RUSSELLVILLE — The Arkansas Tech baseball team will play at home on consecutive days this week as they take on Union on Tuesday and Arkansas-Monticello on Wednesday. Both games will be played as non-conference games.
The game against Union is scheduled for a 3 p.m. first-pitch on Tuesday afternoon. The UAM game is slated for the same start time on Wednesday.
The Wonder Boys and Bulldogs have met nine times historically in a series that dates back to 1999. In terms of the all-time series record, Tech holds an 8-1 lead over Union. Against UAM, the Wonder Boys and Boll Weevils have met 174 times historically in a series that dates back to 1948. In terms of the all-time series record, Tech holds a 114-60 lead over UAM.
Tech and Union played twice last season with a home-and-home series. The Wonder Boys would win both games, 11-7 and 19-8, respectively. As far as UAM, this will be the fourth game between the two this season as the conference series was played at UAM in early March. UAM would sweep the series.
TECH(NICALLY) SPEAKING
The Wonder Boys enter their week of action series against Union and UAM with a 14-14 overall record and an 8-6 mark in the GAC. Tech is currently riding a three-game winning streak as they won the last two games of their weekend series against Southeastern this past weekend and most-recently winning a road mid-week game at No. 12-ranked Delta State.
Entering play, the Wonder Boys are hitting .286 as a team (258-for-903) with 210 runs scored, 42 doubles, nine triples and 17 home runs. Cole Dawson currently leads the team in batting average at .286 (39-for-101) and leads the team in runs scored at 31. Simon Murray has the highest slugging percentage on the team at .571 thanks to five home runs. Murray is one of eight players on the team with double-digit RBIs and is tied with Sawyer Duddleston for the team lead in RBIs with 25.
On the mound, the Wonder Boys have a team ERA of 7.32 and have struck out 204 batters in 227.1 innings of work.
Jack Rector, John Gray and Daniel Hutchison made starts over the past weekend in the games played against East Central and likely will not see action in either mid-week game. Ashton Greenlee has made the most mid-week starts two, but two-way player Simon Murray made the most-recent mid-week start last week against No. 12 Delta State.
Eleven relievers have made multiple appearances with Austin Mittlestedt and Turner Seelinger having the most with nine. Mittlestedt is currently 2-1 with a 5.23 ERA and 11 strikeouts in 10.1 innings. Seelinger is 0-1 with an 8.78 ERA and 12 strikeouts in 13.1 innings. JT Cafferty and Derek Rockett are next in relief appearances with eight 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 450-311 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 582-416.
SCOUTING UNION
Union enters the mid-week game on the road against Tech with an 11-18 overall record. The Bulldogs are coming off a home series loss this past weekend against West Florida. Union would win the first game, 7-5, but lost the next two games by a combined score of 29-2.
Offensively, the Bulldogs are hitting .273 as a team (239-for-876) with 177 runs scored, 38 doubles, eight triples and nine home runs.
Carson Chavies leads the team in batting average at .394 (37-for-94). Chavies also leads the team in slugging at .617 thanks to five doubles, five triples and two home runs. He also leads the team in RBIs with 26. Colby Davis leads the club in runs scored with 24.
On the mound, the Bulldogs have an 8.74 team ERA and have struck out 52 batters in 216.1 innings of work.
This past weekend, the Bulldogs had a starting rotation of Eli Snelson, Elijah Ramsey and Carter Daniel and are not likely to see action against Tech on Tuesday.
The Bulldogs are led by Casey McGehee, who is in his third season as head coach at Union. In his time, McGhee is 42-78.
SCOUTING ARKANSAS-MONTICELLO
UAM is set to play Henderson State at home the day prior to taking on Tech on the road and enters their mid-week slate with an 18-11 overall record. Coming into the week, the Boll Weevils have won four-straight as they beat nationally-ranked Harding in their mid-week game last week and then swept Northwestern Oklahoma. All four games too place at home.
Offensively, the Boll Weevils are hitting .298 as a team (274-for-920) with 226 runs scored, 56 doubles, 11 triples and 28 home runs.
Chaz Poppy leads the team in batting average at .391 (45-for-115). Poppy also leads the team in RBIs with 31 and is one of five players with at least 25 runs scored. Justin Santoyo leads the team in slugging at .639 thanks to eight doubles and four home runs.
On the mound, the Bulldogs have a 5.32 team ERA and have struck out 219 batters in 235.0 innings of work.
This past weekend, the Boll Weevils had a starting rotation of Connor Irvine, Maxim Mrakovic and Bryce Louis against Northwestern Oklahoma. It is unlikely that any of those three see action against Tech on Wednesday.
The Boll Weevils are led by John Harvey, who is in his 15th season as head coach at UAM and his 21st overall. At UAM, Harvey is 550-439.
