SFA Travels To San Marcos For SLC Series
3/26/2009 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 26, 2009
@ Texas State (14-8, 6-3 Southland) March 27, 2009 @ Texas State (14-8, 6-3 Southland) March 28, 2009 @ Texas State (14-8, 6-3 Southland) March 29, 2009
BOBCAT BASEBALL STADIUM (2,000) - SAN MARCOS, TEXAS
Probable Pitching Matchups:
Friday: SFA - Erik Gregersen, RHP (2-2, 4.55 ERA, 27.2 IP, 25 K, 14 BB) Texas State - Zach Tritz, RHP (3-2, 4.15 ERA, 34.2 IP, 27 K, 9 BB)
Saturday: SFA - Erich Lehmann, RHP (1-2, 4.44 ERA, 26.1 IP, 23 K, 3 BB) Texas State - Kane Holbrooks, RHP (4-0, 1.75 ERA, 36.0 IP, 21 K, 8 BB)
Sunday: SFA - Jared Schrom, RHP (0-0, 3.14 ERA, 14.1 IP, 13 K, 7 BB) Texas State - Brian Borski, RHP (4-0, 2.51 ERA, 32.1 IP, 23 K, 15 BB)
THIS WEEKEND The `Jacks play two of the premier teams in the SLC over the next two weekends, starting this week with a three-game series in San Marcos against Texas State.
AGAINST THE BOBCATS Texas State leads the all-time series since 1984, 32-15 and is 6-5 against the `Jacks since 2006; however, SFA did sweep the `Cats in Nacogdoches last season. This will mark the second time SFA has traveled to San Marcos since bringing baseball back in 2006, and is only 3-18 since 1984 in San Marcos.
FOLLOW THE 'JACKS RADIO: Radio can be foundon KSFA 860AM on Saturday and Sunday with Ben Rikard on the call.
LIVE STATS: Livestats will be available via Gametracker for all three games vs the Bobcats at www.sfajacks.com
UPDATING THE 'JACKS SFA had won four straight before dropping the series finale against Nicholls on Sunday and falling to No. 16 TCU in Fort Worth on Tuesday. Through three SLC series' the `Jacks are 2-6, just two games back of NW St. for the No. 8 spot in the SLC standings and only 3.5 games back of the overall top spot in a tight SLC race.
UP NEXT This marks the first of a pair of difficult weekends for SFA as they face two of the top teams in the league in consecutive weeks - Texas State and then UTSA in Nacogdoches next weekend. In the meantime the `Jacks will play its second home-and-home in three weeks with Houston Baptist, who they swept in two games nearly two weeks ago.
SFA'S KING OF THE K: Erich Lehmann took hold of another SFA career record on Saturday when he became the all-time strikeout leader at the school. Lehmann finished with six strikeouts and no walks in a complete game shutout of Nicholls, but it was his fourth-inning strikeout of Josh Labiche that tallied his 221st career strikeout to move in front of Sean Wood. The Fort Worth native picked up his first win of the season as well, pushing his SFA-best total to 19 for his career. He also needs only 17.2 more innings to pass Wood in the all-time innings category as well. Lehmann has been outstadnding in two home starts, throwing 15 consecutive scoreless innings at Jaycees Field.
RECORD-SETTING SATURDAY: Saturday's win 11-0 win over Nicholls provided several milestones for the Lumberjack program. In addition to Erich Lehmann becoming the school's all-time strikeout king, Gabriel Garcia-Serrano also jumped to the top of the record book as he set a new single-game record at the school with four stolen bases against the Colonels. On top of that the `Jacks also cut the game short by putting the mercy rule into effect for the second straight game, the first time SFA's recorded history that the team has ever run-ruled an opponent in consecutive games.
PUT ON THE BRAKES!: SFA avoided a dubious record with its 7-4 win over Houston Baptist last Tuesday, as another loss would have been its ninth in a row and would have been the longest losing streak since SFA brought back baseball in 2006. SFA had an eight-game losing skid early in the 2006 campaign and had another midway through the 2008 season.
ONE GAME MAKES A DIFFERENCE: Especially when that one game is a game that an opponent scores 24 runs. That happened the second game of the year against ULM when the Warhawks dropped in 24 runs against SFA pitching. Overall the `Jacks have a 5.01 team ERA, but take that game away and as a team SFA has a 4.26 team ERA, a mark that would currently stand as the third best team ERA in the conference.
BULKING UP: Senior outfielder Zach Gardner has spent the majority of his career as the `Jacks primary leadoff hitter and he is doing the same this year, but take a closer look and you will see that he is also making the transformation into a run producer rather than just a run scorer. Gardner had a career best 24 RBI in 48 games as a junior in 2008, but he is quickly nearing that total in 2009 as he already has 16 in just 20 games. He had at least one RBI in four of his five games last week, including his second home run of the season against Nicholls which tied his career best for an entire season. Gardner is currently second on the `Jacks in RBI, tied for first with seven doubles and is third on the team with a .462 slugging percentage.
NEARLY THE RECORD: SFA was swinging the sticks well on March 18 against Houston Baptist, tallying 20 hits against the Huskies which was just one hit shy of the all-time single-game record of 21 set in 2007. Oddly enough 18 of the hits were of the singles variety with ony Bo Coffman and Justin McAninch getting hits that went for extra bases.
NOT MEYERED IN A SLUMP: First baseman/DH is one of the few individual Lumberjack hitters to be ranked among the best in the SLC. Meyers leads SFA in batting average (.423), slugging percentage (.679), RBI (22) and doubles (7). The Conroe, Texas, native had an eight-game hit streak to start the season and has now hit in nine of his last 10 games as well. In those 10 games he has also managed to drive in 12 runs, with at least one RBI in all but one game. Opposing managers are having a tough time trying to match up with him as well, as Meyers is actually hitting better against lefties (.429, 9/21) than against righties (.421, 24/57).
GOTTA GET `EM IN: Nobody can say that the `Jacks did not have their opportunities in their series against Central Arkansas and Louisiana Tech, but SFA never could seem to convert offensively until late in the game on Sunday. Overall, the `Jacks left 11 runners on base in 11 innings on Saturday, 14 more in 10 innings on Sunday and 11 more in 10 innings against La. Tech on Tuesday. The most SFA left on base throughout all of 2008 was 12 twice, against Sacred Heart (3/8) and Dallas Baptist (3/4). SFA also went a span of 25 consecutive innings without pushing across a run until the sixth inning on Sunday against UCA, tying the most since 2006 in that category. That year SFA went from the eighth inning on March 29 to the sixth inning on April 2 without scoring - a span of 25 innings over four games.
LUCKY (OR UNLUCKY) NUMBER SEVEN: SFA has found a key to winning over the past three seasons, and it is scoring at least seven runs that is usually no surprise. With the powerful offenses that the team has had over the past two seasons, it is no surprise that SFA has scored at least seven runs in 76 games since 2006, going 57-19 (.750) in those games; however, the 'Jacks have scored less than seven 114 times since 2006, going only 18-96 (.158) in those games. The 2008 season was alsmost divided directly down that line as SFA went 22-6 in games where they scored at least seven times, and were 3-23 in games in which they scored less than seven. This year the `Jacks have scored at least seven on nine occassions, going 7-2 in those contests and 0-12 when scoring less than seven runs.
SENIOR CYCLE: The 2009 season will mark the fourth season with baseball back at SFA, and will mark the first four-year senior crop of players to make the full cycle through the program. Erik Gregersen, Zach Gardner, Erich Lehmann, Jared Schrom and Richard Folmer are each seniors that were part of the initial freshman recruiting class that opened up play in 2006.
-SFA-
