THE GAMES
Tarleton (5-5, 5-5 LSC) heads west to Portales, New Mexico for a four-game series with the Eastern New Mexico Greyhounds (1-9, 1-9 LSC). The format will be 1-2-1, which includes a Saturday doubleheader of back-to-back seven inning affairs. The series will begin Friday at 5 p.m. CT with Saturday (3 p.m. CT) and Sunday (2 p.m. CT) closing things out.
 
TICKET INFORMATION
Tickets are available at the gate. There are no advanced ticket sales available.
 
GAME COVERAGE
There will be live stats and video available for the games, courtesy of the home team. Links to live stats can be found at the links on the Game Day preview story and Game Day graphics on Tarleton's Facebook and Twitter pages, as well as on the baseball schedule page at TarletonSports.com.
 
CONFERENCE PLAY RIGHT OFF THE BAT
For the first time in program history, Tarleton will be playing a closed conference schedule. With the addition of seven new baseball teams to the Lone Star Conference – bringing the total to 14 – every series of the season will count towards the Lone Star Conference standings.
 
THE NEW-LOOK LONE STAR
The Lone Star Conference has doubled its amount of baseball teams following its expansion to becoming the largest NCAA Division II conference in the country. The LSC, which has 19 total members, now boasts 14 members that sponsor NCAA Division II baseball. New member Dallas Baptist sponsors NCAA Division I baseball and will not compete in the Lone Star. The LSC Champion will be the team(s) with the best winning percentage in regular-season conference games. The LSC Championship will be a two-week tournament featuring eight teams with the opening round on campus on May 1-2. The winners of each opening round series will advance to The Depot in Cleburne, Texas for a double-elimination tournament that will be played May 7-9. The winner of the postseason tournament will be recognized as the LSC Tournament Champion and receive the conference's automatic qualifier to the NCAA postseason.
 
ABOUT THE TEXANS
Tarleton's resiliency was on full display in their last outing against UAFS. After a heartbreaking loss in game two of the series, the Texans picked themselves up and dusted themselves off and took each of final two games of the series to salvage the split and remain at .500 on the season. The Texans are 5-5 thus far in Aaron Meade's debut season at the helm. As a team, the Texans have the fourth-best team batting average in the Lone Star Conference (.302) – including a .368 average over the last seven games. The pitching staff is eighth in the league with a 4.90 team ERA and got a shot in the arm last weekend with the return of Sid Payan to the rotation. Payan made his first start in over a year and went two scoreless innings against UAFS.
 
ABOUT EASTERN NEW MEXICO
Eastern New Mexico University (ENMU or Eastern) is a public university with a main campus in Portales, New Mexico. ENMU is New Mexico's largest regional comprehensive university and is the most recently founded state university in New Mexico. Eastern New Mexico has a storied history within the Lone Star Conference. The Greyhounds are under the leadership of first-year head coach Riley Price and are 1-9 this season. Eastern New Mexico is last in the LSC in team batting average (.195) and 13^th in the league in team ERA (10.47).
 
ONE FOR THE TROPHY CASE
Tarleton head coach Aaron Meade earned his first career victory as the lead man in the dugout on Friday, February 7 in a 10-0 shutout of UT Permian Basin in Stephenville. Justin Waltmon threw a complete game shutout in the win.
 
BATTLE OF FIRST-YEAR SKIPPERS
After three consecutive series with veteran head coaches in the opposite dugout, this will be the first series of the season where Aaron Meade will face off with another rookie head coach.
 
BURNS ON FIRE
Blake Burns has been one of the nation's best offensive weapons over the last two series. He is 15-for-28 in the last seven games for a team-leading .536 batting average. Over that span, Burns has scored 12 runs, hit a double and five home runs, while driving in 13 RBI. He was named the LSC Hitter of the Week after the UT Permian Basin series.
 
HOT HITTERS
Over the last seven games, Tarleton has five different Texans with at least 15 at bats who are hitting over .400 – Burns (.536), Zach Mesa (.435), Corey Young (.433), Luke Morton (.421) and Ian Groves (.400).
 
INSIDE THE SERIES
Tarleton and Eastern New Mexico have an incredibly rich history that is over the last 25 years. The Texans and Greyhounds have met on the baseball diamond 124 times since Tarleton joined the NCAA in 1995. Tarleton owns a 77-46-1 all-time record in the series, including a 31-28-1 edge in 60 career games in Portales.
 
UP NEXT FOR TARLETON
Tarleton will return home to Stephenville next weekend for a four-game series with Oklahoma Christian. It will be the first meeting between Oklahoma Christian and Tarleton on the baseball field.