THE MATCHUP
 
The Teams: Tarleton Texans (9-13, 5-4 WAC) vs Texas Southern Tigers (13-9, 5-1 SWAC)
 
Date & Time:
6:30 p.m. CT on Tuesday, March 29

Location: Tarleton Baseball Complex in Stephenville, Texas.
 
TEXAN BASEBALL GAME DAY
The Tarleton Texan baseball team is back home for a midweek game with the Texas Southern Tigers. Tarleton will play this game before hitting the road again as they will head to Nacogdoches to play Stephen F. Austin in the weekend series.
 
Tarleton is coming off a series win over ACU. They sit in fourth place in the Southwest Division of the WAC after sweeping the No. 2 preseason pick in the division in UTRGV and winning the series over ACU who was the No. 1 preseason pick in the division.
 
The Tarleton bats look to stay hot as they have posted double-digit hits in six of the past seven games.
 
GAME COVERAGE & TICKETS
WATCH: WAC Digital Network
LIVE STATS: LINK
TICKETS: LINK

 SERIES NOTES
•  Texas Southern and Tarleton will be meeting for the first time in the two schools' histories. Texas Southern had a SWAC series win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff last weekend.
• Tarleton and Stephen F. Austin will also be meeting for the first time in the two schools' history. The Lumberjacks were handed a WAC series loss by Sam Houston.

QUICK HITS
•  Tarleton is coming off their second straight WAC series win as they won the first two games of the three-game series over Abilene Christian. The Texan offense remained hot as they posted 12 and 11 hits in the first two games of the series, respectively.
•  Senior outfielder London Green is currently on an 11-game hit streak. The Grapevine, Texas, native is tied for third on the team with 19 hits.
•  The Texans got a strong starting pitching performance over the weekend from Luke Baley. Baley threw 5.0 innings, allowing just one earned run in game one vs. ACU to play a part in the Tarleton victory.
•  Junior outfielder Alec Williams continues to make the most out of every plate appearance. The Huntsville, Texas, native compiled six hits, three RBI and two walks in the first two games of the series in Abilene. He stretched his reached base safely streak to 20 games before ending it in the loss on Sunday.
•  Graduate utility player Kemuel Thomas-Rivera made his return to the Texan lineup and provided instant offense. He hit .600 with six hits in the series with ACU. His three RBI over the weekend came in timely fashion as he hit a bases clearing double in game two to extend the Texans one-run lead in the seventh inning to four.

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.
 
CURRENT WAC STANDINGS:
Tarleton currently sits in fourth place out of six in the WAC Southwest division after their series win over ACU. ACU is ahead with the same record as Tarleton due to tiebreaker rules.
 
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
THE CLOSER: Tarleton has turned to the arm of junior RHP Matthew Hickey to close games out this season. He earned his fourth save of the season in game one vs.  ACU. He has 11 K's and zero walks, with opposing batters hitting just .214 off of him.
 
HOT AT HOME: Seven of the Texans nine wins have come at the friendly confines of the Tarleton Baseball Complex. Tarleton did grab their first two road victories this season in game one and two at Abilene Christian. With that monkey off their back, they look to pick up more road wins this weekend in Nacogdoches as they take on Stephen F. Austin.
 
THE YOUNG ONES: True freshmen Trace Morrison and Jaime Perez have started eight games each for Tarleton this season. With 27 and 30 at-bats respectively, they have seen plenty of action and played big roles to start the season.
Perez is hitting .400 with 12 hits and six RBI. His double in the ninth inning of a tie game with ACU in game one was critical as he ended up coming around to score the run to put Tarleton ahead.
The batter that hit Perez in happened to be Morrison. He has hit .296 with eight hits and four RBI. The freshmen duo has stepped in to starting roles at times with injuries hitting Tarleton and been ready for any situation.
Freshman RHP Jake Burcham is tied for second on the team with nine appearances. He leads the Texans with a 2.92 ERA and has struck out 11 batters. He pitched the final 2.0 innings in game two vs. ACU, striking out two batters in two scoreless innings to help ensure the victory.
 
TRANSFER PORTAL: Of the Texans 18 newcomers for the 2022 season, five of them come from other D1 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 D1 baseball coach in the country at 33 years and 292 days of age as of Feb. 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 Columbia (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.
 
UP NEXT FOR TARLETON
The Texans will turn their attention to Stephen F. Austin for the weekend. The WAC series in Nacogdoches kicks off on Friday, April 1, at 6:30 p.m. CT. The games will be streamed on ESPN+.