STEPHENVILLE, Texas – After a long-awaited offseason, Tarleton State Baseball is finally set to kick off their season opener at home against the Butler Bulldogs. The series will be held at the Tarleton Baseball Complex starting Friday, Feb. 14. The two non-conference foes will battle each other four times over the course of the weekend, with the first game starting on Friday afternoon at 3 p.m. Friday and Saturday's games will be streamed on ESPN+, while Sunday's game will be streamed live on WAC International.

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This will be the first season of NCAA postseason eligibility for the Texans, with Tarleton State Baseball hosting some of the toughest opponents the program has faced.

"We've put this schedule together because we know it's going to be challenging," said head coach Fuller Smith. "We know there's going to be highs and lows, but it's all about how our guys handle it. When we get into conference play, there will be those highs and lows, but our group will have already been through it once".

The Purple and White will play their first 19 games in Texas, with TCU and Baylor being their only road games.

QUICK HITS:

• The Texans are returning to the diamond after winning the WAC Championship during head coach Fuller Smith's first year at the helm of Tarleton State Baseball.
• The Purple and White are bringing back 13 returners from last year's championship squad.
• Tarleton State was ranked fourth in the WAC Preseason Poll prior to the 2025 season despite winning the conference championship in 2024.
• Tyson Drake will return to the Texans for his junior season after leading the team in home runs last year with nine.
• Stephenville native Trace Morrison will return to Tarleton State for his senior season after tallying a career-high 28 RBIs last season.
• Out of 42 players on the roster, Tarleton State has eight freshmen and 21 transfers.
• Catcher Jaime "Mito" Perez will return behind the plate this weekend for the first time since March 16, 2024 after having surgery on his throwing hand.
• The Texans will play against six Power Four opponents this season, including Kansas and Kansas State at home.
• The Texans will also play against NCAA College World Series Runner-Up Texas A&M on April 16 in College Station.
• Smith is bringing back assistant coaches RD Spiehs and Nick Zaleski from last season's championship squad, with the addition of Dustin Williams, who will enter his first season at Tarleton State as an assistant coach.
• Jake Burcham (probable pitcher on Friday) will return to the mound for his senior year after spending his past three years at Tarleton State.
• The Texans will play against Houston Christian next Tuesday at La Moderna Field, which is home to the Cleburne Railroaders, an affiliate of the American Association of Professional Baseball and the top MLB partner team in Texas.
• Saturday's doubleheader against Butler will be the first of three doubleheaders for Tarleton State during the 2025 season.

NOTABLE RETURNERS:

• Tyson Drake is returning for his junior season after playing a critical part in the Texans' WAC Championship run. In 2024, Drake tallied a team-high nine home runs, along with 31 RBIs, 50 hits and 92 total bases.
• Jake Burcham and Parrish Beagle will lead the Texan pitching squad after putting together great seasons in 2024. Burcham registered 33 strikeouts in 39.2 innings pitched last season, which leads all returners.
• Beagle recorded a 3-1 pitching record last season, which is the highest percentage of all returning pitchers. He also pitched 37 innings in 2024, averaging a .275 batting average against him.
• Nile Foss appeared in 13 games last season, all out of the bullpen. Foss played a critical role in relief pitching for the Texans, accumulating 12 strikeouts in 17 innings pitched, along with a 4.08 earned run average.
• Catchers Sergio Guerra and Jaime Perez will head into each of their senior seasons. Perez will return to the diamond after injuring his throwing hand in the third game of the 2024 season.
• Guerra posted 18 hits, 10 RBIs and six runs during the Texan's WAC Championship season.
• Hunter Smith and Ike Shirey returning to the squad will surely provide a huge boost to Tarleton State's batting averages. Smith posted a team-high .342 average last season, notching 40 hits in just 117 at bats. Shirey tallied a .279 batting average in 2024 and started all 60 games for the Texans.

THE FULLER SMITH FILE:

• Smith's first season was an immense success, taking the Texans to a conference tournament title in Tarleton State's final year of reclassification, as his team became the first baseball program to win a conference tournament title by a reclassifying D1 institution. The Texans won the WAC Tournament in Mesa, Arizona, on May 25, as the No. 5 seed Tarleton State knocked off No. 4 seed California Baptist in dominant fashion 9-1 in a winner-take-all nightcap at Hohokam Stadium. This marked the third conference tournament championship by the Texans in their NCAA Era (2018, 2014), and they became the first team to win the WAC Tournament in a team's inaugural appearance since UTSA did so in 2013.
• Tarleton State posted their most postseason wins since 1992, going 5-1 throughout the WAC Tournament, all of this with a first-year head coach. From 2023-24, Smith won back-to-back WAC Tournaments. He was an assistant coach at Sam Houston in 2023 when the Bearkats won it all. In 2024, Tarleton State was one of just two programs nationwide to win their final game of the season in the postseason, along with Tennessee, who won the College World Series.
• The Texans finished 32-29 after their WAC Tournament championship, their most wins in a season since 2018 (35). Smith earned his first victory as the skipper in the team's season opener, a 9-4 win at Southeastern Louisiana on Feb. 26. His first series win in a series three-plus games was a four-game sweep at home against Northern Colorado on Feb. 23-25.
• Altogether under Smith, Tarleton State posted their most wins in the Division I Era, their most wins since 2018, and the most wins by a first year Tarleton State head baseball coach since 1988 (37).

WAC PRESEASON POLL:

• Tarleton was chosen fourth out of nine WAC teams in the 2025 WAC Preseason poll. The Texans accumulated 39 total voting points. Grand Canyon led the conference with 64 total points, followed by Abilene Christian (54 points) and California Baptist (46 points). Full rankings can be found below.

1. Grand Canyon (64 points)
2. Abilene Christian (54 points)
3. California Baptist (46 points)
4. Tarleton State (39 points)
5. Sacramento State (36 points)
6. Utah Valley (34 points)
7. UT Arlington (28 points)
8. Seattle U (12 points)
9. Utah Tech (11 points)

POWER FOUR OPPONENTS THIS YEAR:

• The Texans have a tough schedule ahead of them, where they will take on six Power 4 opponents this season, including Kansas and Kansas State at home. The Texans will also face Baylor, TCU, Texas Tech, and Texas A&M on the road this Spring.
• Kansas State was a Super Regional team in 2024, while Texas A&M finished in second place throughout the 2024 NCAA College World Series.

STRENGTH IN THE NUMBERS:

• With a 42-man roster in the 2025 season, the Texans have one of the largest rosters in program history.
• The Tarleton State roster is made up of eight freshmen, four sophomores, 19 juniors, and 11 seniors.

NEXT UP:

• Following the meeting with the Bulldogs, the Texans will head to Cleburne on Feb. 18 to play their only neutral site game of the season against the Houston Christian Huskies at La Moderna Field (home to the Cleburne Railroaders of the American Association of Professional Baseball).
• This will be the first of two matchups this season between the Texans and the Huskies.