Tarleton Baseball slated for showdown with Baylor for first time in program history

THE MATCHUP
The Teams: Tarleton Texans (13-30, 6-15 WAC) at Baylor Bears (22-22, 5-13 Big 12)
Date & Time:
Tuesday, May 3, 6:30 p.m. CT
Location: Baylor Ballpark in Waco, Texas.
TEXAN BASEBALL GAME DAY
The Tarleton Texans and Baylor Bears will meet for the first time in program history on the baseball diamond come Tuesday evening in Waco. Baylor's record book shows the teams met in 1908, but no official score was reported.
The Texans are looking to break out of a seven-game losing streak as the end of the season is looming near. They hope to have a sharp outing before returning to Stephenville for a weekend WAC series with Abilene Christian.
GAME COVERAGE & TICKETS
WATCH: Big 12 Now on ESPN+
LISTEN: KTRL 90.5 FM / TarletonSports.com/Watch
LIVE STATS: LINK
TICKETS: LINK
PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUPS (May 3:)
TAR LHP AIDEN ADAMS (FR., 2-2, 9.87 ERA) VS. BAYLOR LHP CAM CALEY (SO., 2-0, 9.87 ERA)
GAME NOTES
• Tarleton heads to Waco to take on the Baylor Bears for the first time in the two school's histories. Baylor is coming off a home Big 12 series vs. Texas Tech in which they took one of three games. They sit in seventh place in the Big 12.
• Tarleton comes into the game on a seven-game losing streak as they were swept by UTRGV this past weekend. They are 1-9 in their last 10 games. They sit in sixth place in the WAC Southwest Division, 1.0 game back of fifth place SFA. Tarleton is 0-8 all-time vs. Power Five opponents. They have had some close calls, losing in 10 innings, 8-7, to Texas A&M in 2021 and falling 9-8 to Washington State on March 2 this season at the Tarleton Baseball Complex.
QUICK HITS
• ranks fifth in the WAC with 12 home runs on the season. His previous season high was three in the 2021 season. Since March 9 vs. Texas A&M, Green has hit safely in 30 of 32 games. His three multi-HR games and 11 multi-RBI games lead the Texans.
• snapped a team-high 22 game on-base streak in the series vs. UTRGV. The senior ranks seventh in the WAC with a .451 batting average in conference games only, and 10th in the WAC with a .471 on-base percentage in conference games.
• Good luck keeping off the basepaths. The outfielder has started all 43 games for the Texans this season, and has a hit in 31 of them, reaching base in 38. He leads the team with 18 multi-hit games, as well as having 11 stolen bases. The 11 base swipes rank fourth in the WAC.
• How Tarleton fields the baseball is critical to them winning or losing. In contests where the Texans have made 0-1 errors, they are 10-12. When they have 2+ errors they are 3-18.
• Tarleton ranks third in the WAC with 55 home runs on the season.

• and each made their return to the Texan lineup from injury this past weekend at UTRGV. Dobrinski started all three games of the series and finished with three hits, a walk and a run scored. Perez started games two and three and ended the weekend with two hits, a walk and a run scored. Both players were everyday starters before going down with injuries in the ACU and St. Thomas series, respectively.
NOTABLES
THE CLOSER?:
Tarleton has turned to the arm of junior RHP to close games out this season. He earned his fourth save of the season on March 25 vs. ACU. Hickey's four saves are seventh best in the WAC. He has 34 K's vs. just three walks.
Hickey made an appearance that was different than any he had seen all year vs Sam Houston on April 23. He threw 5.1 innings of relief, allowing one run on three hits, striking out five. The closer showed that he could throw in any situation to help the Texans.
Hickey made his first career start on May 1 vs. UTRGV and proceeded to strike out a career-high seven batters while pitching 4.2 innings.
SPARKPLUG:
Outfielder was inserted into the starting lineup on April 6 vs. UT Arlington and started seven of the next eight games in left field. He hit in six of those seven games, with four straight multi-hit games from April 10 to April 15. The junior is now hitting .293 with 12 hits and seven RBI.
SPARKPLUG X2:
Another player that was inserted into the Texan lineup and has made the most if it is redshirt freshman 1B . From game three of the SFA series until now, Escalon has started 16 of 18 games. He has five multi-hit games, including two three hit games. He is hitting .323 with 21 hits, five home runs, 12 RBI and is slugging .600% on the season after only playing in three games before this span.
WALK IT OFF:
leads the Texans with three walk-off swings this season, two home runs and a double. The first came in a run-rule victory over UTRGV on March 20 when he hit a two-run shot over the left field wall to help Tarleton take down UTRGV 13-3.
The second came on April 15 vs. St. Thomas in the 10th inning. He led the bottom half off with a solo blast on a 1-0 count to left field to help ensure Tarleton left happy.

