THE MATCHUP
 
The Teams: Tarleton Texans (3-9, 0-0 WAC) at Sam Houston Bearkats (7-5, 0-0 WAC)
 
Dates & Times:
6:30 p.m. CT on Friday, March 11
3 p.m. CT on Saturday, March 12
1 p.m. CT on Sunday, March 13

Location: Don Sanders Stadium in Huntsville, Texas.
 
TEXAN BASEBALL GAME DAY
The Tarleton Texan baseball team begins its Western Athletic Conference slate on Friday as they take on the Sam Houston Bearkats in Huntsville at Don Sanders Stadium.
 
The Texans are currently on a five-game losing streak after playing five straight games against Power Five opponents. They look to break out of it and start strong in conference play.
 
Head coach Aaron Meade noted that the Texans need to work on "minimizing free passes as well as being able to hit with runners in scoring position. We have to find different ways to get on base rather than just trying to swing our way out of it."
 
The Tarleton weekend pitching rotation will be altered this weekend. The Texans Friday and Saturday starting pitchers from the first three series were a combined 0-6.
 
The probable starters for the two teams are,
Friday: TAR No. 32 Luke Baley (Gr., RHP, 0-0, 5.93 ERA) vs. SHSU No. 37 Matt Dillard (Jr., LHP, 1-1, 2.81 ERA).
Saturday: TAR No. 11 Isiah Campa (Jr., RHP, 1-0, 3.60 ERA) vs. SHSU No. 26 Steven Beard (Jr., LHP, 1-1, 5.27 ERA)
Sunday: TAR No. 29 Aiden Adams (Fr., LHP, 2-1, 6.00 ERA) vs. SHSU TBA
 
LAST TIME OUT
Tarleton fell to Texas A&M at Blue Bell Park 4-1 on Wednesday. The Texans threw 10 different pitchers. Texas A&M was held to just six hits, but a couple of Tarleton errors pushed two Aggie runs across. Tarleton was held hitless in the final four frames to secure the win for the Aggies.
 
GAME COVERAGE & TICKETS
The games will not be streamed by Sam Houston. You can follow along via live stats that are found on the Tarleton Baseball schedule. The Tarleton Baseball twitter account will also have updates throughout the games.
 
SERIES NOTES
• The series opener on Friday with Sam Houston will be the fourth in the history of the two schools. Sam Houston is 3-0 all time. The last meeting came on April 5, 1969, with a 6-0 Bearkat victory.
• Sam Houston is coming off a home series sweep over Texas Southern where they poured the runs in. The Bearkats compiled 50 runs across three games.
• The two teams will meet for a weekend series once in Huntsville and once in Stephenville this season as conference mates in the WAC. The Bearkats are set to depart from the WAC and join Conference USA on July 1, 2023.
 
QUICK HITS
•  Junior outfielder Alec Williams has reached base in 11 straight games for Tarleton, which is a team-high.
•  Three different Texans, Carter Dobrinski, Alec Williams and Kemuel Thomas-Rivera have started in all 12 games this season.
•  Graduate senior RHP Luke Baley will get the start for Tarleton vs. Sam Houston in game one. This will be Baley's first start of the season as he has been used exclusively out of the bullpen. He is no stranger to throwing the first pitch though as he started seven games a season ago, finishing with a 5-5 record and leading the team with 66 strikeouts.
•  Utility player Carter Dobrinski continues to lead the Texans in most hitting statistics. He is one of only two Texans hitting .300 or above with an average of .386. The only other Texan to have an average over .300 is Alec Williams who is hitting .302.
•  Tarleton tied its second highest hit total in a game on Sunday vs. Mizzou when they had 10 hits. The first time with 10 hits was game two vs. UTSA. The Texans also finished with seven doubles in the Mizzou series, which they also finished with in the UTSA series.
• 37 of the 40 players on Tarleton's roster have seen game action this season.
 
WAC UPDATES
NEW LOOK WAC
After finishing seventh out of 10 teams in its inaugural season in the WAC, Tarleton will now compete in the Southwest division as the conference split into two divisions after the addition of four fellow Texas universities.  Abilene Christian, Lamar, Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin begin their first year of competition in the WAC in 2022, joining Tarleton and UTRGV.
 
WAC PRESEASON POLL
Tarleton was chosen to finish sixth out of six schools in the WAC preseason poll for the Southwest division. The poll was released on Feb. 9.  The Texans received seven total votes.
 
