Wonder Boys welcome former conference rival Delta State to town for pair of mid-week games

FIRST PITCH
The Arkansas Tech baseball team is back at home for a pair of mid-week games against their former conference rival, Delta State.
The mid-week series is slated to begin with a single nine-inning game on Tuesday night starting at 6 p.m. and will conclude on Wednesday afternoon with another single nine-inning game starting at 1 p.m.
The Wonder Boys and Statesmen have met 67 times historically in a series that dates back to 1990. In terms of the all-time series record, Delta State holds a 55-12 lead over Tech.
The two teams met twice last season during the mid-week at Delta State. The Statesmen won both games, 2-1 and 14-8, respectively.
TECH(NICALLY) SPEAKING
The Wonder Boys enter this mid-week series at home against Delta State with an overall record of 10-9. This past weekend, the Wonder Boys won their series on the road at Henderson State, winning the opener, 9-0, and the finale, 5-1.
Entering play against Delta State, the Wonder Boys are hitting .256 as a team (153-for-597) with 118 runs scored, 28 doubles, three triples and 17 home runs.
Logan Schwenke currently leads the team in batting average at .339 (19-for-56). Schwenke has also been the top-power production bat in the lineup as he leads the team in slugging percentage at .768 thanks to four doubles, one triple and six home runs. His home run total leads the team, and he is also the team-leader in RBIs with 20. Four other Wonder Boys have driven in at least 10 runs.
Keaton Ranallo is second on the team in home runs at four while Markos Cabranes and Christian Olea have two and Brendyn Bard and Cole Dawson account for the other homers thus far with one apiece.
In terms of other extra-base hits, Shane Poe leads the team in doubles with six while the triples have come from three different players in Sawyer Duddleston, Grant Jones and Schwenke.
On the mound, the Wonder Boys have a team ERA of 5.08 and have struck out 165 batters in 157.2 innings of work.
John Gray, Emilano Mata, and Jack Rector made starts this past weekend against Henderson State and likely won't see action against Delta State. A candidate to start one of the mid-week games is Mason Willis. He already has two mid-week starts to his credit and has appeared in four games overall.

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 nine. Grant Shahan has logged the most innings in relief with 22.1 to his credit. Shahan is also currently tied for the team-lead in strikeouts with 27.
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 538-390.
SCOUTING DELTA STATE
Delta State enters this mid-week series at Tech with a 12-6 overall record. This past weekend, the Statesmen won their conference series at home against the University of Montevallo. In the series, Delta State won the first game, 8-2, lost the middle game, 2-0, and won the finale, 14-10.
Offensively, the Statesmen are hitting .317 as a team (200-for-630) with 155 runs scored, 29 doubles, three triples and 13 home runs.
Brett Burrell leads the team in batting average early on at .389 (28-for-72). Dylan Coleman has provided the most power production thus far with a .782 slugging percentage thanks to five doubles and four home runs. Coleman's four home runs leads the team while his 20 RBIs are second to Blayke Dendy's 21. Collectively, the Statesmen have five other players with at least 10 RBIs and have seven that have scored 10 or more runs.
On the mound, the Statesmen have a 5.70 team ERA and have struck out 157 batters in 150.0 innings of work.
Last weekend, the Statesmen used a weekend rotation of Drake Fontenot, Logan Eldridge and Kameron Koch against Montevallo and likely won't see action this week against Tech. The Statesmen have also had two other pitchers start games with Brady Davis having started one game and Christian Clayton starting four.
In their most-recent mid-week game against Ouachita, Delta State started Davis. Davis is currently 0-0 with a 5.40 ERA and seven strikeouts in 8.1 innings. Clayton is 1-2 with a 10.54 ERA and 11 strikeouts in 13.2 innings.
In addition to those starters, the Statesmen have used 11 other pitchers in relief roles. Josh Hill has made the most relief appearances with six. He is is 2-0 with a save and has a 4.50 ERA with 11 strikeouts in 8.0 innings.
The Statesmen are led by Rodney Batts, who is in his fifth season as head coach at his alma mater, Delta State. In his time at DSU, Batts is 112-79.