ALVA, OKLAHOMA - Northwestern Baseball will open a three game series versus Southern Nazarene Friday afternoon. Northwestern will look to continue to play well at home winning three straight conference series in Glass Family Field at Myers Stadium. The series will open Friday with a 2:00 PM first pitch followed by a Saturday afternoon double header at 1:00 and 4:00 PM.
The Rangers (14-15 overall 9-9 GAC) enter on a three game win streak after comparing the series win over Ouachita before winning the mid-week game over Oklahoma Panhandle State. The Rangers' enter play with a 12-5 home record.
Northwestern has been led on the mound by Edwin Colon this season out of the bullpen throwing 19 innings allowing two earned runs for a 0.95 ERA leading the team in wins with a 5-0 record including two saves in 12 appearances. Ethan Swanson is second in team ERA posting a 5.71 through 34.2 innings of work, the second most on the Rangers. He is second in strikeouts with 40 on the year in those innings. Emilio Lovato has thrown the most innings at 40.2 this season while striking out a team high 43 batters with two wins on the season.
Yugo Hamakawa leads the team in batting average at .408 along with OBP at .521 on the year. His 30 RBIs are second on the team behind Blake Hoffman with a team high of 32 on the season. Hamakawa is one of six players hitting above .300 on the season from qualified hitters including Brandon Holdren at .362, Brayden Koenig .337, Blake Hoffman .328, Shaughn Kelly .314 and Hayden Priest .310. Hoffman leads the Rangers in home runs with eight on the season followed by Kelly and Priest tied with six. As a team the Rangers are hitting .294 with 43 home runs and 199 RBIs in 29 games played this season.
Scouting the Crimson Storm:
The Crimson Storm (4-26 overall, 1-17 GAC) enters on a one game losing streak after taking one game against Harding snapping their 16 game conference losing streak at the time. Southern Nazarene entes the weekend 0-11 away from home in Bethany.
Their offense is led by EJ Taylor with a .406 average and a .512 OBP through 28 games played. He is one of two hitters above the .300 mark joined by Brian Brown with a .333 average. Brown has the team high with nine home runs along with 39-RBI on the season with Taylor behind him with seven home runs and 24 RBIs. As a team they are hitting .255 on the season with 32 home runs.
The pitching staff is led by Oliver Wilson with a 6.16 ERA on the year in 11 appearances, throwing 19 innings of work out of the pen. Payne Maga leads the team with 40 innings pitched making eight starts on the season including one complete game striking out 30 batters in those innings with a 2-3 record.
History:
This will be games number 37-39 between the two programs as the Rangers lead the series history 28-8 entering the weekend. Northwestern has won nine straight over the Crimson Storm after sweeping them three straight seasons.
Links:
watch: https://www.youtube.com/user/NWOSURangers
listen: https://riderangersride.com/sidearmstats/baseball/summary