The third was vs. Wiley as he enacted the 10-run rule on a two-run double.
BEGINNING OF THE GAME WOES:
Tarleton has been outscored 138-78 in the first three innings of games this season. They are 3-15 when trailing after the first inning and 3-22 when trailing after the third.
On the flip side, the Texans are 3-4 in games where they lead after the first and 9-3 in games where they lead after the third inning.
TRIPLE DIGIT HITS:
Senior reached 100 hits in his Tarleton career on April 3 vs. SFA. The hit came in the sixth inning on a single up the middle of the Lumberjack defense.
WAC UPDATES

NEW LOOK WAC:
After finishing seventh out of 10 teams in its inaugural season in the WAC, Tarleton will now compete in the Southwest Division as the conference split into two divisions after the addition of four fellow Texas universities. Abilene Christian, Lamar, Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin begin their first year of competition in the WAC in 2022, joining Tarleton and UTRGV.

WAC PRESEASON POLL:
Tarleton was chosen to finish sixth out of six schools in the WAC preseason poll for the Southwest Division. The poll was released on Feb. 9. The Texans received seven total votes.
NEW WAC ADDITIONS:
Starting on July 1, 2022, the Western Athletic Conference will add two more Texas universities to the fold. University of the Incarnate Word and UT-Arlington will join the conference to run the total of Texas universities to eight. UIW is coming from the Southland Conference and UTA from the Sun Belt Conference. With Sam Houston set for a July 1, 2023, departure to Conference USA, the conference will sit at seven in the Southwest Division for the 2023-2024 season.
CONFERENCE DOUBLEHEADERS NO MORE:
COVID-19 played a part in the 2021 season, forcing some conferences including the WAC to schedule four game conference series with doubleheaders on Saturday. 2022 should bring some normalcy back to the college baseball landscape as the WAC and most other Dl conferences are back on the traditional three game Fri./Sat./Sun. series.
EXTRAS
TRANSFER PORTAL:
Of the Texans 18 newcomers for the 2022 season, five of them come from other DI schools (Boyd, Campa, Crews, Daniell & E. Turnage) and five come from junior college (Dobrinski, Hickey, Kurahashi-Choy Foo, Ross and Williams). The class garnered recognition from Baseball America on their "Notable Under-The-Radar 2021 College Baseball Recruiting Classes" write-up.
HOT ON THE RECRUITING TRAIL:
Speaking of newcomers, the Tarleton coaching staff hit the recruiting trail hard this past season in pursuit of signing an instant impact 2021 class. There were seven freshman that signed with the Texans as well as 10 transfers. The class garnered recognition from Baseball America on their "Notable Under-The-Radar 2021 College Baseball Recruiting Classes" write-up.
YOUNG BUT STILL THE BOSS:
Tarleton head coach Aaron Meade is the fifth-youngest NCAA DI baseball coach in the country at 33 years and 292 days of age as of February 18, 2022. Meade pitched in the minor leagues for four years and was an assistant coach at the NCAA D1 and D2 level for a combined six years before becoming the head man at Tarleton.
CUTTING OUR TEETH:
Tarleton is in its second season at the Dl level, and they are diving in headfirst. Tarleton takes on five different Power 5 opponents in the 2022 season. Early in the season Tarleton has a stretch of five straight games against Power 5 opponents as they host Washington State (March 2), have a series at Missouri in Columbia (March 4-6), and head back to Bryan-College Station to play Texas A&M for a second consecutive season (March 8). They play at Baylor (May 3) and at TCU (May 17) later in the season.
RETURNING FIREPOWER:
Three Texans on this season's roster garnered honorable mention All-WAC in 2021. Bryan Aguilar, Kemuel Thomas-Rivera and London Green figure to lead the Texan offense this season as they accounted for nearly 30% of Tarleton's hits last season.
FACILITIES UPGRADES:
Tarleton installed Hellas Matrix Turf on its baseball and softball field and all bullpen areas before the 2022 season. Surrounding the new turf is brand-new, 10-feet high Champion Wall in the outfield and six-feet high, vinyl-coated chain-link fencing down the foul lines. The baseball field extends up to 16-feet high in centerfield for the batter's eye. The project also included a new Ephesus LED Lighting system at both fields. The upgraded lighting system enhances both venues and meets the requirements for hosting NCAA regional broadcasts.
UP NEXT FOR TARLETON
The Texans will return to Stephenville and resume WAC play when they host Abilene Christian beginning on Friday at 6 p.m. CT. All three games can be watched on the WAC Digital Network or listened to at KTRL 90.5 FM/ TarletonSports.com/Watch

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