GAME INFORMATION
ARKANSAS TECH WONDER BOYS 23-12	MISSISSIPPI COLLEGE CHOCTAWS 10-23
Tueasday, April 4 | Noon Baswell Field | Russellville, Ark. LIVE STATS | LIVE VIDEO

RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – After a lengthy nine-game stint away from home, the Arkansas Tech baseball team is set to kick-off a four-game homestand this week starting with a mid-week game against Mississippi College to finish off their home-and-home season series.
 
The mid-week game slated to start at Noon on Tuesday afternoon in an attempt to beat forecasted inclement weather later in the day. Live coverage for the game can be found at: www.ArkansasTechSports.com/coverage.
 
The Wonder Boys and Choctaws have met six times in a series that started in 1996. In terms of the all-time series record, Tech holds a 4-2 lead over Mississippi College. The two teams previously played one another in a mid-week game in Clinton back in early March. Tech would win that game 12-5.
 

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TALKING TECH                                                       
The Wonder Boys enter their mid-week game at home against Mississippi College with an overall record of 23-12. Tech is coming off a series loss on the road at Arkansas-Monticello. In that series, the Wonder Boys surrendered a lead in the opening game and then came back to win the second game. The decisive third game of the series went the way of UAM.
 
Overall, the Wonder Boys enter their mid-week game against the Choctaws hitting .314 as a team (373-for-1,187) with 306 runs scored, 74 doubles, 12 triples and 29 home runs. Nick Jones currently leads the team in batting average at .382 (39-for-102) and is one of eight players that have scored at least 20 runs this season. A total of four players have scored 30 or more runs with Sawyer Duddleston pacing the team with 42 runs scored.
 
Keaton Ranallo has been providing the best power production thus far and is leading the team in home runs with eight. Ranallo also has 10 doubles and two triples to post a .630 slugging percentage, which is second only to Duddletson's .659 slugging mark. Eight other Wonder Boys have hit home runs this season with Duddleston, Markos Cabranes, Sam Stephenson, Logan Schwenke and Nick Jones all having multiple homers.
 
On the RBI front, the Wonder Boys have a total of six players with 20 or more RBIs and four that have surpassed 30. Duddleston is leading the team in RBIs with 40 while Ranallo is second with 34.
 
On the mound, the Wonder Boys have a team ERA of 6.98 and have struck out 243 batters in 277.1 innings of work.
 
John Gray, Emiliano Mata, Jack Rector, Gerald Pintarich, Ethan Fritz, Marshall Brown, Tyler Sardelli and JT Cafferty have made starts on the mound thus far. Gray, Mata and Cafferty started this past weekend against UAM. Fritz has made five mid-week starts this season accounting for all of his starts this season.
  
In terms of the bullpen for the Wonder Boys, Will Horton has made the most relief appearances thus far with 16. Mason Griffin has six of the team's seven 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 524. 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 against Tech with a 10-23 overall record. MC is coming off being swept in a home weekend series against Auburn Montgomery. In that series, the Choctaws lost the first game 12-6 and the second game 12-1 in seven innings. In the finale, they were held scoreless and lost 3-0.
 
Statistically, the Choctaws enter the mid-week game with Tech hitting .249 as a team (256-for-1,028) with 202 runs scored, 38 doubles, seven triples and 41 home runs. The leading hitter in terms of average so far is JT Vance at .358 (39-for-109). Vance is also leading the team in slugging percentage at .615 thanks to his nine doubles, two triples and five home runs. His doubles and triples lead the team, while his homers are third.
 
Mississippi College has 12 players who have hit a home run this season with eight leaving yard on multiple occasions. Caleb Reese leads the team with 10 and is followed by Jordan Rollins at eight. Reese currently paces the team in RBIs with 30.
 
On the mound, the Choctaws have a 6.94 team ERA and have struck out 190 batters in 264.2 innings of work.
 
The Choctaws have had eight pitchers start games with Caleb Jacobs, Gavin LeBlanc, Brandon Gardner, Ervin Simmons, Austin Huggins, Kyle Collett and Cooper Gadman each making multiple stars. Jacobs, Gardner and LeBlanc made starts past weekend against Auburn Montgomery. Huggins started the Choctaws most-recent mid-week game against Arkansas-Monticello and pitched 4.0 innings, allowing three runs on five hits.     
 
Outside of that arms that have started, the Choctaws have used eight other pitchers in straight relief roles. Jackson Smith had the most relief appearances with 13 and is 0-2 with a 4.50 ERA in 22.0 innings of work. Smith has one of the team's two saves on the year as well.
 
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 152 games and led the Choctaws to a NCAA South Regional Tournament in 2018.