Tarleton Baseball concludes season in Beaumont, takes on 2nd place Lamar

THE MATCHUP
The Teams: Tarleton Texans (17-33, 10-17 WAC) at Lamar Cardinals (33-19, 17-10 WAC)
Dates & Times:
6 p.m. CT on Thursday, May 19
6 p.m. CT on Friday, May 20
1 p.m. CT on Saturday, May 21
Location: Vincent-Beck Stadium in Beaumont, Texas.
TEXAN BASEBALL GAME DAY
The Tarleton Baseball team will wrap up its second season of Division 1 baseball in Beaumont this weekend as they take on the Lamar Cardinals, a conference foe that will play one more season in the WAC before making a departure to the Southland Conference beginning with the 2023-2024 season.
The Texans have won four straight games, entering the series fresh off a three-game sweep of SFA. The series will begin on Thursday, with one game each on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
The game on Thursday will be the first that Tarleton has ever played at Vincent-Beck Stadium. The Cardinals have played there since 1969, and it holds 3,500 spectators. The parks distances to the outfield fence are 325 feet to the corners, 380 feet to centerfield, and 370 in the power alleys.
Lamar will be playing for a first-place finish in the Southwest Division. If they sweep Tarleton and Abilene Christian sweeps Sam Houston, the Cardinals win the division.
The Texans look to play the spoiler though, as their bats are hot coming into the series. The last time they saw Lamar, it ended in a run-rule, 12-2 Texan victory.

GAME COVERAGE & TICKETS
WATCH: WAC Digital Network
LIVE STATS: LINK
TICKETS: LINK
PROBABLE STARTING PITCHERS (MAY 19-21):
FRI: TAR RHP (Gr., 1-4, 6.80 ERA) vs. LU RHP Braxton Douthit (Jr., 6-2, 3.60 ERA)
SAT: TAR RHP (Jr., 2-6, 7.76 ERA) vs. LU RHP Adam Wheaton (Sr., 9-2, 2.73 ERA)
SUN: TAR RHP (Fr., 0-0, 4.91 ERA) vs. LU TBA

GAME NOTES
• Tarleton heads to Beaumont to take on the Lamar Cardinals in a three-game series that will be the final three games of the season for the purple and white.
• The Texans have won four straight games as the offense has been piping hot. They scored a combined 43 runs in the four-game winning streak, 10.75 runs per game.
• The sweep of SFA vaulted the Texans up a spot in the WAC Southwest Division standings to fifth place. Lamar sits in second place, 2.0 games behind division leader Sam Houston.
• Tarleton's midweek contest with TCU on Tuesday was canceled by the Horned Frogs.
• The Cardinals took the series 2-1 in Stephenville earlier in the season. Tarleton took game three in a 12-2 run-rule victory. The all-time series is tied at 2-2 as Tarleton won a game at home over Lamar 10-6.
QUICK HITS
• is currently on a 15-game reached base streak in which he has hit the cover off the ball. In last weeks' ACU series alone, he compiled six hits, 10 RBI and three home runs. He is tied for second in the WAC with 17 home runs this season. His 12 home runs in conference play ranks first.
• has been as hot as anyone in the WAC during conference play. In conference games alone, the Puerto Rico native ranks fourth in on-base percentage (.495) and third in batting average (.427). He has a hit in 19 of 24 conference games played, reaching base in 21. Thomas-Rivera also has five games of three or more hits on the season.
• The Texans look to change their fortunes in away games this season. They are 3-16 on the road while being 14-17 at the Tarleton Baseball Complex.
• Tarleton is tied for second in the WAC with California Baptist with 69 home runs this season.
• The starting of rotation of Baley, Hackett and Cordaway will be in play this weekend for the second series in a row, albeit a different order as Baley and Hackett were flipped vs. SFA. It is the eighth different rotation for the Texans this season.

NOTABLES
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.
Senior reached 100 hits in his Tarleton career on May 15 vs. SFA. He hit a single to center field in the fifth inning.
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 five saves are tied for sixth best in the WAC. He has 40 K's vs. just seven 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.
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 161-98 in the first three innings of games this season. They are 5-17 when trailing after the first inning and 5-24 when trailing after the third.
On the flip side, the Texans are 5-5 in games where they lead after the first and 11-4 in games where they lead after the third inning.
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 end of the series will mark the end of the 2021-2022 season for Tarleton Baseball. The next happenings for the program will be the Texan Baseball Camps this summer. There will be a prospect camp on June 11 and a youth camp June 13-15. You can register at texanbaseballcamps.com.

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