STEPHENVILLE – The Tarleton Texan baseball team will host Texas A&M-Kingsville this Friday and Saturday, March 26-27, in a key Lone Star Conference four game series at Cecil Ballow Baseball Complex in Stephenville.
The Texans head into the series 13-16 overall and currently stand in ninth place in the LSC with a record of 10-14. The Javelinas are 17-14 and currently in fifth place in the conference with a 13-11 record.
Tarleton is coming off a 12-7 loss to Texas Wesleyan on Monday, despite getting solo home run shots from Chris Patton and Chris Casazza. The Texans were forced to use position players on the mound as Chris Pearson was the only pitcher available for the purple and white.
The Texans split its last LSC series, going 2-2 over the weekend against West Texas A&M.
TAMUK dropped a non-conference road game to Houston-Victoria on Tuesday just after winning its four-game series from Northeastern State, 3-1, in Kingsville last weekend.
Junnior Dishmey leads the Texans on offense with a .422 batting average in 45 plate appearances. Andrew Wolfe follows with a .365 average in 85 trips to the plate.
Casazza leads the team in home runs (5) and runs batted in (21). Tim Rainey meanwhile leads all players in hits (36), runs scored (24) and triples (3). He and Wolfe are tied for the team lead with 11 stolen bases. Mark Jeffery leads the team with 12 doubles on the season.
Mike Ramirez leads the Texans on the mound with a 2-0 record and 0.47 earned run average. Ryan Salt leads the team with 24 strikeouts, while Nathan Lewis and Kenneth Stockton are tied for the team lead with three wins each.
Tarleton currently ranks ninth in the LSC in team batting (.308) and fourth in team pitching (5.19).
Travis Earles leads TAMUK at the dish with a .378 batting average in 111 trips to the plate. He leads all TAMUK players with four home runs as well. Clifton Thomas leads the team with 47 hits, eight doubles and four triples. His 31 runs scored rank first among his teammates as well.
Dan Rogers leads the Javelinas with a 3.60 ERA and 32 strikeouts. David de Leon tops the squad with five wins on the season.
The Javelinas rank eighth in the conference in team batting (.310) and third in team pitching (5.17).
Doubleheaders are set for both days with game one set to begin at 3 p.m. on Friday and 1 p.m. on Saturday.
