allowed stolen bases at less than a 70 percent clip. Gibson has done the majority of the catching and leads the Chaps with 14 runners caught, with Jaxson Edwards adding in five and Bo Hogeboom catching four.
 
STREAKS AND MULTIS
Chris Shull is now tied for the team lead in multi-RBI games with Van Maanen at 14 apiece. Ogilvie is still the team-leader in multi-hit games with 23, although Acosta (21) and Van Maanen (20) are close behind. Ogilvie's five-game reached base streak also leads the team, tied with Gibson.
 
A DEEPER LOOK
Now it's time for the baseball nerds, with this week's feature on Total Average. Created by Thomas Boswell, this stat at its most simple is a player's total number of bases divided by his total number of outs. Although there are some fallacies since found in this formula in relation to over-weighting walks and stolen bases, in its early days it was useful for pointing the flaw in players who hit a lot of singles for high average and rarely walked. Ogilvie leads the Chaps with a total average of .927, collecting 164 bases against 177 outs. Acosta, McCool and Shull are all above the .800 mark in total average as well.
 
ON THE ROAD AGAIN
Lubbock Christian will head on the road for their final away series of the year. They have an 11-9 record in road games this season. The offense has struggled away from the friendly confines, batting just .292 compared to a .361 home average. On the flip side, the pitching staff has been much better away from home, posting a 5.93 ERA in road games compared to 7.68 at home. ENMU plays its home games at Greyhound Baseball Field, which was built in 1992. It is cavernous, playing 365 to the left field corner, 410 to straightaway center and 343 down the line in right field.
 
SCOUTING THE GREYHOUNDS

• ENMU has the second-worst pitching staff in the LSC, with an ERA of 8.52 on the year. Opponents have hit .343 against them
• Greyhound freshman Jonatan Clough currently leads the conference in home run with 16, and has hit six of those in the last nine games. The Dominican Republic native accounts for more than half of ENMU's round-trippers all by himself
• Eastern New Mexico leads the LSC in triples with 26
• Lubbock native (Cooper H.S.) Cooper Hamilton is second on the Greyhound roster with a .360 batting average
• Head coach Riley Price is in his fourth season leading the Greyhounds and has led the team to a better record every season at the helm

 
THE SERIES WITH THE GREYHOUNDS
Lubbock Christian has been taking on Eastern New Mexico in baseball pretty much since the former started the baseball program in 1971. LCU and ENMU met four times that season with the Chaps winning three of the games. They have faced off 86 times overall with LCU holding a 64-22 advantage. The Chaps took three of four games when the teams met last season.