Stephen F. Austin
Houston Baptist University
SFA Takes On Southland Foe Houston Baptist in Final Series of 2018
5/16/2018 3:02:00 PM | Baseball
'Jacks have won five in a row over Huskies
Game Fifty-One
Stephen F. Austin (17-33, 9-18 Southland) at Houston Baptist (23-28, 15-12 Southland)
Thursday, May 17 | 2:00 p.m. | Husky Field (500) | Houston, Texas
Live Stats | Watch (YouTube) | Weather Forecast
Pitching Matchup | RHP Jake Norton (2-2, 3.77 ERA) vs. RHP Zach Carter (4-4, 3.87 ERA)
Game Fifty-Two
Stephen F. Austin at Houston Baptist
Friday, May 18 | 2:00 p.m. | Husky Field (500) | Houston, Texas
Live Stats | Watch (YouTube) | Weather Forecast
Pitching Matchup | RHP Sean Beasley (2-3, 7.87 ERA) vs. LHP Matthew McCullough (7-3, 3.13 ERA)
Game Fifty-Three
Stephen F. Austin at Houston Baptist
Saturday, May 19 | 1:00 p.m. | Husky Field (500) | Houston, Texas
Live Stats | Watch (YouTube) | Weather Forecast
Pitching Matchup | RHP Trevor Kiminski (2-5, 5.31 ERA) vs. RHP Brady Batten (3-6, 3.66 ERA)
LEADOFF HITS
• Down to its final three games of the 2018 campaign, the Stephen F. Austin baseball travels south to Houston, Texas, for a Southland Conference series at Southland Conference adversary Houston Baptist. Unlike most other three-game league sets, this one gets going at 2:00 p.m. Thursday afternoon from Husky Field with game two set for the same time on Friday. Saturday's series finale - which will serve as the 'Jacks' final game of 2018 - is slated for a 1:00 p.m. start.
• Friday night, SFA junior Jake Norton goes gunning for his third win in his last four starts. Since getting back into the 'Jacks' regular rotation of starting pitchers on April 27 at Southeastern Louisiana, the right-hander out of Waxahachie, Texas, is 2-1 with a 2.79 ERA through 19 1/3 innings of work over three starts. Opponents are batting just .206 off of him in that span, too. A win on Friday night would move him into a tie with freshman Jordan Powell for the most pitching wins among SFA's ranks (three).
• Junior Jake Georgiades continues to wield the hottest bat in the 'Jacks lineup as the third baseman out of College Station, Texas, leads SFA in both batting average (.322) and on-base percentage (.421). Those figures ranks him 19th and 18th respectively in the Southland Conference in each of those statistical categories. Additionally, Georgiades leads SFA with 26 walks which are the 16th-most in the Southland.
• One of SFA's best at putting the ball in play as of late, junior outfielder Nic Minor has struck out just one time in his last 35 at-bats. That lone punchout came in a Southland Conference setback at Southeastern Louisiana on Sunday, April 29. On the basepaths, Minor has swiped 15 bags, too, which ranks second on the team and seventh among all Southland Conference players.
• This weekend marks the final three games in the careers of four SFA seniors - Eric DeJesus, Josh Evans, Trevor Kiminski and Cole Ridgely. DeJesus must collect four more walks in order to tie former SFA great Nick Ramos for the most walks drawn in program history (85), while Evans has established himself as one of the best pure power hitters in SFA baseball's annals.
• This season, Evans is batting .303/.386/.511 and leads SFA in slugging percentage, hits (54), RBI (38) and home runs (eight). Among all Southland Conference players, Evans ranks seventh in homers, 12th in slugging percentage, and 14th in both RBI and doubles (13).
• Through the last eight games sophomore Josh Campbell has been one of the most effective hitters in the 'Jacks' lineup. The outfielder from Angleton, Texas, has posted a slash line of .462/.531/.654 through those eight games and has accumulated 12 hits, four walks and four RBI.
