Wonder Boys and Boll Weevils square off in GAC series at Tech

FIRST PITCH
The Arkansas Tech baseball team is back in Great American Conference action this weekend and are at home to face Arkansas-Monticello.
The series is slated to begin with a single nine-inning game on Friday night starting at 6 p.m. Saturday will close the series with a doubleheader (9-7) starting at 1 p.m.
The Wonder Boys and Boll Weevils have met 165 times historically in a series that dates back to 1948. In terms of the all-time series record, Tech holds a 111-54 lead over UAM.
The two teams met in a mid-week game last week at UAM. The Wonder Boys won that game, 9-8.
TECH(NICALLY) SPEAKING
The Wonder Boys enter this weekend at home against Arkansas-Monticello with an overall record of 20-12 and a 11-7 mark in Great American Conference play. Tech is currently riding a six-game winning streak and are coming off an 11-7 win in mid-week action at Union this past Tuesday.
Entering play against UAM, the Wonder Boys are hitting .273 as a team (274-for-1,002) with 197 runs scored, 59 doubles, seven triples and 23 home runs.
Logan Schwenke currently leads the team in batting average at .374 (34-for-91). Schwenke has also been the top-power production bat in the lineup as he leads the team in slugging percentage at .758 thanks to eight doubles, three triples and seven home runs. His home run total leads the team, and he is also the team-leader in runs scored with 28. Seven other Wonder Boys have driven in at least 10 runs and two others have at least 20 driven in.
Keaton Ranallo is second on the team in home runs at four and is tied for the team-lead in RBIs with Schwenke at 28. Markos Cabranes, Christian Olea and Brendyn Bard are right behind in home runs with three. Cole Dawson, Nick Jones and Grant Jones account for the other homers thus far with one apiece.
In terms of other extra-base hits, Olea and Ranallo are tied for the team-lead in doubles with nine while the triples are led by Schwenke with three.
On the mound, the Wonder Boys have a team ERA of 4.14 and have struck out 281 batters in 267.1 innings of work.

John Gray, Emilano Mata, and Jack Rector made starts this past weekend against Southwestern Oklahoma and figure to be in the mix to start against Arkansas-Monticello. Gray currently has the lowest ERA among starters at 3.98. He also is 4-2 with 43 strikeouts in 40.2 innings of work. All three weekend starters have registered at least 30 strikeouts thus far with Gray leading the group with 43 Ks.
Aside from those that have made starts, 12 other pitchers have taken the mound for the Wonder Boys in relief roles. Will Horton has the most relief appearances thus far with 15. He is 3-1 with two saves and has a 2.08 ERA with 23 strikeouts in 21.2 innings. Grant Shahan has logged the most innings amongst prominent relievers with 33.1 to his credit. Shahan is second on the team in strikeouts with 39.
Leading the Wonder Boys once more is Dave Dawson. The all-time winningest coach in Tech Baseball history, Dawson enters his 15th year in the dugout for the Wonder Boys. In his previous 14 seasons, Dawson has guided amassed a 414-298 record. He has also had seven seasons with 30 or more wins which includes the 2014 season in which he led the team a program-record 44 wins and hosting rights for that year's Central Region Tournament.
Overall, Dawson is in his 19th year as a head baseball coach at the collegiate level as he spent four years as head coach at Kansas Wesleyan and totaled 118 wins. His combined win total at Tech and Kansas Wesleyan have him with a career record of 550-394.
SCOUTING ARKANSAS-MONTICELLO
Arkansas-Monticello enters this weekend series at Tech with a 16-14 overall record and a 12-6 mark in GAC play. This past weekend, the Boll Weevils lost their series on the road at Southern Nazarene but managed to salvage the final game in the series. Most-recently, UAM split a doubleheader at home against Ouachita Baptist this past Wednesday. The Boll Weevils would drop the opener but won the second game in a walk-off, 7-6.
Offensively, the Boll Weevils are hitting .297 as a team (290-for-975) with 207 runs scored, 69 doubles, two triples and 34 home runs.
Camden Tanner currently leads the team in batting average at .361 (35-for-97). Tanner has also provided the most power production thus far with a .619 slugging percentage thanks to 10 doubles and five home runs. Tanner's home run total is second on the team behind Chaz Poppy and Kirk Wolfe's six homers. Cade Cancilla leads the team in RBIs with 29. Three others have at least 20 RBIs.
On the mound, the Boll Weevils have a 5.37 team ERA and have struck out 258 batters in 239.2 innings of work.
Last weekend, the Boll Weevils used a weekend rotation of Connor Irvine, Charles Peacock and Maxim Mrakovic against Southern Nazarene and figure to see to action in the same roles against Tech. Irvine has the lowest ERA among the starters at 3.91 and is 4-1 with 48 strikeouts in 46.0 innings of work. Peacock is 3-3 with a 5.51 ERA with 54 strikeouts in 32.2 innings while Mrakovic is 2-3 with a 4.14 ERA and 38 strikeouts in 41.1 innings.
In addition to those starters, the Boll Weevils have used 11 other pitchers in relief roles. Nelson Mercado, Jacob McDaniel and Dylan Vial have made the most relief appearances with 12 apiece. Mercado is 1-2 with five saves and a 3.50 ERA with 23 strikeouts in 18.0 innings. McDaniel is 1-1 and has a 4.96 ERA with 12 strikeouts in 16.1 innings. Vial is 2-1 with a 5.64 ERA with 18 strikeouts in 22.1 innings.
The Boll Weevils are led by John Harvey, who is in his 14th season as head coach at Arkansas-Monticello and his 20th overall. In his time at UAM, Harvey is 357-217 and 511-419 overall.