NEW WAC ADDITIONS
Starting on July 1, 2022, the Western Athletic Conference will add two more Texas universities to the fold. University of the Incarnate Word and UT-Arlington will join the conference to run the total of Texas universities to eight. UIW is coming from the Southland Conference and UTA from the Sun Belt Conference. With Sam Houston set for a July 1, 2023, departure to Conference USA, the conference will sit at seven in the Southwest Division for the 2023-2024 season.
 
CONFERENCE DOUBLEHEADERS NO MORE
COVID-19 played a part in the 2021 season, forcing some conferences including the WAC to schedule four game conference series with doubleheaders on Saturday. 2022 should bring some normalcy back to the college baseball landscape as the WAC and most other Dl conferences are back on the traditional three game Fri./Sat./Sun. series.
 
NOTABLES
PRESEASON HONORS: Perfect Game USA named senior outfielder London Green and junior right-handed pitcher Bryce Hackett to its preseason All-WAC team. D1Baseball.com named the duo to its list of top 2022 MLB draft prospects in the WAC. Green came in at No. 8 with Hackett following behind at No. 18. D1Baseball also ranked freshman pitcher Kyler Mentzel No. 2 on its "Impact Freshman" in the WAC list. Tarleton did not have any players selected to the All-WAC preseason team which is voted on by the league's coaches.
 
TRANSFER PORTAL: Of the Texans 18 newcomers for the 2022 season, five of them come from other DI schools (Boyd, Campa, Crews, Daniell & E. Turnage) and five come from junior college (Dobrinski, Hickey, Kurahashi-Choy Foo, Ross and Williams). The class garnered recognition from Baseball America on their "Notable Under-The-Radar 2021 College Baseball Recruiting Classes" write-up.
 
HOT ON THE RECRUITING TRAIL: Speaking of newcomers, the Tarleton coaching staff hit the recruiting trail hard this past season in pursuit of signing an instant impact 2021 class. There were seven freshman that signed with the Texans as well as ten transfers. The class garnered recognition from Baseball America on their "Notable Under-The-Radar 2021 College Baseball Recruiting Classes" write-up.
 
YOUNG BUT STILL THE BOSS: Tarleton head coach Aaron Meade is the fifth-youngest NCAA DI baseball coach in the country at 33 years and 292 days of age as of February 18, 2022. Meade pitched in the minor leagues for four years and was an assistant coach at the NCAA D1 and D2 level for a combined six years before becoming the head man at Tarleton.
 
CUTTING OUR TEETH: Tarleton is in its second season at the Dl level, and they are diving in headfirst. Tarleton takes on five different Power 5 opponents in the 2022 season. Early in the season Tarleton has a stretch of five straight games against Power 5 opponents as they host Washington State (March 2), have a series at Missouri in Columbus (March 4-6), and head back to Bryan-College Station to play Texas A&M for a second consecutive season (March 8). They play at Baylor (May 3) and at TCU (May 17) later in the season.
 
RETURNING FIREPOWER: Three Texans on this season's roster garnered honorable mention All-WAC in 2021. Bryan Aguilar, Kemuel Thomas-Rivera and London Green figure to lead the Texan offense this season as they accounted for nearly 30% of Tarleton's hits last season.
 
FACILITIES UPGRADES: Tarleton installed Hellas Matrix Turf on its baseball and softball field and all bullpen areas before the 2022 season. Surrounding the new turf is brand-new, 10-feet high Champion Wall in the outfield and six-feet high, vinyl-coated chain-link fencing down the foul lines. The baseball field extends up to 16-feet high in centerfield for the batter's eye. The project also included a new Ephesus LED Lighting system at both fields. The upgraded lighting system enhances both venues and meets the requirements for hosting NCAA regional broadcasts.
 
NEWCOMERS GALORE: Of the seven Texans that have started the most games this season, three of them are newcomers. (Dobrinski, Williams, Choy Foo). The three leading players in on-base percentage on the team are all newcomers. Dobrinski (.449), Williams (.434), Choy Foo (.375) (Min. 2 PA/G & 75% of games played.)
 
UP NEXT FOR TARLETON
Tarleton will head back to the Tarleton Baseball Complex for a midweek game with Texas A&M – Corpus Christi. The game will be streamed on the WAC Digital Network. Tickets can be purchased here.