Alva, Oklahoma- The Northwestern Oklahoma State baseball team travels to Russellville, Arkansas, for a three-game series between the Rangers and Wonder Boys of Arkansas Tech. The schedule for the series will be a Sunday doubleheader, followed by a Monday single game. The Sunday doubleheader will begin at 1:00 PM, followed by the second game about 30 minutes following the first game. The series will conclude with a single game with the first pitch scheduled for 1:00 PM.
The Red-and-Black enter the series with a 20-11 record, with a 15-9 Great American Conference record. The 15 wins for the Rangers are fourth in the conference with Southwestern and two games behind Arkansas Tech for second place.
The Ranges are coached by head coach Ryan Bowen in the middle of his fourth season with the Ranges baseball program, holding a career record of 78-75 in his career with the program.
The pitching staff has Kaleb Honea out of the bullpen leading the Rangers with a 1.52 ERA along with a 0.97 WHIP. Honea is 3-0 with eight saves in 23 innings pitched. The eight saves for the year are first in the conference and tied for first in the nation. Connor Gibson is second on the team with a 2.63 ERA on the season with a 1-1 record with 16 strikeouts in 13.2IP. Austin Thomason has a 4.54ERA with two wins on the season, along with a complete game in 33IP with his last four outings throwing in relief. Rafferty Brown and Koby Spicer each have two wins out of the bullpen for the Rangers. Brown holds a 4.76 ERA in five appearances on the season, while Spicer has a 2-0 record with one save in his 11innings of work. Grant French has a 4.95ERA with a 1-0 record and two saves in 20 innings of work. In terms of the starting pitching, Scott Creedon leads the Rangers with a 3.15ERA with a 5-3 record, including two complete games throwing 54 innings so far on the year. Creedon has the third-best ERA in the Great American Conference and fourth in opposing batting average, tied for fifth in wins. Ethan Swanson is the second Rangers starter with a 2-2 record with 34 strikeouts in 34 innings of work. He is sixth in the conference in opposing batting average and third in batters struck out looking with 19 of 34 all looking. Dillon Van Oosbree and Emilio Lovato have the final two wins for the Rangers as Van Oosbree has 19 strikeouts in 17 innings of work with four starts on the season. Lovato has thrown in six innings games so far this season. The Red-and-Black pitching staff is fourth in ERA overall at 5.06 on the season and third in strikeouts with 250 in the Great American Conference.
Northwestern Oklahoma State offense is fifth in batting average in the conference at .307 on the season second in the conference in home runs hit with 43 on the year only behind Oklahoma Baptist. Blake Hoffman leads the team out of the qualified hitters with a .387 batting average with 1.119OPS in 24 games, including nine extra-base hits with four home runs. Daschal Johnson is second with a .347 AVG with 17 extra-base hits with seven home runs tied for 11th in the conference. He leads the Ranges with 31 runs scored for 10th in the league. Marques Paige is hitting .339 with a 1.206OPS with 14 home runs on the year. The 14 HR is first in the conference and fourth in the nation so far this season. His 36RBI is third in the league, with Johnson in fifth with his 31RBI, Jake White at 25 and Hamakawa with 21 are the other Rangers above the 20 RBI mark. Paige is second in the conference in slugging percentage with a .804 slugging percentage and second in total bases at 90. Preston Lonadier is hitting with a .333 batting average with 11 doubles on the season. Yugo Hamakawa is hitting .330 on the year, with the second most hits for the Rangers at 38 on the season. Grant French, coming off of his player of the week award, is hitting .390 with five home runs third on the team and 10 for his last 14 at the plate. Thomas Beiswanger is the seventh and final Northwestern hitter over the .300 batting average mark at .304.
Arkansas Tech:
The Wonder Boys will be coming in on a three-game losing streak after being swept by Southwestern in Weatherford. Arkansas Tech comes into the series with a 20-11 season record with a 17-7 conference record two games in front of the Ranges in a three-way tie for first place in the conference.
Dave Dawson is the head coach of Arkansas Tech with a 345-240 record with the Wonder Boys amidst his 13th season with the baseball team. His overall collegiate record is 460-334 in his 17th season.
Arkansas Tech enters the series number one in batting average with a .335 team average on the season. They have seven qualified hitters over the .300 mark led by Trace Maddux with a .410 average, which is third in the conference. Evan Hafley leads the team with seven home runs while holding a .368 batting average on the year. Jonathan Arrieta is the team leader in RBI, with 31 on the season with six home runs and a .356 average. Matt Robbins leads Tech with 44 hits on the season for a .370 batting average. Josh Detweiler leads the team in runs, with 36 tied for fifth in the conference with a .383 average for eighth in the GAC.
The Tech pitching staff is first in the conference with a 4.14ERA and second in the GAC with 280 strikeouts. Hayes Cox has the lowest ERA for ATU's pitching staff out of the starting pitchers, followed by Patrick Miner at 4.01 and Riyan Rodriguez at 4.22. Miner and Cox are even, with six wins on the year tied for second in the conference. Miner is the team leader with 61 strikeouts for Arkansas Tech, followed by Cox at 52. These are both in the top five of the Great American Conference. Nick Kovar leads Tech with four saves on the season with a 0.68ERA through 14 appearances.
History:
This will be the first meeting between the Rangers and the Wonder Boys since the 2019 baseball season. Arkansas Tech comes in on a five-game winning streak over the Rangers, with the last win coming in Alva on February 24th of 2018. Overall, Tech leads the series 16-2 as the Rangers look to change the narrative in the series by picking up their first win in Russellville and series victory.
Live Links:
Watch: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLaCTEprl2lfTdFyvIIXR1g
Stats: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=333837
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