STEPHENVILLE – Tarleton head baseball coach Bryan Conger has announced that a pair of junior college transfers has signed to play with the Texans next season. Blake Griffin and Kevin Meredith, both currently attending Navarro Junior College, will be eligible to join the team in the fall of 2013.
 
Griffin, a 6-0 right-handed pitcher out of Mesquite, had three saves for the Bulldogs last season and was a part of Navarro's pitching staff that finished the season with a combined 3.04 earned-run-average as a team.
 
Griffin played high school ball at Poteet High School in Mesquite.
 
“We look for Blake to fill an immediate need in the closer's role next year,” said Conger. “We believe he will continue our strong tradition of having a lock-down closer.”
 
Meredith, a 5-11 outfielder,  was part of a line-up that finished hitting .296 overall as a team and helped guide the Bulldogs to a 33-17 record in 2012. A native of Manor, Meredith played high school ball at Manor High School.
 
“Kevin will come in and provide us with a player who will be able to really go after the ball in centerfield,” said Conger. “He also gives us another base-stealing threat offensively as well.”
 
“We look forward to both of these young men joining us and feel they will be tremendous additions to our program. This will be an extremely small recruiting class this year and we feel like we addressed our two biggest needs during this early signing period.”
 
The Texans finished the 2012 season 30-21 overall and 16-12 in the Lone Star Conference. Tarleton finished in a tie for fourth-place in the conference and earned the No. 5 seed in the conference tournament. The Texans went 4-2 in the tournament and was a championship game finalist.
 
Tarleton will open-up the 2013 season on Feb. 1 at Minute Maid Park in Houston. The Texans will face Arkansas Tech in the first game of a four-game tournament played at the American League ballpark.