LUBBOCK CHRISTIAN (18-16, 18-16 LSC) at
WEST TEXAS A&M (22-12, 22-12 LSC)
Thursday, April 2 – 4 p.m.
Friday, April 3 – 2 p.m. (DH)
Saturday, April 4 – 1 p.m.
Hays Field – Lubbock, Texas
 
LEADING OFF
Lubbock Christian University bounced back in a big way last weekend, taking three of four at home against St. Edward's for their fourth series win of the season. The Chaparrals will need to keep up their hot streak as they head out on the road this weekend for four games against West Texas A&M. The series is moved up one day due to Easter on Sunday and so will be played Thursday through Saturday. If the season ended today, LCU would enter the LSC Tournament as the seventh and final seed, while WT is currently slotted as the No. 4 seed, meaning they would host a first round series. After this weekend, all three of the Chaps' remaining series are against teams below them in the LSC standings.
 
RIVALRY ON THE RANGE
The LCU/WT matchup will be the latest in the 2025-26 school year's Rivalry on the Range series. Announced on August 6, 2019, the Rivalry on the Range is a year-long competition including 15 sports in which the two schools will compete against one another. The Rivalry on the Range series scoring components includes head-to-head battles in men's soccer, women's soccer, volleyball, men's basketball, women's basketball, baseball and softball, with additional points available in postseason play. Lubbock Christian lost last year's series by just two points and trails 7-4 this year.
 
STREAKS AND MULTIS
Chaparral junior Jorge De Los Santos is currently riding a 15-game hitting streak, dating back to the March 7 game at Angelo State. It is the longest streak by an LCU hitter since Carson Ogilvie had hits in 15 straight from March 1-29, 2024. In those 15 games, the Mexico native is batting .510 with a .745 slugging percentage, 16 RBI and 15 runs scored. Meanwhile, Kyle Lewis has reached base in 23 straight games, which is the longest streak by a Chap since Brevin McCool reached in 31 straight during the 2025 season. De Los Santos is also tied for first on the team with seven multi-RBI games and second in multi-hit games, while Lewis leads the team in multi-run games. Hudson Grace is the team-leader with 15 multi-hit games.
 
PITCHER'S BEST FRIEND
Lubbock Christian enters this weekend's series ranked 10^th nationally in double plays turned with 29, including a whopping seven during the series against St. Edward's. They turned three in the Friday night game against the Hilltoppers, which matched their season high. LCU's pitching staff is ground ball heavy, getting 296 outs on the ground compared to 212 through the air. Karson Dunn gets the most groundouts with 74 to just 32 flyouts, and he leads the pitching staff with six double plays induced.
 
NERVES OF STEAL
The Chaps swiped three bases against the Hilltoppers, bringing their season total to 76, which is the 23rd-most in Division II. They have long surpassed last year's season total of 41. The most bases the Chaps have stolen in the NCAA era is 87 in 2024, but even that season they only averaged 1.42 per game, while they are averaging 2.24 per game this year. Nine of their steals came in the 3/1 game against UT Dallas, which is the most they have swiped in a game in the NCAA era (since 2015). Four in that game came from Lewis, who is tied with De Los Santos for third in the league with 20 apiece. Grace is right behind the pair with 18 stolen bases.
 
LEAVING THE YARD
Lubbock Christian enters the weekend having clubbed 42 home runs, which is the most in the Lone Star Conference and ranks 20th in all of Division II. They matched their season high in Sunday's game against SEU with four, and they are averaging 1.24 home runs per game this season. In 2025, they led the league with 89 home runs, averaging 1.56 per game. After hitting two homers against the Javelinas, senior outfielder Roe Forrest now leads the team in round-trippers with eight, a mark that is also fifth in the conference. Twelve different Chaparrals have homered at least once this season, which is more than they had in the 2025 season.
 
TO START WITH
Chaparral starting pitchers this season have combined to post a 5.21 ERA in 162.1 innings of work. The group, which is projected this weekend to include Dakota McCaskill, Karson Dunn, Aaron Rubio and Bryce Nall, has limited opponents to a .283 batting average with 126 strikeouts. With just one earned run allowed in six innings against SEU, Rubio lowered his season ERA to 3.50, which is the third-best mark in the conference. Dunn is right behind him in fourth with a 3.81 ERA this season.
 
MARCH MADNESS
In the month of March, Lubbock Christian posted a 10-7 record. The Chaps hit .316 as a team while posting a team ERA of 6.60. De Los Santos had the best month at the plate, batting a robust .448, but five other players hit better than .300 in March. Both Rubio and McCaskill posted sub-4.0 ERA's during March, while Nall struck out a team-high 22 batters in the month. The month featured series wins over UT Dallas and St. Edward's at home and a split at Angelo State.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
Total Average is a baseball statistic created by Thomas Boswell, basically evaluating a player's entire offensive contribution by dividing the number of bases accumulated (hits, walks, hit-by-pitches and stolen bases) but his number of outs (including caught stealings and double plays hit into). Nine Chap players have a total average over 1.000, led by Ryan Gargett at 1.704. With just 20 games played and only 12 starts, Gargett is batting .409 and nine of his 18 hits have gone for extra bases.
 
FROM SEA TO SHINING SEA
LCU's 22 newcomers on the 2026 roster come from all over the North American continent, with a whopping 16 (72  percent) hailing from outside of the Lone Star State. The largest contingent from outside of Texas come from Colorado (5), but they also have players from New Mexico, Washington, Idaho, Arizona, Tennessee, Florida, Mexico and even Sitka, Alaska, which more than 3000 miles away from Lubbock.
 
ON THE ROAD AGAIN
The Chaps are back out on the road again where they have struggled this year. LCU is 5-10 in games away from home while going 13-6 at the friendly confines of Hays Field. The hit 77 points wors (.265 vs. .342) in games on the road and their ERA is 2.73 runs higher (8.44 vs. 5.71) when they play on foreign fields. West Texas A&M plays its home games at Wilder Park, which was completed in 2010 and features an artificial turf playing surface and measures 310 to the short porch in left field and 404 to straightaway center.
 
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 3,480 games throughout all those years, posting an overall program record of 2,330 wins and 1,150 losses in that time. For the last 23 seasons, it has been head coach Nathan Blackwood leading the program, and he has a 851-405 record.
 
SCOUTING THE BUFFS

• West Texas A&M ranks second in the Lone Star Conference in batting average at .336 and they are also second in slugging at .513
• The Buffs are coming off a series loss after dropping three of four at league-leading St. Mary's last weekend
• WT is 10-5 on their home field this season with series wins against Eastern New Mexico, Cameron and Oklahoma Christian
• Senior infielder Jake Alwine leads the Lone Star Conference with a .595 on-base percentage
• Head coach Cory Hall is in his second season at the helm of the Buff program after previously serving as an assistant under former head coach Matt Vanderburg

 
THE SERIES WITH THE BUFFS
Lubbock Christian and West Texas A&M have met 88 times on the diamond in total, with LCU leading the all-time series 60-28. The met twice in the 1970s before the Buff program disbanded and then met more regularly starting in the 90s when the program is reinstated. Last season, the teams split the regular season series, but the Chaps swept the two games in the first round of the LSC Tournament.