THE MATCHUP
 
The Teams: Tarleton Texans (3-8, 0-0 WAC) at Texas A&M Aggies (7-4, 0-0 SEC)
 
Date & Time: 6:30 p.m. CT on Wednesday, March 9.

Location: Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park in College Station, Texas.
 
TEXAN BASEBALL GAME DAY
The Tarleton Texan baseball team is back in Texas for the remainder of their season. They bus to Bryan-College Station, Texas, to take on the Texas A&M Aggies in a midweek road matchup on Wednesday evening.
 
The game was originally scheduled for Tuesday night, but due to rain in the forecast, the game was pushed back by a day. Texas A&M is coming off a loss to Wichita State in the Frisco Classic and Tarleton is coming off a series vs. Missouri where they were swept.
 
The probable starters for the two teams are, Tarleton: No. 36 Landon Cody (So., RHP, 0-0, 7.71 ERA) and Texas A&M: No. 30 Khristian Curtis (Fr., RHP, 2-0, 0.00 ERA).
 
GAME COVERAGE & TICKETS
Fans can stream the game on SEC Network+ or at this link. Tarleton's Byron Anderson and Kyle Crews will also have the call from Blue Bell Park at this link. Live stats will also be available.
 
SERIES NOTES
• Tarleton opens the week with a midweek game at Texas A&M before beginning WAC play with a weekend series at Sam Houston.
• Texas A&M and Tarleton have one common opponent in Washington State. Both teams have lost to the Cougars this season with Tarleton falling 9-8, and the Aggies falling 11-6.
• The meeting with Texas A&M will be the fourth in program history with the Aggies holding a 3-0 advantage overall. The third game came a season ago when the Aggies won 8-7 in 10 innings.
• The series opener on Friday with Sam Houston will be the fourth in the history of the two schools. Sam Houston is 4-0. The last meeting came on April 5, 1969, with a 6-0 Bearkat victory.
 
QUICK HITS
•  Junior outfielder Alec Williams has reached base in 10 straight games for Tarleton, which is a team-high.
•  Three different Texans, Carter Dobrinski, Alec Williams and Kemuel Thomas-Rivera have started in all 11 games this season.
•  Sophomore RHP Landon Cody will get the start for Tarleton vs. A&M. Cody also started last season's game against the Aggies and pitched 4.2 innings, giving up six runs on five hits, with five strikeouts.
•  Utility player Carter Dobrinski continues to lead the Texans in most hitting statistics. He is the only Texan hitting .400 or above. The only other Texan to have an average over .300 is Alec Williams who is hitting .308.
•  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 head first. 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.
 
HOT EARLY: Through the first three weeks of the season junior Carter Dobrinski is tenth in the WAC with a batting average of .400. Freshman Aiden Adams is one of six pitchers in the WAC with two plus wins.
 
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 (.467), Williams (.449), Choy Foo (.389) (Min. 2 PA/G & 75% of games played.)
 
UP NEXT FOR TARLETON
Tarleton will kick off WAC play with a weekend series in Huntsville vs. Sam Houston at Don Sanders Stadium on March 11-13. The games will not be streamed but can be followed via live stats or on Tarleton Baseball socials. Tickets can be purchased here.