Two Lone Star Conference baseball teams completed undefeated weeks last week as No. 10 West Texas A&M and Oklahoma Christian both picked up series sweeps. No. 1 Angelo State, No. 25 UT Tyler, St. Edward’s and UAFS all earned series wins over the weekend.
LSC schedule and results available here:
https://lonestarconference.org/calendar.aspx?path=baseball
LSC BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
The LSC Baseball Championship will be a two-week tournament featuring eight teams with the opening round on campus. The winners of each opening round series will advance to a double-elimination tournament played the following weekend. The winner of the postseason tournament will be recognized as the LSC Tournament Champion and receive the conference’s automatic qualifier to the NCAA postseason.
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
HITTER
Cade Engle, West Texas A&M, SR, Mechanical Engineering, OF, Pampa, Texas, Pampa HS
Cade Engle continued to lead the No. 10 Buffaloes in the leadoff spot as WT ran their win streak to 11 games this past weekend with a sweep of St. Mary's at Wilder Park in Canyon. The Pampa, Texas product hit .714 on the weekend with six runs scored and 10 hits in his 14 at-bats, registering four doubles and driving in a pair of RBI for a slugging percentage of 1.000. Engle drew one walk with just one strikeout for an on-base clip of .733 while stealing a pair of bases to go along with two putouts in center field for a perfect fielding percentage. Engle went 2-of-4 at the plate in Friday's opener followed by a perfect 5-for-5 performance in Game 2 with three doubles and two singles, the finale saw the Pampa product go 3-for-5 at the plate as the Pampa product registered a stretch of seven straight at-bats with a hit that spanned all three games of the series as the Buffs hit .337 as a team on the weekend.
PITCHER
Kolby Lunsford, Texas A&M-Kingsville, JR, Management, RHP, Helotes, Texas, O'Connor HS
Kolby Lunsford stymied the potent Angelo State lineup on Sunday to secure a win in the series finale over the No. 1 Rams. He scattered six hits over his 6.1 innings of work and struck out six while allowing just one earned run during his time on the hill to pick up his third win of the season. The junior transfer from Galveston sat down four of the seven leadoff batters he faced and worked out of a two-on, two-out jam in the top of the first to keep the Rams off the scoreboard. For the year, Lunsford owns a 2.78 ERA through five starts and only five walks in 32.1 innings pitched compared to 31 strikeouts.
WEEKLY AWARDS
Hitter
F-9 Nick Seginowich, Angelo State
F-16 Ryan Johnson, West Texas A&M
F-23 Keone Givens, West Texas A&M
M-2 Jordan Gochenour, UT Tyler
M-9 Aldo Buendia, Texas A&M-Kingsville
M-16 Chance Westervelt, Oklahoma Christian
M-23 Josh Elvir, Angelo State
M-30 Cade Engle, West Texas A&M
Pitcher
F-9 Ty Stephenson, Lubbock Christian
F-16 Mathieu Gauthier, West Texas A&M
F-23 Connor Schmidt, St. Mary's
M-2 Benjamin Elder, Angelo State
M-9 Zach De la Garza, St. Mary’s
M-16 Cole Lee, Oklahoma Christian
M-23 Trent Baker, Angelo State
M-30 Kolby Lunsford, Texas A&M-Kingsville
SELECTED NOTABLE PERFORMANCES
Michael DiFiore, Oklahoma Christian, homered three times and hit .545 with a 1.455 slugging percentage as the Eagles swept three games from Eastern New Mexico. He led an OC offense that hit .449 for the series. He went 3 for 4 and recorded his second career multi-homer game in a 27-7 win over the Greyhounds, with 27 runs ranking as the second-highest single-game total in program history. In the second game of the day, his two-run homer in the eighth inning put OC ahead 5-4 in a game the Eagles eventually won 6-4. He added another RBI – giving him seven in the series – in a 12-2 win in the series finale. Four of his six hits in the series went for extra bases and he also scored five times and stole a base in his only attempt to do so.