• Freshman outfielder Jared Martin has been one of the Southland's top first year players all season long. The Frisco, Texas, product is hitting .278/.378/.460 and leads SFA in runs scored (38), extra-base hits (23) and doubles (17).
• Junior catcher Jarrod Huber is wielding one of the 'Jacks' hottest bats as of late. Huber, who hails from Edgewood, Texas, is batting .333 with four doubles, a homer and four RBI through the last six games. Defensively, Huber has turned into one of the best in the Southland at throwing out runners on the base paths. So far this season, he has caught 20 runners trying to steal which is the third-most in the 13-team league.
• SFA looks to continue a run of recent success against Houston Baptist as the 'Jacks have won five of the last six matchups between the two programs. Sixteen of SFA's 20 wins over the Huskies in the history of the program have been compiled by 10th-year head coach Johnny Cardenas
SERIES HISTORY vs. HOUSTON BAPTIST
Record vs. HBU | 20-11 (.645)
Streak | SFA won five
In Nacogdoches, Texas | 12-6 (.667)
Streak | SFA won four
In Houston, Texas | 8-5 (.615)
Streak | SFA won two
Last game | at SFA 11, HBU 10 (May 19, 2017)
SFA runs/per game | 210/6.8
HBU runs/per game | 153/4.9
Last HBU win | April 15, 2016 (at HBU 12, SFA 1)
Last SFA win | May 19, 2017 (at SFA 11, HBU 10)
Cardenas vs. HBU | 16-7 (.696)
SCOUTING HOUSTON BAPTIST | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS
• Bringing a good mixture of power hitting and starting pitching to the table, the Huskies enter their final regular season series of the season with their sights set on a top-three spot for the 2018 Southland Conference Tournament.
• Currently, the Huskies sit in a tie for fifth place in the Southland standings and have secured a spot in the league's postseason tournament. A sweep of the 'Jacks and three losses from Central Arkansas, however, would vault Houston Baptist up to third place in the final version of the league standings.
• At home the Huskies are 10-8 but through their last 10 games they have gone just 3-7 with Southland Conference wins against Sam Houston State, New Orleans and Northwestern State.
• One of the nation's most home run-happy teams, Houston Baptist leads the Southland Conference and ranks 41st in all of NCAA Division I baseball with 50 long balls in 2018. In all, 29-percent (131 of 453) of Houston Baptists' hits have gone for extra bases.
• Two of the hardest-hitting Huskies are Matt Heck and Spencer Halloran - both of whom have belted a team-leading nine homers. Heck's slash line stands at .354/.414/.576 while Halloran's .324/.376/.529 line isn't too far behind and the two have accounted for 78 of the Huskies' 237 total RBI - almost one-third of the team's total.
• Heck in the only player in the Southland Conference who resides among the top three in both batting average and slugging percentage. He ranks third in the league in both of those aforementioned categories and his nine homers put him third in the Southland in that category, too. Additionally, Heck ranks sixth in the league in triples (four), eighth in hits (70) and 10th in RBI (41).
• Those two are helping the Huskies bat a collective .262/.345/.401 while Tyler Depreta-Johnson (.259/.363/.370) and Jake Pulcheon (.226/.321/.305) have been good third and fourth options at the plate with 26 RBI each.
• Each member of the Huskies' starting rotation possesses an ERA south of 3.88 with Matthew McCullough leading the pack. His ERA of 3.13 is the best on the team and in a team-high 97.2 innings of work he has gathered up seven wins while striking out 94. Four times this season, McCullough has worked a complete game which is the sixth-highest number of complete games by any NCAA Division I pitcher this season.
• McCullough and Carter (95.1 innings) rank first and second respectively in the Southland Conference in terms of innings pitched and are both among the top five strikeout leaders in the 13-team league.
COMING UP NEXT
• Houston Baptist preps for the Southland Conference Tournament in Sugar Land, Texas, while the 'Jacks look ahead to the 2019 season.
-SFA-
