WEEKEND INFORMATION
ARKANSAS TECH WONDER BOYS 3-4 (0-0 GAC)	ARKANSAS-MONTICELLO BOLL WEEVILS 5-2 (0-0 GAC)
Wednesday, February 15 | 2 p.m. Baswell Field | Russellville, Ark. LIVE STATS | LIVE VIDEO

FIRST PITCH
Home sweet home awaits the Arkansas Tech baseball team as they are set to play their home-opener against Arkansas-Monticello in a non-conference game on Wednesday afternoon.
 
The game is a single nine-inning contest and will have a first-pitch time of 2 p.m.
 
The Wonder Boys and Boll Weevils have met numerous times over their respective histories and have been conference rivals since the beginnings of the AIC through the Gulf South Conference days and on into the present time of the Great American Conference. In terms of the all-time series record, the Wonder Boys hold a 108-52 lead over UAM.
 
The two teams met four times last regular season and Tech won three of four.
 
TALKING TECH
The Wonder Boys enter Wednesday's game against UAM with an overall record of 3-4. They are coming off a four-game weekend series on the road at Central Missouri, who at the time was nationally-ranked No. 13 by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers of America (NCBWA). The Wonder Boys would bookend the series with wins as they split with the Mules.
 
The opening game of the series saw Tech hold off UCM for a 10-8 win. Tech then dropped the middle two games by a single run each game but bounced back for a convincing 9-5 win in the finale.
 
Entering play against the Boll Weevils, the Wonder Boys are hitting .220 as a team (47-for-214) with 34 runs scored, five doubles, three triples and four home runs. Brandon Bunton currently leads the team in batting average at .300 (3-for-10). Cade McBride leads the team in doubles with two while Sawyer Duddleston leads the team in triples with two. Duddleston is also pacing the team in runs scored with six.
 
Logan Schwenke leads the team in RBIs with six and has one of the team's four home runs. Sam Stephenson, Nick Jones and Keaton Ranallo account for the other homers thus far.
 
On the mound, the Wonder Boys have a team ERA of 6.34 and have struck out 37 batters in 55.1 innings of work.
 
John Gray, Emilano Mata, Jack Rector and Gerald Pintarich have made starts on the mound, but aren't likely to appear in the game against UAM with the first conference series looming later in the week.
 
Aside from those four who have made starts, 12 other pitchers have taken the mound for the Wonder Boys in relief roles. Will Horton has the most relief appearances thus far with four. Marshall Brown has logged the most innings in relief with 7.1 to his credit.
 
Leading the Wonder Boys once more is Dave Dawson. The all-time winningest coach in Tech Baseball history, Dawson enters his 14th year in the dugout for the Wonder Boys. In his previous 13 seasons, Dawson has guided amassed a 380-269 record. He has also had six seasons with 30 or more wins which includes the 2014 season in which he led the team a program-record 44 wins and hosting rights for that year's Central Region Tournament.
 
Overall, Dawson is in his 18th year as a head baseball coach at the collegiate level as he spent four years as head coach at Kansas Wesleyan and totaled 118 wins. Dawson's combined win total at Tech and Kansas Wesleyan stand at 501. He earned the milestone 500^th win in the series opener vs. No. 13-ranked Central Missouri back in February.
 
SCOUTING ARKANSAS-MONTICELLO
The Boll Weevils enter Wednesday's non-conference game with a 5-2 overall record. Over the weekend, UAM played a four-game series at home against one of the perennial powerhouse programs from the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) in St. Cloud State.
 
The four-game set was ultimately split among the Boll Weevils and Huskies, and there was a bevy of offensive production on both sides to get there. Combined, UAM and SCSU totaled a mind-boggling 117 runs on 119 hits. UAM would account for 46 of those runs and 52 of those hits.
 
As a result, the offensive numbers for UAM are staggering. The Boll Weevils enter play against Tech hitting .342 as a team (78-for-228) with 70 runs scored, 13 doubles, no triples and 18 home runs. The leading hitter in terms of average so far is Cade Cancilla at .520 (13-for-25). Cancilla leads the team in doubles with three and RBIs with 12 and is one of three players that have scored at least 10 runs. Kirk Woolf has provided the most power thus far with a 1.111 slugging percentage thanks to five homers and two doubles. He is also second on the team in RBIs with nine.
 
On the mound, the Boll Weevils have a 10.64 team ERA and have struck out 56 batters in 55.0 innings of work.
 
The Boll Weevils have had four pitchers start games with Connor Irvine, Derek Potts and Mason Philley starting two games each. River Hunt made the other remaining start and has appeared in three other games in relief. In addition to those four, the Boll Weevils have used nine other pitchers in relief roles.
 
UAM is led by John Harvey, who is in his 13th season with the Boll Weevils. In his time at UAM, Harvey has won over 300 games and has won 30 or more in a season six times. Prior to going to UAM, Harvey spent six seasons as head coach at Henderson State where he accumulated over 150 wins. Overall, Harvey has amassed a 469-368 record for his career.