RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – After winter weather blanketed the Great American Conference footprint last week forced the first weekend of conference play to be moved to the end of the regular season, the Arkansas Tech baseball team is now set to begin their GAC slate on the road at East Central this weekend.
The Wonder Boys will enter the initial GAC series at 2-4 overall. East Central is 0-4 to start their 2021 season.
The last time the Wonder Boys were on the diamond was two weekends ago when they took part in the Henderson State/Ouachita Invitational in Arkadelphia. Originally scheduled to play Southern Arkansas, Henderson State and Ouachita over the course of three days, cold and inclement weather altered the schedule to where Tech played a pair of seven-inning doubleheaders against Ouachita on Friday and a single nine-inning game against Henderson on Saturday.
Tech would come out of that weekend 1-2. The Wonder Boys would lose the first game of the twin-bill with Ouachita on a walk-off and then won the nightcap 7-1 behind a solid pitching performance by
Hayes Cox that went on to earn him GAC Pitcher of the Week honors. In his victory, Cox pitched a complete-game and allowed just one run on four hits. The lone blemish on his outing was a solo home run in the sixth. Outside of that, Cox walked none and struck out five.
Against Henderson, the Wonder Boys were overtaken late on a go-ahead grand slam in the bottom of the eighth.
In addition to Cox receiving conference weekly honors, first baseman
Jonathon Arrieta also garnered recognition from the league as he was named the GAC Player of the Week. In the weekend slate, Arrieta had multiple hits in all three games and batted .667 (6-fo-9). Two of his six hits left the yard as he recorded a slugging percentage of 1.333. He also scored four runs and drove in four.
Heading into the ECU series, Arrieta leads the team in hitting at .412 (7-for-17). He also paces the team in home runs with two and is tied for the team-lead in RBIs with five. He is second in runs scored with five. In addition to Arrieta, four Wonder Boys are batting .300 or better.
On the mound, Cox owns both of Tech's wins and is 2-0 in two starts. He also has the lowest ERA among starters at 2.08 and is second on the team in strikeouts with 10. The team-leader in Ks is
Patrick Miner with 11.
For the Tigers, their leading hitter is Colton Schaper-Kotter at .364 (4-for-11). He is currently the only Tiger over the .300 mark in batting average. He is the team-leader in RBIs with five and is tied for the team-lead in home runs with one.
On the mound, the Tigers have used nine arms. The most innings so far have been logged by Spencer Johnston at 7.2 IP. He also has the lowest ERA among starters at 3.52. The most strikeouts on the staff currently belongs to Ryan Collins with seven.
