FIRST PITCH
The Arkansas Tech baseball team remains on the road for their mid-week game and will play at Central Oklahoma.
The non-conference game is slated to begin at 3 p.m. on Tuesday.
The Wonder Boys and Bronchos have met 26 times historically in a series that dates back to 1985. In terms of the all-time series record, UCO holds a 15-10-1 lead over Tech.
This will be the first meeting between the two teams since 2019.
TECH(NICALLY) SPEAKING
The Wonder Boys enter the mid-week game 8-12 overall. This past weekend, Tech was swept in their series on the road at Arkansas-Monticello.
Entering play against UCO, the Wonder Boys are hitting .254 as a team (162-for-638) with 122 runs scored, 25 doubles, six triples and 11 home runs. Cole Dawson currently leads the team in batting average at .365 (23-for-63) and leads the team in runs scored at 21. Simon Murray has the highest slugging percentage on the team at .526 thanks to three home runs. Five Wonder Boys have reached double-digit RBIs with Kirby Jenkins currently leading the club with 14.
On the mound, the Wonder Boys have a team ERA of 7.60 and have struck out 147 batters in 162.1 innings of work.
Jack Rector, Emiliano Mata and Daniel Hutchison made starts over the past weekend in the games played against Arkansas and likely will not see action in the mid-week game. Ashton Greenlee made the most-recent mid-week start last week against Ouachita Baptist. John Gray has also made a mid-week start.
Nine relievers have made multiple appearances with Austin Mittlestedt having the most with seven. He is currently 2-1 with a 2.89 ERA and 11 strikeouts in 9.1 innings. JT Cafferty and Derek Rockett are next in relief appearances with five apiece.
Leading the Wonder Boys once more is Dave Dawson. The all-time winningest coach in Tech Baseball history, Dawson enters his 16th year in the dugout for the Wonder Boys. In his previous 15 seasons, Dawson has guided amassed a 450-314 record. He has also had eight 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 20th 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 576-414.
SCOUTING CENTRAL OKLAHOMA
Arkansas-Monticello enters this mid-week game at home against Tech with a 15-5 overall record. This past weekend, the Bronchos played at home against Pittsburg State and won the series, 2-1. UCO would win the first and last games of the series.
Offensively, the Bronchos are hitting .269 as a team (176-for-655) with 154 runs scored, 49 doubles, seven triples and 28 home runs.
Caden Robertson leads the team in batting average at .380 (27-for-71). Robertson also leads the team in home runs, RBIs and slugging percentage. He has 10 homers and 26 RBIs and is sporting a .944 slugging percentage. Six other Bronchos have recorded double-digit RBIs.
On the mound, the Bronchos have a 4.87 team ERA and have struck out 187 batters in 173.2 innings of work.
This past weekend, the Bronchos had a starting rotation of Brett Pense, Danny Satterleeand Brady Gilmore against Pittsburg State. Those three have been primary weekend starters for the Bronchos with all three having made at least five starts thus far.
Outside of those three, the Bronchos have had only one other pitcher make a start with Caleb Burchfield handling those three instances. Burchfield is 2-0 with a 4.74 ERA and 14 strikeouts in 19.0 innings.
The Bronchos are led by John Martin, who is in his 10th season as head coach at Central Oklahoma. In his time at UCO, Martin is 296-169-1.
