ALVA, Okla. – With opening weekend in the books, the Northwestern Oklahoma State baseball team will have just one more series this weekend to prepare for the opening of Great American Conference play.

The first weekend of preparation saw extreme positives for the ball club as well as some areas in need of improvement. Northwestern swept Fort Hays State by finals of 4-2 and 13-3, while finding the opposite end of the sweep against Northwest Missouri State. The 15-0 and then 8-3 defeat at the hands of Northwest Missouri showed that the Rangers have a ways to go before they'll be ready for GAC play, but the weekend as a whole featured some solid performances from both familiar faces and new faces to the Ranger faithful.

Senior leaders Garrett Douglas and Casey Dickerman both put together solid weekends finishing up with batting averages of .333. Douglas led the Rangers with four runs and seven total bases while continuing to provide a spark on the defensive side of the ball from his centerfield position. Netherlands native Jorin Van Amstel also impressed in his Ranger debut after transferring at the semester break from Odessa Junior College. Van Amstel hit .308 throughout the weekend from the third spot in the line-up and head coach Sam Carel expects that solid play from the mid-year transfer will continue as he continues to get more comfortable in a Ranger uniform.

"For him to come in and in just under three weeks establish himself as a guy who started in all four games really speaks to the quality of player that he is." Coach Carel said.

The brightest area throughout the weekend for the ball club may have come during the 8-3 loss on Sunday afternoon against Northwest Missouri State. Freshman right hander Nick Llorente managed to not surrender a single hit in five innings of work in his first collegiate start against a potent Bearcat offense. The Arlington, Texas native worked himself out of a few different jams during his innings of work and showed great poise that is often hard to find in such a young arm.

"He came out against a quality opponent and put up a no-hitter," coach Carel said, "Whenever you can give up zero hits in five innings that kind of speaks for itself."

Llorente's performance came just two days after transfer Bryce Tomlin picked up his first win of the season while leading the Rangers to a 1-0 start on the season in the 4-2 victory over Fort Hays. Tomlin went six innings strong while only allowing one hit and no earned runs before handing the ball over to the Ranger bullpen, with big innings from relievers Sean Rydell and David Sanchez. That Ranger bullpen saw 12 different faces earn time on the bump over the weekend, which will prove beneficial as Ranger starter Pat Delano left the 13-3 victory over Fort Hays game in just the first inning with an apparent injury.

The Rangers will head out west to take on West Texas A&M in a three game series that has been rescheduled for this Thursday, Friday and Saturday due to predicted weather conditions in Canyon on Sunday afternoon. Coach Carel will continue to make some slight adjustments to the line-up as this weekend's series will be the final tune-up for the black-and-red before conference play begins the following weekend.

The final tune-up will come against a 3-0 West Texas A&M squad that just completed a three-game sweep of New Mexico Highlands on the road in Las Vegas, New Mexico. The Buffs put across nine runs in the first and third games of the series, with a huge 21-run game sandwiched in between. West Texas is led by junior Adam Adkins, who produced a hit in 7-of-14 at bats this past weekend while recording eight RBI's in the process. The Buffs showed their power as a team as well, hitting five balls out of the park throughout the weekend.

The Rangers offense will contend with a quality Buffs pitching staff that will enter the series with a team ERA of 2.33. That staff is led by Division I University of Houston transfer Marshall Kasowski, who fanned seven batters in a five inning one-hit shutout in his first start of the season.

The three games are scheduled for a 7 p.m. first pitch on Thursday, followed by a 6 p.m. start on Friday and then concluded with a 4 p.m. start on Saturday.