ALVA, OKLAHOMA - The Ranger Baseball team travels to Shawnee, Oklahoma for a three game series with Oklahoma Baptist over the weekend. Northwestern is coming off a mid-week split after winning Monday's game against Emporia State before dropping Tuesday's game versus Northeastern. The series will consist of a Friday night single game at 6:00 PM with a Saturday afternoon doubleheader following at 1 and 4PM.
The Red-and-Black (15-19 and 9-12 GAC) enter the weekend looking to snap a three game conference losing streak. Northwestern enters play winning two of their last three road games and is 2-11 away from Alva this season.
On the mound for the Rangers, the team has been led by Edwin Colon with a 3.32ERA with a 5-1 record in 21.1 innings of work. The Rangers senior has made 14 appearances out of the bullpen picking up two saves. Emilio Lovato has made the most starts for the Rangers this season at nine with a 2-3 record striking out 45 batters in 45 innings of work. Ethan Swanson has struck out the most hitterso on the team with 47 to date throwing in nine total games for 38 innings thrown.
At the plate for the Rangers Yugo Hamakawa leads the team with a .430 batting average and a .539 OBP% while hitting six home runs with 33 RBI. Hamakawa is one of four hitters above .300 as Brandon Holdren at .358, Blake Hoffman .341, and Brayden Koenig at .306. Hoffman leads the team with nine home runs and 37 RBI through 34 games this season. Three players are then tied with six home runs in Hamakawa, Shaughn Kelly, and Hayden Priest. As a team the Rangers are hitting .293 with 47 home runs and 219 RBIs.
Scouting Oklahoma Baptist:
Oklahoma Baptist enters play with a 16-15 overall record with an 11-10 GAC record. The Bison are 8-3 at home and are coming off a series loss to Southeastern this past weekend after winning the opening game. The Rangers will look to snap the Bison four game winning streak at home.
The Bison are led on offense by Dan Pruitt with a .379 batting average one of five players hitting above .300 joined by Isiah Lissade, Alex Schroeder, Walker Keller, and Ramon Gomez. The team has four players with 10 or more home runs starting with Pruitt at 16. Schrodeder leads the team with 40 RBIs. On the bases they have three players with more than 10 steals on the season in Pruitt Lissade and Keller. Overall the Bison are hitting .313 as a team with 74 home runs and 268 RBI.
On the mound Oklahoma Baptist is led by Bo Dallas throwing in eight starts with a 2.85 ERA with a 3-3 record including one complete game over 53 innings of work. He has struck out 51 batters in those innings. Garrett Kellogg-Clark leads the team with two saves on the year as one of three players with a save on the year. As a team Oklahoma Baptist has a team ERA of 6.37 over 31 games this season. Sam Gamboa has the most appearances for the Bison with 13 games thrown in with Devin Crawford second with 11.
History:
This will be game number 19-21 since the 2016 season as the Rangers trail the series history 17-1 with Northwestern looking to build off last season's victory to close out last year's series. Bison lead 4-1 over the last five games as the Rangers look for their first win in Shawnee.
Links:
watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBwGSwvPcm4
stats: https://obubison.com/sidearmstats/baseball/summary
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