GAME INFORMATION
ARKANSAS TECH WONDER BOYS 14-5	MISSISSIPPI COLLEGE CHOCTAWS 6-12
Tuesday, March 7 | 3 p.m. Frierson Field | Clinton, Miss. LIVE STATS | LIVE VIDEO

FIRST PITCH
Following their second weekend series sweep in Great American Conference play, the Arkansas Tech baseball team is set to return to the diamond for an in-region mid-week game on the road at Mississippi College.
 
The single game is slated to start at 3 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon from Frierson Field in Clinton. Live coverage for all games in the series can be found at: www.ArkansasTechSports.com/coverage.
 
The Wonder Boys and Choctaws have met five times in a series that started in 1996. In terms of the all-time series record, Tech holds a 3-2 lead over Mississippi College.
 
The two teams met twice last season with a home-and-home series in mid-week play. Both teams won the game at their home ballpark with Tech winning 9-3 in Russellville and MC winning 8-3 in Clinton.
 

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TALKING TECH
The Wonder Boys enters their Tuesday game at Mississippi College with an overall record of 14-5 and are riding a five-game winning streak. Most-recently, the Wonder Boys picked up a big weekend series sweep of Henderson State at home. In that series, Tech won the first two games in a Saturday doubleheader and then came back the following day and then turned in an epic double-digit comeback against the Reddies to secure the sweep.
 
Overall, the Wonder Boys enter their game against the Choctaws hitting .320 as a team (201-for-629) with 183 runs scored, 42 doubles, six triples and 22 home runs. Nick Jones currently leads the team in batting average at .429 (21-for-49) and is one of nine players that have scored at least 10 runs this season. A total of three players have scored 20 or more runs with Sawyer Duddleston pacing the team with 24 runs scored.
 
Keaton Ranallo has been providing the best power production thus far and is leading the team in slugging percentage at .710 and home runs with seven. He is also leading the team in RBIs with 24. 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 seven players with 10 or more RBIs and two that have surpassed 20.
 
On the mound, the Wonder Boys have a team ERA of 6.33 and have struck out 140 batters in 149.1 innings of work.
 
John Gray, Emilano Mata, Jack Rector, Gerald Pintarich, Ethan Fritz and Tyler Sardelli have made starts on the mound thus far. Gray, Mata and Sardelli started this past weekend while Fritz has made the start for the first three mid-week games.
 
In terms of the bullpen for the Wonder Boys, Will Horton and Kade Cartwright have made the most relief appearances thus far with eight apiece. Marshall Brown has logged the most innings in relief with 18.0 to his credit. Mason Griffin has four of the team's five saves for the Wonder Boys. 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 512. 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 MISSISSIPPI COLLEGE
The Choctaws enter the mid-week game Tech with a 6-12 overall record and are coming off a series loss at home to No. 2-ranked University of Tampa. Despite the two losses in the series with Spartans, the Choctaws were in all three games, dropping the opening by a run in 11 innings, winning the middle game 4-3 and dropping the rubber game by a run, 12-11.
 
Mississippi College very well may have the toughest schedule in all of NCAA Division II, at least in its early stages. Already this year, the Choctaws have played seven games against teams that were ranked in the top-three of DII at the time of their matchup. In those games, the Choctaws are 2-5, but four of those losses have been by two runs or less.
 
Statistically, the Choctaws enter the game with Tech hitting .250 as a team (143-for-573) with 137 runs scored, 17 doubles, four triples and 30 home runs. The leading hitter in terms of average so far is JT Vance at .355 (22-for-62). Vance is also currently tied for second on the team in doubles and RBIs with four and 17, respectively, and is third in home runs with five. Caleb Reese leads the team in homers with nine and also paces the club in RBIs with 23.
 
On the mound, the Choctaws have a 6.43 team ERA and have struck out 99 batters in 145.2 innings of work.
 
The Choctaws have had seven pitchers start games with Gavin LeBlanc, Kyle Collet, Austin Huggins, Ervin Simmons and Cooper Gadman each making multiple stars. LeBlanc, Caleb Jacobs and Gabe Garner made starts past weekend against Tampa.
 
Outside of those starting arms, the Choctaws have used seven other pitchers in relief roles. Jackson Smith and Garner have made the most relief appearances with six each. As a staff, the Choctaws have not recorded a save.
 
Mississippi College is led by Jeremy Haworth, who is in his eighth season with as head coach the Choctaws. In his time at the helm of MC, Haworth has won 148 games and led the Choctaws to a NCAA South Regional Tournament in 2018.