LUBBOCK CHRISTIAN (7-5, 7-5 LSC) at
ST. MARY'S (7-2, 7-2 LSC)
Friday, Feb. 21 – 3 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 22 – 2 p.m. (DH)
Sunday, Feb. 23  – 1 p.m.
Dickson Stadium – San Antonio, Texas
 
LEADING OFF
The weather is cold in Texas this week, even down south in San Antonio, where the Lubbock Christian baseball team heads this week for a four-game series against St. Mary's. The Chaps are hot, though, winning seven of their last eight games to improve to 7-5 both overall and in Lone Star Conference play. LCU has been led by their returning All-Americans so far this year. Brevin McCool is leading the nation with nine home runs while batting an eye-popping .520, and Jacob Gutierrez is not far behind with a .429 batting average and .559 on-base percentage. On the mound, Ryan Markwardt has been the best of the bunch, posting a 2-1 record and 3.31 ERA in 16.1 innings of work.
 
AWARD CENTRAL
Lubbock Christian senior left-hander Ryan Markwardt was named the Lone Star Conference, NCBWA South Central Region and NCBWA National Pitcher of the Week for his performance last week against Oklahoma Christian. The Itasca native tossed a complete game shutout, allowing just one hit and striking out nine in the outing. He faced only one batter over the minimum and retired 19 straight batters to close out the game. For the season, Markwardt has a 3.31 ERA and is limiting opponents to a .153 batting average. He has a WHIP of 0.92 and is fifth in the conference in strikeouts with 20.
 
OFFENSIVE OUTBURST
The Chaparrals come into the weekend leading the nation in hits (172), runs (151) and home runs (22) while ranking second in slugging percentage (.640), third in batting average (.392) and fourth in on-base percentage (.482). Shea Bowen is the nation's leader in walks (14), while Brevin McCool leads in hits (26), home runs (9), runs scored (24) and total bases (63). Jacob Gutierrez was the team's leading hitter in the series against OC, batting .688, and is now hitting .479 for the season. Nicklaus Baumbach, Bowen and Kyle Lewis are all also hitting above .400. As a team, the Chaps hit .394 with runners in scoring position.
 
TABLE-SETTERS
One of the reasons the LCU offense has been so dangerous has been their ability to put the leadoff batter on base. The Chaps are reaching at a .489 clip this season in leadoff opportunities, compared to .400 by their opponents. Adam Garcia has the best individual leadoff OBP at .750, but in only four plate appearances. Kade York, who has hit in the one hole a team-leading six times this year, also has the most leadoff chances with 16. He is reaching base at a .438 clip.
 
ON THE BUMP
Lubbock Christian's rotation against OC featured Lex Garcia, Markwardt, Evan Roach and Tate Thompson. Roach had his best outing of the season so far, allowing just three earned runs in 4.2 innings of work with a season-high three strikeouts. Thompson made his first-ever appearance for LCU and struggled in the Sunday game, allowing five runs on three hits. The Chaps had previously used Cadon Everett as the Sunday starter, and Everett had a solid relief outing against OC, allowing just one run in three innings. StMU's probable starters are Kaleb Guana, Gabe Cook, Javier De Alejandro and Hagen Rose.
 
CAUGHT RED-HANDED
Entering the weekend against the Rattlers, LCU has the lowest stolen base allowed percentage in the LSC at .733. The Chaps have combined to catch eight runners stealing, which is one behind the league-leader Texas A&M International. The two catchers used by LCU this season are Adam Garcia and Ryan Blackwell. Garcia has caught four runners stealing but allowed 13 stolen bases. Blackwell has caught three runners stealing but allowed only nine stolen bases.
 
OTHER STATISTICAL MEASURES
WHIP was invented in 1979 by writer Daniel Okrent, who originally called the metric "innings pitched ratio." It stands for walks plus hits per inning pitched and one of the easier sabermetric statistics to understand the formula for. While earned run average (ERA) measures the runs a pitcher gives up, WHIP more directly measures a pitcher's effectiveness against batters. WHIP near 1.00 over the course of a season will often rank among the league leaders in Major League Baseball. Markwardt (0.55) and Logan Moore (0.55) are the only two Chaps with a WHIP under 1.00, but five other hurlers have a mark under 2.00.
 
STREAKS AND MULTIS
Bowen continued his reached base streak throughout the OC series and has been aboard at least once in all 12 games this season. McCool only missed the first game, and Gutierrez has reached base and has hits in 10 straight. Gutierrez and Baumbach are tied for the team lead in multi-hit games, but McCool is the only player with multiple four-hit games. McCool also leads the Chaps in multi-RBI games with seven, including two with at least five RBI.
 
2000 & 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 3,408 games throughout all those years, posting an overall program record of 2,288 wins and 1,120 losses in that time. For the last 20 seasons, it has been head coach Nathan Blackwood leading the program, and he has a 805-372 record in that time.
 
BIG LEAGUE CONNECTION
MLB spring training got underway this week, with a couple of former Chaps on staff to help out the professional players. Buck Britton, who played shortstop for LCU 2007-08, earned a promotion in the offseason and is now a major league coach on the Baltimore Orioles staff. He has previously been the manager of the Orioles' Triple-A affiliate Norfolk Tides. Wigberto Nevarez, who is a former catcher for the Chaps, is entering his eighth season of coaching and his fifth with the Gwinnet Stripers, which is the Triple-A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. He spent the winter coaching for Santurce of the Puerto Rican Winter League.
 
THE SERIES WITH THE RATTLERS
Lubbock Christian and St. Mary's have met 59 times overall, first facing off on the diamond in 1978. The Chaps lead the series 33-26 and have won eight of the last 10 meetings. LCU swept the Rattlers last year at Hays Field, but when the two teams last met in San Antonio, they split the series two games apiece.
 
SCOUTING THE RATTLERS

• St. Mary's has the fourth-best team ERA in the conference at 3.97 and opponents hit only .236 against them
• The Rattlers are tied for the second-fewest home runs in the LSC with four, and their slugging percentage of .395 ranks 11^th
• Although they had a bye last week, StMU did play a Tuesday game against NAIA Our Lady of the Lake, winning 11-10 on a walkoff hit-by-pitch
• Seven Rattler pitchers have an ERA of 0.00 so far this season, led by Sunday starter Hagen Rose, who has not allowed an earned run in 12 innings of work
• Frank Kellner is in his second season leading the Rattlers, posting an overall record of 27-31