Five Lone Star Conference baseball teams picked up series sweeps during the opening weekend of the season with UAFS picking up three road victories. No. 11 Angelo State, St. Mary’s, Texas A&M-Kingsville and UT Tyler also swept their series. Lubbock Christian and No. 15 West Texas A&M picked up series wins last week going 2-1.
    LSC teams are playing a single round-robin 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
Bradley Mathiowetz, Angelo State, SR, Management, DH, Rochester, Minn., Rochester Mayo HS
Mathiowetz had an impressive outing for the Rams in their season opening series after returning from an injury that kept him out last season. He helped ASU to a series sweep over Eastern New Mexico hitting .500 on 3-for-6 hitting while driving in 8 RBI. The senior reached base as a .636 rate thanks to a trio of walks. On Saturday, Mathiowetz knocked a ball out of the park over the left field wall and also tallied a double and four RBI. On Sunday, he smashed a bases clearing triple to left center field to score three runs and put the Rams up 6-0. Mathiowetz hit for a 1.500 slugging percentage over the three-game series.
 
PITCHER
Aaron Weseman, Lubbock Christian, JR, Psychology, LHP, Frisco, Texas, Heritage HS
Weseman won the game that clinched the series against St. Edward's for the Chaps. The junior was dominant in his first collegiate appearance since May 13, 2018, carrying a no-hitter into the sixth inning before surrendering the lone Hilltopper hit against him. He only allowed one other baserunner in his 6.0 innings on the mound, striking out six while holding SEU to a .053 batting average and allowing no walks.
 
WEEKLY AWARDS
Hitter
F-4      Bradley Mathiowetz, Angelo State
 
Pitcher
F-4      Aaron Weseman, Lubbock Christian
 
SELECTED NOTABLE PERFORMANCES
    Austin De Leon, Texas A&M-Kingsville, was a force at the plate for the Javelinas in their season-opening series against Oklahoma Christian as he led the team with a .545 batting average with six hits in 11 at-bats and tacked on three walks for a .643 on-base percentage. Four of his six hits went for extra-bases, including three doubles and one triple, and he had a hand in all three runs scored in game one for the 3-1 decision. He put together three hits, one double and one triple, along with two runs scored and one RBI to open 2020 with a win and followed up with two hits, one double and one RBI in the 15-8 win in game two. To secure the sweep, he tacked on one hit, one double and two runs scored en route to the 13-10 decision.
 
     Jordan Gochenour, UT Tyler, sparked the first year LSC program to a series sweep of Tarleton. He finished the series with a 3-for-5, 5-RBI performance in the 9-1 game three win, and his 2-run single in the bottom of the first got UT Tyler's offense rolling on its way to seven runs in the first two innings Sunday. It was Gochenour's second consecutive 3-for-5 game out of the cleanup spot in the lineup, and it was his third straight game with an RBI.
 
     George Mendazona, Lubbock Christian, led the Chaps in both hits and total bases as they won a road series at St. Edward's. The Oregon native batted .385 with four singles and one home run while reaching base at a .467 clip thanks to a pair of walks. One of those walks drove in the go-ahead run in the top of the ninth inning as LCU rallied to beat the Hilltoppers in the season-opener.
 
      Keaton Milford, St. Mary’s, was 7-for-12 with three doubles and four runs scored in the Rattlers three-game sweep over Cameron. Milford also tallied five RBI and drew three walks in the series finale, including an intentional pass, for a slugging percentage of .833 and on-base percentage of .667. The first baseman also had several key defensive plays to keep the Aggies off the base paths, getting 16 putouts and three assists with no errors. Milford tallied multiple hits in each of the first two games of the year, going 2-for-5 in the 5-0 opener and 4-for-5 with three RBI and two runs scored in the middle 12-2 victory. In the get-away game, he was 1-for-2 with a double and the three walks.
 
     Logan Easley, UAFS, led the Lions to a 3-0 weekend in Laredo as he posted a .385 average while totaling seven RBIs. He also scored three runs and was 1-1 on stolen bases. Easley also recorded a .400 on-base percentage.
 
    Chase Glover, Texas A&M-Kingsville, was near-untouchable in his two appearances over the weekend as he compiled a 0.00 ERA over 1.2 innings pitched and struck out two Eagles to pick up a save in two of the three games. In game one, he closed out the ninth with one strikeout in the 3-1 decision and got the final two outs in game three to preserve the 13-10 win.
 
    Zach De La Garza, St. Mary’s, shut out the Aggies in the season opener, allowing only three hits over six innings to win the 19th game of his career. De La Garza struck out eight and allowed opponents to hit just .150. All three hits were singles, and he did not throw a wild pitch or hit a batter.
 
    Josh Barnett, Angelo State, had a great outing in his season debut on Sunday against Eastern New Mexico. He helped shutout the Greyhounds in a 10-0 victory and had a no-hitter through three innings until ENMU broke it in the fourth. He allowed just two hits and surrendered no runs through six innings. Barnett threw five strikeouts and faced the minimum three batters in four of his six innings of work.
 
    Garrett Arredondo, UT Tyler, tossed five innings of one-hit ball to lead first-year LSC member UT Tyler to a game three win and series sweep over Tarleton. Arredondo, a true freshman, surrendered just one unearned run on one hit and three walks while collecting six strikeouts in his first collegiate start.
 
    Tyler Brown, St. Edward’s, pitched five scoreless innings and struck out eight in an opening day start against Lubbock Christian. The senior allowed just one hit and held the Chaps to a .067 batting average.
 
   Gabe Rodery, Oklahoma Christian, one of only two returning All-South Central Region pitchers, didn't allow an earned run, allowed only four hits and fanned seven Texas A&M-Kingsville batters in seven innings of work in the season opener, which OC lost 3-1. TAMUK batters hit just .154 off Rodery.
 
    Hunter Thomas, Tarleton, threw 5.0 innings and allowed one run and struck out three for Tarleton in his season opening appearance against UT Tyler.
 
    Trever Berg, UT Permian Basin, was sensational in his first Falcon start holding No. 15 West Texas A&M to just three hits over six innings. The junior struck out five and was dominant all afternoon as the Falcons picked up their first win in program history over WT.