#25 West Texas A&M (23-7, 21-7) vs. St. Mary's (18-12, 16-12) |
Game 1 | Friday, March 28th at 4:00 p.m. |
Game 2 & 3 | Saturday, March 29th at 2:00 p.m. |
Game 3 | Sunday, March 30th at 1:00 p.m. |
Location | Canyon, Texas | Wilder Park |
Live Statistics | Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3 | Game 4 |
Live Video (FloCollege) | Game 1 | Game 2 & 3 | Game 4 |
Other Links | Game Notes |
CANYON, Texas – The #25 Buffaloes of West Texas A&M ride a nine-game win streak into this weekend's Lone Star Conference action as they host the St. Mary's Rattlers for a four-game series beginning on Friday afternoon at Wilder Park in Canyon.
A LOOK AT THE RATTLERS St. Mary's enters the weekend with an overall record of 18-12 including a 16-12 mark in Lone Star Conference action, splitting last weekend's series with rival St. Edward's in Austin. The Rattlers won the first two games of the series (6-5, 3-0) before dropping the final two contest by a combined score of 15-3.
The Rattlers are hitting .293 as a team so far this season, scoring 195 runs on 270 hits with 46 doubles, four triples and 28 homeruns to drive in 173 RBI with 113 walks and 220 strikeouts for an on-base percentage of .379. Hogan Heller leads the way at the plate as the senior from San Antonio is hitting .355 with six doubles, one triple and three homers to drive in a team-best 24 RBI.
St. Mary's holds the fifth lowest earned run average in the LSC, entering the weekend with a staff ERA of 5.01 with 170 runs allowed (128 earned) on 238 hits in 230.0 innings of work for an opposing batting average of .267. Potential game four starter Hagen Rose is 4-1 on the year with a 2.55 ERA as the junior righty from Troy, Texas has allowed 14 runs (10 earned) on 34 hits with 14 walks and 24 strikeouts in his 35.1 frames.
RATTLERS IN 2024 The Rattlers finished the 2024 campaign with an overall record of 20-30 with a mark of 18-30, missing out on the Lone Star Conference Tournament.
StMU HEAD COACH FRANK KELLNER Frank Kellner was named the eighth skipper in the history of the St. Mary's baseball program on July 17, 2023 following 20 seasons as the top assistant at Temple College. While at TC, Kellner was a part of 657 victories with two NTJCAC Championships as 36 players were selected in the MLB Draft. Kellner played professional baseball with the Houston Astros and Milwaukee Brewers organizations, reaching Triple-A in five of his eight seasons in the minors.
SERIES HISTORY The Buffaloes lead the all-time series against the Rattlers, 16-10 with the first meeting between the two teams coming on February 2, 2002. St. Mary's is 2-2 all-time at Wilder Park with their only other trip to the Panhandle coming in April of 2023.
WT HEAD COACH CORY HALL West Texas A&M didn't have to look far to find the new head coach for Buffalo Baseball as longtime Associate Head Coach Cory Hall was promoted to the skipper of the Buffs announced on June 28th. Hall has spent 14 seasons as the top assistant and pitching coach for the Buffs, having four different pitchers (Austin Moore, Josh Payne, Marshall Kasowski, Joe Corbett) drafted in the Major League Baseball Draft during his time in Canyon with multiple other professional players learning under one of the top pitching minds in collegiate baseball.
WT COACHING STAFF Shawn Neale was named WT's Recruiting Coordinator in 2022 as the Toronto native returns for his ninth season in Canyon, the Buffs ranked 13th nationally in batting average (.334) last season while sitting 16th in hits (623) and 24th in on-base percentage (.432).
WT alumni Cooper Harris returns to Canyon as the new pitching coach for the Buffs following two seasons at LSC foe Cameron. Nollan Koon enters his first season in the dugout for the Buffaloes as a graduate assistant coach in December of 2024. Koon returns to the Texas Panhandle following time as a hitting coach at Northeastern State.
LONE STAR CONFERENCE PRESEASON POLL Defending Regional Champion Angelo State picked up 29 of the 37 possible first place votes for a total of 483 points followed by Lubbock Christian (5 first place, 457), West Texas A&M (2 first place, 411), UT Tyler (1 first place, 386), St. Edward's (311), Texas A&M-Kingsville (268), UT Permian Basin (266), Texas A&M International (2 first place, 234), St. Mary's (205), Eastern New Mexico (200), Cameron (143), Oklahoma Christian (119) and Sul Ross State (66).
ASU's Jacob Guerrero was tabbed the Preseason Player of the Year for the second consecutive season. The outfielder and graduate student from Colleyville, Texas batted .368 with 11 home runs, four triples, 25 doubles and 76 RBIs. He was the conference's stolen bases leader (30) and scored 79 runs.
Rawley Hector of UT Tyler earned Preseason Pitcher of the Year honors as the senior right-hander from Van Alstyne, Texas went 7-3 with a league-best 2.95 ERA. Hector, the reigning LSC Pitcher of the Year, recorded a pair of complete-game shutouts and struck out 56 batters over 73 1/3 innings. Opponents hit just .241 off him.
THIS IS LSC BASEBALL Throughout the year, all 13 LSC teams will play a single round-robin schedule with a four-game weekend series against each league opponent.
The LSC Baseball Championship will feature a two-week tournament comprised of the top seven teams. The opening round is best-of-three series and will be held May 2-4 at the sites of the No. 2 (vs. No. 7), 3 (vs. 6) and 4 (vs. 5) seeds. The league's top seed from the regular season will receive an opening-round bye and host the double-elimination championship round on May 8-10.
AROUND THE LSC The top five teams in the Lone Star Conference baseball standings have a combined 27-game winning streak. Angelo State (22-6) has won four in a row, UT Tyler (25-7) as prevailed in five straight games, WT (21-7) has won a league-high nine in a row.
ASU (17-1) and WT (12-1) have only lost one game on their home fields. UT Tyler (13-4), SEU (12-4) and LCU (10-4) have shined on the road.
Lubbock Christian senior infielder Brevin McCool became the LSC's all-time home run leader his 48th blast on March 23 against Texas A&M-Kingsville at Hays Field in Lubbock, Texas. McCool, who leads the LSC with 19 home runs this season, broke the mark of 47 set by West Texas A&M's Ben Hangartner from 1999-2002.
Two LSC single-game records have been broken this season as McCool hit four home runs and WT senior first baseman Dylan Fesperman had 13 RBI.
ASU is leading the conference in hitting (.394) and fielding (.976), while UT Tyler leads in pitching (3.67 ERA). LCU has hit a league-high 48 home run. In addition to homers, McCool is leading the LSC in RBI (50), slugging percentage (1.121) and OPS (1.689). ASU's Jacob Guerrero has the league's top batting average at .491. UT Permian Basin's Kaleb Scull has 14 doubles, while four players have four triples (McCool, UT Tyler's Drew Schmidt and Cameron's Zane Roos). SEU's Travis Chestnut has 27 stolen bases.
SEU's Kobe Jaramillo is 7-0 on the mound with a league-leading 68 strikeouts. His teammate Parker Tennill has eight saves to also lead the conference. UT Tyler's Rawley Hector has an LSC-best 1.79 ERA over 45 1/3 innings of work.