Jordan Gochenour, UT Tyler, had multiple hits in three out of the four games this week, hitting .563 from the plate and leading the team with seven RBI. No. 25 UT Tyler went 3-1 with a series win over UT Permian Basin and a midweek victory over Arkansas-Monticello last week behind the bat of Gochenour as the Houston, Texas native went 3-for-4 in both the win against Arkansas-Monticello and UT Permian Basin. He had three RBI in the 9-7 win over Arkansas-Monticello on Tuesday night and then got the series started with UT Permian Basin with a run and an RBI in his second straight game with three hits on Friday night. He finished off his effort's 3-for-8 in the weekend games against UT Permian Basin to lead the Patriots to a pair of wins on Saturday and Sunday to secure the 2-1 series win. He has now totaled at least one run and one RBI in his last five appearances dating back to last weekend and has raised his season average to .341 on the year.
Ryan McGowen, St. Mary’s, reached base in seven of his 10 at-bats on the weekend against first-place West Texas A&M with three hits, three hit-by-pitches and a walk. McGowen has now reached base safely in eight straight games for the Rattlers.
Nick Novak, Angelo State, led the top-ranked Rams at the plate, tallying five RBIs and a .400 batting average as the Rams took two out of three games from Texas A&M-Kingsville. Novak also scored three runs and went 1-for-1 in stolen bases.
Jay DeSoto, UT Permian Basin, has had a great year at the plate for the Falcons and knocked in eight runs and hit three doubles against No. 25 UT Tyler. He also scored three times including twice in a win over UTT. He is currently on a nine-game hitting streak dating back to March 11. On the year DeSoto has a .313 batting average with 25 RBI and seven doubles.
Marcos Feria, Cameron, turned in one of the Aggies’ best starts of the season but did not factor into the decision against UAFS this past Saturday. The sophomore from Miami was cruising against the Lions into the eighth inning, recording his ninth strikeout for the first out in the frame. An error and a walk pulled Feria from the contest but not before the sophomore allowed just three hits and one walk with eight strikeouts in the previous seven shutout innings. He ranks in the top-10 of the LSC in opposing batting average (.221) and strikeouts (37).
Blake Holub, St. Edward’s, shutout Lubbock Christian in game one during his seven innings of work holding the Chaps scoreless and scattering five hits with 12 strikeouts. As a staff, the Hilltoppers posted 16 strikeouts in the win, tying for second-most in a game in SEU baseball history.
Julien Ly, Oklahoma Christian, began the season as a backup outfielder and relief pitcher but started on the mound and blanked Eastern New Mexico on only two hits over six innings as Oklahoma Christian completed a series sweep with a 12-2 win on Saturday. While throwing an efficient 70 pitches during his stint, he struck out six batters while walking only one, with the Greyhounds hitting only .100 against him.
Jakob Petross, UAFS, tossed the final 6.2 innings in relief in a 5-2 win in 10 innings over Cameron. He had three three-up, three-down innings, including the 10th. He struck out six and allowed only four hits to earn his second win of the season. He also threw one inning in game one of the series, retiring all three batters faced with two strikeouts. Petross has not allowed an earned run in eight of nine appearances this season.
Todd Danzeisen, West Texas A&M, continued his hot start to the 2021 season this past weekend as the Buffaloes ran their win streak to 11 games while remaining atop of the LSC standings with a weekend sweep of the St. Mary's Rattlers at Wilder Park in Canyon. The Las Vegas, Nevada product tossed five scoreless innings in Saturday's finale, allowing just three hits with no walks and four strikeouts for an opposing batting average of .176. The lefty combined with Noah Bartlett and Tucker Knight for WT's second shutout of the season.
Jacob Blatney, UT Tyler, struck out 10 and didn't allow a single free base to pick up the win after 6.0 innings of work for the Patriots against UT Permian Basin in his Saturday night start. Blatney shut down the Falcons in that 15-5 win for UT Tyler, allowing just four hits while not allowing a single base runner to advance past first base. All four of his hits allowed were singles as Blatney nearly struck out half the batters he faced on the night. He is now 3-0 on the year and has brought his ERA down to just 3.33 through 27.0 innings of work this year.
Trent Baker, Angelo State, improved to 6-0 on the season, helping the Rams to a series-opening win over Texas A&M-Kingsville with eight strikeouts while holding the Javelinas to a batting average of .182. So far this season, he has given up only nine earned runs in just over 40 innings pitched.