ALVA, Okla. – The Northwestern Oklahoma State baseball team will return home to Myers Stadium for the first of their final two home conference series of the season.
The Rangers find themselves in a must win situation if they have any hopes of earning their way into the conference tournament. Essentially the Rangers must win their final six conference games and have the correct teams lose as well in order to have a chance to sneak into one of the final eight spots.
Despite the upcoming uphill battle the Rangers must face in the final two weekends of the year, the Ranger offense has shown signs of life. During the month of April, the Northwestern sluggers have posted a team batting average of .296, which has led them to a record of 4-6 throughout their last ten contests.
The recent trend of hot hitting for head coach
Sam Carel's ball club can be attributed heavily to a pair of outfielders in
Jacob Long and
Greg Carrington. Both Long and Carrington have taken their time in getting comfortable at the plate, but both experienced Rangers have finally seemed to settle in with Long going 14-for-29 during the month and Carrington producing 13 hits in his 33 at bats.
Northwestern has also welcomed back third baseman
Steven Deckard, who missed multiple games during the heart of the season with a hand injury, but has since returned and hit .357 during his six games back. Shortstop TJ Kassner has also returned to the starting line-up after some mid-year troubles of his own, and has knocked in a team-high nine runs while also stealing six bases in nine appearances this month.
Due to injuries as well as suspect performances on the mound, pitching coach
Aaron Gilbreath has been shuffling his pitching staff all around attempting to find some reliable arms to assist the recent hitting outburst the Rangers have experienced. Freshman
Sean Rydell has been outstanding in his two starts throughout the month, picking up two wins while posting an ERA of 3.64 throughout his 14 innings of work. Rydell has been joined in the newly constructed starting rotation by fellow former reliever
David Sanchez, who has gotten the nod for two starts and picked up a win over Southern Nazarene back on April, 8.
This weekend the black-and-red will welcome Henderson State to their home field, a ball club that will enter the series fresh off of a crucial sweep of Southwestern Oklahoma State that clinched their spot in the post-season tournament. As is traditionally the case with the Reddies, they feature a balanced squad that ranks sixth in team batting average in the conference (.266) and third in the league with a team ERA of 4.07.
The Reddies have leaned on a solid bullpen all season, highlighted by closer Blake Patterson, who enters the season leading the league in saves with nine. That staff will also feature starter Bryant Haralson, who is second in the conference with 73 strikeouts and has lasted at least six innings in all but one of his ten starts this season.
At the dish the visiting squad will be led by their catcher and senior leader Hayden Lessenberry, who earned All-GAC Second Team honors last season and is currently on pace to match the numbers he posted last year with a batting average that currently stands at .338.
The series has been rescheduled for games to be played on Saturday and Sunday, with first pitch set for 1 p.m. on both days. The doubleheader will be played on Saturday afternoon followed up by a single nine-inning game on Sunday afternoon.
