SFA Hosts Defending Champion Roadrunners
4/2/2009 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 2, 2009
vs UTSA (15-12, 7-5 SLC) - April 3, 3:00 p.m.
vs UTSA (15-12, 7-5 SLC) - April 4, 2:00 p.m.
vs UTSA (15-12, 7-5 SLC) - April 5, 1:00 p.m.
JAYCEES FIELD (1,000) - NACOGDOCHES, TEXAS
Complete release in PDF format
Probable Pitching Matchups:
Friday: SFA - Erik Gregersen, RHP (2-3, 5.34 ERA, 32.0 IP, 30 K, 20 BB) UTSA - Red Patterson, RHP (2-2, 5.70 IP, 36.1 IP, 41 K, 12 BB)
Saturday: SFA - Erich Lehmann, RHP (1-3, 5.72 ERA, 28.1 IP, 23 K, 4 BB) UTSA - Casey Selsor, LHP (4-1, 7.52 ERA, 26.1 IP, 15 K, 21 BB)
Sunday: SFA - Jared Schrom, RHP (0-0, 4.24 ERA, 17.0 IP, 16 K, 9 BB) UTSA - Clay Schrader, RHP (2-1, 3.78 ERA, 33.1 IP, 27 K, 15 BB)
THIS WEEKEND Opportunity knocks for SFA to jump back into the SLC race this weekend when it hosts two-time defending SLC champion, and preseason conference favorite UTSA starting Friday.
AGAINST THE RUNNERS The Runners lead the series 17-6 dating back to 1984, including a three-game sweep of SFA in San Antonio a year ago. SFA has only won two times in its last 10 tries against UTSA, with those two wins coming in 2007 in Nacogdoches.
FOLLOW THE 'JACKS RADIO: SFA radio will be available on Saturday and Sunday on KSFA 860 AM with Ben Rikard on the mic.
LIVE STATS: Livestats will be available via Gametracker for each game vs the Roadrunners at www.sfajacks.com
UPDATING THE 'JACKS SFA escaped San Marcos on Sunday with a win over the Bobcats after Texas State had taken the first two games of the series, halting a four-game slide for SFA. The `Jacks followed that with a pair of solid wins over Houston Baptist, including a 13-run outburst on Wednesday.
UP NEXT The `Jacks go without a midweek contest for the first time this year this week as the short turnaround sends SFA to the Gulf Coast to take on Texas A&M-Corpus Christi beginning on Thursday. SFA gets little time to breathe following a short Easter break with Louisiana-Lafayette and UTPA waiting in the wins for three midweek games in two days before SFA takes on McNeese State.
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: In SFA's 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.
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 4.98 team ERA, but take that game away and as a team SFA has a 4.37 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 17 in just 26 games. Gardner also just passed Jeff Dungen on Wednesday for sole possession of second place on the all-time SFA hits list, and took sole possession of first place in triples with his ninth career three-bagger.
HINES' HEISTS: Don't look now, but shortstop Tanner Hines has ran himself near the top of the SLC leaderboard in stolen bases. The Hudson, Texas, native stole four bags in two games against Houston Baptist earlier in the week, including three in Tuesday's 4-2 win. His 13 steals is second only to Nicholls' Chris Murrill, and is only three swipes shy of moving into the all-time top 10 at SFA despite only having played in 26 games.
BIG MAC AND A PURPLE CRUSH PLEASE: Head coach Johnny Cardenas has had to look to youth for production this year, from Brett Rogers' career-opening win on Feb. 22 against Northwestern State, to Jarid Scarafiotti's offensive spark. Well, he may have stumbled into another freshman that can have an impact in Justin McAninch. The freshman got his first hit of his career in a pinch-hit opportunity two weeks ago against Nicholls and got his first start of his career on Wednesday against Houston Baptist. How did he respond? With a 2-for-4 day, including a leadoff home run in the top of the eighth.
SCARFING IT ALL IN: Since Johnny Cardenas inserted freshman Jarid Scarafiotti into the starting lineup on March 15, most of the `Jacks offensive numbers have jumped up. Scarafiotti homered in his first game of his career against Northwestern State and had at least one hit in each of his first five games, and still has not struck out since his second game in the lineup. Since March 15 SFA's offensive numbers are up across the board, with run production up 2.3 runs per game.
FERGALICIOUS: At least as of late. Senior Brian Ferguson is currently riding a career-best hit streak of seven games. He is the team's leading hitter over the last 10 games overall, hitting .400 in that span with 10 runs scored and five RBI. Ferguson's hot bat even got him a day in the cleanup spot in the lineup on Tuesday against Houston Baptist, with him responding with his first home run of the season over the center field fence in the second inning. He added a pair of walks and a sacrifce fly that day, and followed it up with a 2-for-4 performance the following day in Houston.
JUST GET IT TO THE END: The Lumberjacks' are 8-0 so far when leading after eight innings, winning its last four games in which Ales Moshier and Richard Folmer have pitched together. Moshier currently leads the team with 15 appearances and is enjoying a breakout year with just a 1.69 ERA in 16 innings of work. Folmer continues to move closer to the all-time saves mark at SFA, converting all of his four save opportunities in 2009. The senior has just needed 14.1 innings to fan 21 hitters, with opposing batters hitting just .143 against him.
Pitchers Buying In: The `Jacks pitching staff seems to be buying in to to Johnny Cardenas' and pitching coach Chad Massengale's efficient pitching philosophy, and the results are in the numbers. Strikeout numbers are roughly even to a year ago, and the staff ERA is down nearly a run and a half with opponents hitting nearly 20 points lower.
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. With the powerful offenses that the team had over the past two seasons, it was no surprise that SFA has scored at least seven runs in 78 games since 2006, going 59-19 (.756) in those games; however, the 'Jacks have scored less than seven 117 times since 2006, going only 19-98 (.162) 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 11 occassions, going 9-2 in those contests and are 1-14 when scoring less than seven runs, picking up its first run in that category on Tuesday with its 4-2 win over Houston Baptist.
BULLPEN HOLDS UP: Richard Folmer and the SFA bullpen kept the `Jacks in a pair of games last weekend at Texas State, playing a major part in SFA picking up a comeback win on Saturday. Folmer threw 3.0 shutout innings on Sunday for the longest save of his career against the `Cats. All in all SFA's bullpen threw 6.1 shutout innings against the `Cats that day, that was just two days after the pen held the `Cats scoreless threw 5.2 innings in Friday's affair. In the three-game series the SFA bullpen threw 16.0 innings, holding down a 2.81 ERA among eight pitchers.
-SFA-
