RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – The No. 14-ranked Arkansas Tech baseball team is set to begin Great American Conference play this weekend on the road at Southeastern Oklahoma. The three-game series is scheduled to begin Friday, February 18 with a single nine-inning game at 2 p.m. and will conclude on Saturday, February 19 with a doubleheader starting at noon.
 
SCOUTING SOUTHEASTERN OKLAHOMA
The Savage Storm are off to a 7-2 start to their season with a trio of wins over East Central in non-conference action, three victories over Colorado Christian and one win against Northeastern State.
 
The early season success has the Savage Storm currently hitting .311 as a team (88-for-283) with 89 runs scored, 15 doubles, five triples and 19 home runs. Entering the weekend, Southeastern has two batters over .400 with Cameron French leading the way at .467 (14-for-30).
 
In terms of power numbers, the Savage Storm have nine players with at least one home run and six with multiple homers. Richard Ware has the most home runs so far with four. He also leads the team in RBIs with 13. French and Reid Rice are next in both categories with three home runs each and 11 and 10 RBIs, respectively.
 
On the mound, the Savage Storm have a team ERA of 4.23 and have struck out 65 batters in 72.1 innings of work.
 
A total of 15 pitchers have logged time on the bump for the Savage Storm with no pitcher having more than 8.0 innings worked so far. Jordan Compton, Jacob Potter and Logan Teske have each started two games and will likely makeup the weekend rotation in some fashion.
 
Teske has yet to allow a run in 8.0 innings and has struck out six, but has allowed four hits and six walks, keeping him from registering a result in any of his two starts.
 
The pitching staff has recorded three saves already with Kenneth Klier being responsible for two of them. In 5.1 innings of work, Klier has allowed one run, walked none and struck out six.
 
TECH TIDBITS
The Wonder Boys enjoyed a successful time down in Houston at the Houston Winter Invitational and went 2-1 over the weekend picking up wins over No. 13-ranked Augustana and Maryville. The lone loss came in the finale to St. Marys', but the Wonder Boys had the potential game-winning run at the plate in the bottom of the ninth.
 
The 2-1 weekend builds upon the 2-0 start that the Wonder Boys had prior to last weekend and give Tech a 4-1 record heading into their first conference weekend. The solid start has also seen the Wonder Boys climb some in the national rankings as they check in at No. 14 in the latest National Collegiate Baseball Writer's Association poll released earlier this week. That is up five spots from their preseason ranking of No. 19.
 
Offensively, the Wonder Boys are hitting .309 as a team (55-for-178) with 32 runs scored, seven doubles, two triples and four home runs. Entering the weekend, the Wonder Boys have five batters with at least 10 at-bats hitting .300 or better and are currently led by Yadier Medina's .500 average (6-for-12).
 
In terms of power numbers, the Wonder Boys are led by Ty Van Meter. He is currently pacing the team in home runs (2) and RBIs (5). Kandon Bennett and Logan Schwenke have accounted for the other two home runs early on.
 
On the mound, the Wonder Boys have a team ERA of 3.60 and have struckout 47 batters in 45.0 innings of work.
 
Patrick Miner and Shane Scott have both started two games and have logged the most innings at 10.0 and 9.1, respectively. Miner is 2-0 with a 1.80 ERA and 13 strikeouts in 10.0 innings. In relief, the Wonder Boys have notched three saves with Ty Van Meter accounting for two of the saves. He currently has seven strikeouts in 2.2 innings.