Angelo State remains the only unbeaten team after two weeks of the season picking up a series sweep to move to 6-0. Tarleton and West Texas A&M also swept their series, and St. Mary’s, Texas A&M International, Texas A&M-Kingsville and UT Tyler picked up series wins.
    LSC teams are playing a 13-week conference schedule with a four-game series against 11 of their 13 opponents and a three-game series against the other two. Weeks one and two will be three-game series and weeks three through 13 will be four-game series. Each four-game series shall consist of a 9-inning game Friday, a 7x7 doubleheader Saturday and 9-inning contest Sunday.     The overall LSC Champion will be the team(s) with the best winning percentage in regular-season conference games, while the winner of the postseason championship will be recognized as the LSC Tournament Champion and receive the league’s automatic qualification into NCAA postseason.
    LSC schedule and results available here: https://lonestarconference.org/calendar.aspx?path=baseball&
 
2020 LSC BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
This season, the top eight teams based on winning percentage in regular-season conference games will play a two-week conference tournament. The first week will consist of four best-of-three series hosted by the top four seeds on Friday, May 1 and Saturday, May 2 with game one Friday, and game two and, if necessary, game three on Saturday. The four winning teams will advance to a double-elimination tournament the next week May 7-8-9 in Cleburne, Texas at The Depot at Cleburne Station. Teams will not be re-seeded prior to the second week of the championship.
 
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
HITTER
Blake Burns, Tarleton, SR, General Business, 1B, Keller, Texas, Central HS
Burns was a one-man wrecking crew at the plate for Tarleton as the senior first baseman led the Texans to their first series sweep since April 27-29, 2018. After a one-hit outing in the opener, Burns exploded for a 3-for-4 performance on Saturday in which he blasted two home runs – a three-run shot and a grand slam – and collected nine total RBI for the day. His nine RBI performance made him the fifth Texan in program history with at least nine driven in a single game and the first since Francisco Rodriguez in 2018. He followed up on Sunday with another three-hit performance, which included a solo home run in the second. For the weekend, Burns hit .583 after going 7-for-12 with seven runs scored, three home runs, 10 RBI, 17 total bases, a 1.417 slugging percentage and a .600 on-base percentage.
 
PITCHER
Benjamin Elder, Angelo State, JR, Communication, LHP, Chico, Calif., Pleasant Valley HS
Elder was lights out on the mound in his second appearance for the Rams as he threw a season-high 12 strikeouts in 6 innings of work and held Oklahoma Christian batters to just two hits and an .095 batting average against him. He allowed no walks and allowed just four runners to reach base in the 9-8 win over the Eagles. The 6-6 pitcher had a no-hitter going through four innings until OC broke it up with a single in the bottom of the fifth.
 
WEEKLY AWARDS
Hitter
F-4      Bradley Mathiowetz, Angelo State
F-11    Blake Burns, Tarleton
 
Pitcher
F-4      Aaron Weseman, Lubbock Christian
F-11    Benjamin Elder, Angelo State
 
SELECTED NOTABLE PERFORMANCES
    Kyle McShaffry, UT Tyler, was the offensive leader for the Patriots who scored 27 runs in a three-game road series at UAFS.  He posted team-highs in extra-base hits (3) and RBIs (6), striking out just once in 14 at-bats.
 
     Malcolm Smith, Eastern New Mexico, recorded back-to-back multi-hit games in game one and game two of series against Texas A&M International. Smith led the team last week with a .600 on-base percentage and was a perfect 4-for-4 in stolen base attempts. He currently leads ENMU with a .316 batting average and .883 OPS on the season.
 
     Kohl Ullman, Texas A&M-Kingsville, led the Javelinas to their second series win of the year as they came away with two wins over Cameron. Ullman swung the bat at a .400 clip, added two doubles for a .600 slugging percentage, and drew three walks to push his on-base percentage to .571. He tallied both of his doubles in the 20-1 win in game one as he added two RBI and two runs and followed up with two hits in game three to push his season average to .316.
 
      Nick Hernandez, UT Permian Basin, broke out in a huge way last weekend at Tarleton to the tune of a pair of homers and seven RBI.  The junior accounted for half of the Falcons’ run production on the weekend hitting .400 and also scoring a pair as UTPB crossed the plate 16 times as a team.  On Saturday Hernandez slugged his first home run of the season and doubled, driving in four.  He followed that on Sunday by blasting a three-run home run.  He leads the team with two home runs and nine RBI on the young season.
 
     Justin Lee, Angelo State, helped carry the team to a series sweep over Oklahoma Christian to extend the ASU win streak to six games. He went 4-for-11 from the plate, notching three RBI. In game one of the series, Lee went 2-for-3 and smashed a home run over the right field wall to extend the Rams lead to 4-1 and he scored two runs. In the second game, the 5-11 outfielder scored one run and tallied one hit in the 9-8 victory. In the final game of the series, Lee hit a two-run single to center field to aid in the four-run inning to help the Rams finish the sweep.
 
    Justin Waltmon, Tarleton, was superb on the bump in game one of Tarleton’s sweep of UT Permian Basin. Waltmon gave TSU their first win of the season Friday with a complete game shutout in a 10-0 victory. He pitched all seven innings and struck out four while allowing two hits and a walk. The Falcons mustered a mere .100 opponent’s batting average off the junior right-hander.
 
    Lane Saunders, Eastern New Mexico, recorded the Greyhounds first save of the year in a 9-6 victory over Texas A&M International to close out the three-game series. He struck out four batters and only surrendered four hits and a walk in the appearance.
 
    Mathieu Gauthier, West Texas A&M, proved himself as an ace on Friday afternoon as the senior right-hander from North Carolina State picked up a no-decision as the No. 15 Buffs swept past the St. Edward's Hilltoppers to move to 5-1. The Montreal, Quebec product went seven innings for the Buffs on Friday afternoon, allowing one unearned run on three hits with one walk and nine strikeouts in his first career start at Wilder Park for an opposing batting average of .136.
 
    John Mike Rodriguez, Texas A&M-Kingsville, controlled the hill in game one for the Javelinas as he struck out six over six innings of work in TAMUK's 20-1 win. Rodriguez allowed only three runners to reach third base and worked out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the third by getting two fly balls to center field that allowed only one run across as he took his first win of the year. Rodriguez's first quality start of the year lowered his ERA to 1.74 as he owns nine strikeouts in 10.1 innings of work.
 
    Austin Schneider, UT Tyler, led UTT to a series-opening win over previously unbeaten UAFS, recording 11 strikeouts in 5 innings to hand the bullpen a 7-2 lead en route to the 8-4 victory. The Patriots went on to claim the 3-game series win with a pair of weekend road victories.