Our Marquee Match-Up of the Week for this weekend should be a great one. We are focusing on a huge tilt, as #15 St. Edward's (27-8, 13-2 Heartland) travels to #8 St. Mary's (26-7, 13-2 Heartland), with the winner of the series placing themselves in the driver's seat to take the Heartland Conference regular season championship and in a position to snag a top-three seed in the South Central Region come the end of the year.
These two teams are currently leading the Heartland Conference by three games, sitting at the top with a 13-2 record. Texas-Permian Basin is 10-5, while Arkansas-Fort Smith is 8-5, but with the way both St. Edward's and St. Mary's are playing, I doubt they are going to falter and fall back to the rest of the field, which makes this series the biggest of the season in the conference.
If it wasn't for Colorado Mesa's total destruction of the RMAC, this could be a series that determines the top seed in the region, but both squads are most likely battling for the second seed in the region along with Colorado State-Pueblo.
The Hilltoppers of St. Edward's are entering the series on a nine-game winning streak, having swept Arkansas-Fort Smith and Lubbock Christian in their last two series, as well as a single game win over TAMU-Kingsville and taking the last two contests of a series with Rogers State. Along with the quality victory over Kingsville, St. Edward's has beaten UT-Permian Basin two games to one and took three of four from Drury earlier this season.
St. Edward's will not knock your socks off with statistics or big numbers, but they are an extremely consistent team. There is no break in the lineup, as the Hilltoppers have six guys with at least 23 RBI and hitting above .315 on the season. If there is a "leader" to the group, it is J.D. Arrowood, a junior first baseman, who is batting .400 with a team-leading 35 runs, 50 hits, 12 doubles, 27 RBI, 72 total bases and a .576 slugging percentage. However, if you look at only Heartland Conference play, Arrowood is dominating at the plate, hitting .481, slugging .692 and notching a .525 on-base percentage.
If there was a big bat in the lineup, I suppose it could be considered A.J. Hermanson, a senior outfielder who leads the team with four home runs and three triples, and his 16 RBI in Heartland Conference play leads the team. Wesley Harris, a junior infielder, is hitting .422 in conference play with 13 RBI, second on the team.
When it comes to the pitching staff, the numbers are a little more visible on the national stage. The Hilltoppers are 27th in ERA, 31st in WHIP, 35th in hits allowed per nine innings,39th in shutouts, 49th in walks per nine innings and 53rd in strikeout-to-walk ratio.
The starting rotation has been anchored all year by junior Cameron Stanton, who is 4-0 with a 1.98 ERA in nine starts, with 40 strikeouts in 54.2 innings. Junior Collin Sherrod leads the team with 10 starts, pulling in a 5-1 record with a 3.14 ERA and 64 strikeouts in 66 innings of work, including two shutouts. Junior Bryce Davis has only started on the mound three times, but has two complete games and is 5-1 with a 1.75 ERA and has allowed only 37 hits in 46.1 innings. All three of his starts have come in conference play, which makes him a good bet to hit the mound again this weekend.
Junior lefty Cam Hatch is ninth in the country in saves with eight, carrying a 3-3 record and a 2.16 ERA in to this series in 16 appearances, with 18 strikeouts in 16.2 innings. Another stalwart in the bullpen is junior Vinny Whitenight, who is 2-0 with a 2.76 ERA in 11 appearances, striking out 14 in 16.1 innings.
For St. Mary's, they will enter the game with a four-game winning streak after beating TAMU-Kingsville and sweeping Newman last week. The Rattlers put together an impressive 17-game winning streak earlier this season, which included four-game sweeps of Mary and Central Baptist and three game sweeps of Rogers State, Lubbock Christian and Panhandle State. They went in to a little rut after that, losing two of three to UT-Permian Basin and dropping a single game to Angelo State, but have rebounded nicely with their four straight victories.
The Rattlers have a little more of a "get to the big bats" approach with their offense than St. Edward's does, as senior outfielder Brooks Orton has done most of their damage, leading the team in batting average (.400), runs (37), hits (52), doubles (11), RBI (33), total bases (76), walks (16), slugging (.585) and on-base percentage (.467). He is also 14-for-14 in stolen base attempts on the year, and the team as a whole is 49-for-57 on the basepaths.
The highlight of St. Mary's, however, is the pitching staff. The Rattlers rank sixth in Division II in hits allowed per nine innings, 15th in shutouts and 16th in ERA. Cody Butler and Kris Gardner are both tied for fourth in the country in victories, as well, with seven each.
Butler, a senior lefty, is 7-1 with a 2.25 ERA, three complete games and 50 strikeouts in 60 innings. Matching him nearly pitch-for-pitch is Gardner, another senior lefty who is 7-2 with a 3.26 ERA, two complete games and 41 strikeouts in 60.2 innings on the mound. The third cog in this finely-tuned machine is yet *another* senior lefty, Matt McClain, who is 6-1 with a 1.44 ERA and 38 strikeouts in 43.2 innings of work with three complete games.
The bullpen is led by sophomore Oscar Sepulveda, who in 10 appearances, is 1-0 with a 1.53 ERA and four saves in 17.2 innings.
Below is some information on the series as well as links to follow along with the action all weekend via live stats and live video:
#15 St. Edward's (27-8, 13-2 Heartland) @ #8 St. Mary's (26-7, 13-2 Heartland)
Game One: Friday, April 10th, 3 P.M. CT (Live Stats | Live Video)
Collin Sherrod (5-1, 3.14) vs Matt McClain (6-1, 1.44)
Game Two: Friday, April 10th, 5 P.M. CT (Live Stats | Live Video)
Bryce Davis (5-1, 1.75) vs Kris Gardner (7-2, 3.26)
Game Three: Saturday, April 11th, 1 P.M. CT (Live Stats | Live Video)
Cameron Stanton (4-0, 1.98) vs Cody Butler (7-1, 2.25)
Note: Starting pitchers are projected based on past series' and subject to change.
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