GAME INFORMATION
#20 ARKANSAS TECH WONDER BOYS 19-7	DELTA STATE STATESMEN 12-13
Tuesday, March 21 | 6 p.m. Harvey Stadium at Ferriss Field | Cleveland, Miss. LIVE STATS | LIVE VIDEO Wednesday, March 22 | 2 p.m. Harvey Stadium at Ferriss Field | Cleveland, Miss. LIVE STATS | LIVE VIDEO

FIRST PITCH
The No. 20-ranked Arkansas Tech baseball team is set to begin its longest stretch of road games this season as they are slated to play a two-game mid-week series at Delta State. These games will be the first two of what will be a nine-game road swing for the Wonder Boys.
 
The mid-week series against Delta State is slated to be played on Tuesday evening starting at 6 p.m. and finish on Wednesday afternoon with a first-pitch time of 2 p.m. Live coverage for all games in the series can be found at: www.ArkansasTechSports.com/coverage.
 
According to the best available historical records, the Wonder Boys and Statesmen have met 65 times in a series that started in 1990. From 1996 to 2011, Tech and Delta State were conference opponents in the Gulf South Conference and played one another at least three times. In terms of the all-time series record, Delta State holds a 53-12 lead over Tech.
 
The two teams met twice last regular season as part of a two-game mid-week series at Tech. The series was split 1-1 with Delta State, who was ranked No. 13 at the time, winning the first game, 11-1 in seven innings and Tech winning the second game 5-4.
 

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TALKING TECH                                                       
The Wonder Boys enter their two-game series on the road against former conference opponent Delta State with an overall record of 19-7 following a three-game sweep over the past weekend against Northwestern Oklahoma. It was the Wonder Boys' third series sweep in conference play.
 
Playing at Delta for two games brings the Wonder Boys back to their mid-week schedule where they have had a good deal of success thus far. In four previous mid-week games played, Tech is 4-0 with wins over GAC rivals Arkansas-Monticello and then No. 2-ranked Southern Arkansas in non-conference action, while also knocking off a pair of Gulf South Conference foes in Union and Mississippi College.
 
Overall, the Wonder Boys enter their mid-week series against the Statesmen hitting .317 as a team (280-for-883) with 239 runs scored, 55 doubles, nine triples and 24 home runs. Brandon Bunton currently leads the team in batting average at .408 (31-for-78) and is one of seven players that have scored at least 20 runs this season. A total of two players have scored 30 or more runs with Sawyer Duddleston pacing the team with 34 runs scored.
 
Keaton Ranallo has been providing the best power production thus far and is leading the team in home runs with seven. His .639 slugging percentage ranks second behind Duddleston. Eight other Wonder Boys have hit home runs this season with Duddleston, Markos Cabranes, Sam Stephenson and Logan Schwenke all having multiple homers.
 
On the RBI front, the Wonder Boys have a total of eight players with 10 or more RBIs and six that have surpassed 20. Ranallo is also leading the team in RBIs with 31. Duddleston is .one RBI off that pace with 30
 
On the mound, the Wonder Boys have a team ERA of 6.39 and have struck out 181 batters in 208.1 innings of work.
 
John Gray, Emilano Mata, Jack Rector, Gerald Pintarich, Ethan Fritz, Marshall Brown and Tyler Sardelli have made starts on the mound thus far. Gray, Brown and Mata started this past weekend against Northwestern Oklahoma. Fritz has made three mid-week starts with Rector starting the most-recent mid-week game.
 
In terms of the bullpen for the Wonder Boys, Will Horton has made the most relief appearances thus far with 12. Mason Griffin has five of the team's six saves for the Wonder Boys. Gerald Pintarich has the other.
 
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 517. He earned the milestone 500^th win in the series opener vs. No. 13-ranked Central Missouri back in February.
 

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SCOUTING DELTA STATE
The Statesmen enter the mid-week series against Tech with a 12-13 overall record and are coming off a loss in their most-recent game against Union. Despite the loss, the Statesmen won the series against Union with wins in each of the first two games over the weekend.
 
Playing against Tech will be the fourth different GAC team that the Statesmen have faced this year as part of their non-conference schedule. They have previous played Harding and Henderson State twice each and Arkansas-Monticello once. Delta State is 1-4 in those games against their former conference opponents.
 
Statistically, the Statesmen enter the series with Tech hitting .253 as a team (198-for-782) with 121 runs scored, 33 doubles, two triples and 12 home runs. The leading hitter in terms of average so far is Brett Burrell at .337 (30-for-89). Burrell is second on the team in home runs with three and is tied for the team-lead in RBIs with Kirkland Trahan with 21. Trahan currently leads the team in homers with four.
 
Five different Statesmen have scored double-digit runs with Carson Clowers pacing the team with 21 runs scored.
 
On the mound, the Statesmen have a 3.99 team ERA and have struck out 199 batters in 203.0 innings of work.
 
The Statesmen have had six pitchers start games with Kameron Koch, Drake Fontenot, Hammer Franks, Jesse Homan and Harrison Haley each making multiple stars. Koch, Fontenot and Homan made starts past weekend against Union. Haley has made the start in each of the last two mid-week games for the Statesmen.
 
Outside of those starting arms, the Statesmen have used nine other pitchers in relief roles. Cade Hodges has made the most relief appearances with nine. The Statesmen also have three relievers with made eight appearances. As a team, Delta State has registered five saves. Josh Hill has the most with two while Steven Lacey, Noah Magee and Hodges have one each.
 
Delta State is led by Rodney Batts, who is in his fourth season with as head coach of his alma mater. In his time at the helm of Delta State, Batts is 85-60. He is coming off his most-successful year as he guided the Statesmen to a 32-17 record in 2022.