SERIES INFORMATION
ARKANSAS TECH WONDER BOYS 10-14	NO. 12 DELTA STATE STATESMEN 19-6
Tuesday, March 18 | 3 p.m. Harvey Stadium at Ferriss Field | Cleveland, Miss. LIVE STATS | LIVE VIDEO

FIRST PITCH

The Arkansas Tech baseball team will take on a former conference rival in Delta State for their mid-week game this week and will do so on the road.
 
The single game is scheduled for a 3 p.m. start on Tuesday afternoon.
 
The Wonder Boys and Statesmen have met 69 times historically in a series that dates back to 1990. In terms of the all-time series record, Delta State holds a 55-14 lead over Tech.
 
The two teams met twice times last season with both games being played at Tech. The Wonder Boys would sweep the two-game set, winning 9-5 and 9-3.
 

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TECH(NICALLY) SPEAKING
The Wonder Boys enter the mid-week game at Delta State with a 10-14 overall record. This past weekend, Tech won their series at home against Southeastern Oklahoma. After losing the first game, Tech went on to win the next two games to take the series.
                                                                                        
Entering play, the Wonder Boys are hitting .266 as a team (203-for-764) with 161 runs scored, 34 doubles, six triples and 13 home runs. Cole Dawson currently leads the team in batting average at .378 (31-for-82) and leads the team in runs scored at 27. Simon Murray has the highest slugging percentage on the team at .560 thanks to four home runs. Murray is one of five players on the team with double-digit RBIs and is tied with Dawson for second with 16. Kirby Jenkins currently leads the club in RBIs with 17.
 
On the mound, the Wonder Boys have a team ERA of 7.79 and have struck out 175 batters in 195.1 innings of work.
 
Jack Rector, Emiliano Mata and Daniel Hutchison made starts over the past weekend in the games played against Southeastern Oklahoma and likely will not see action in the mid-week game. Ashton Greenlee made the most-recent mid-week start last week against Central Oklahoma and has started the last two mid-week games.
 
Eleven relievers have made multiple appearances with Austin Mittlestedt having the most with nine. He is currently 2-1 with a 5.23 ERA and 11 strikeouts in 10.1 innings. JT Cafferty, Derek Rockett and Turner Seelinger are next in relief appearances with seven apiece.
 
Leading the Wonder Boys once more is Dave Dawson. The all-time winningest coach in Tech Baseball history, Dawson enters his 16th year in the dugout for the Wonder Boys. In his previous 15 seasons, Dawson has guided amassed a 450-311 record. He has also had eight 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 20th 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. His combined win total at Tech and Kansas Wesleyan have him with a career record of 578-416.
 

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SCOUTING NO. 12 DELTA STATE
No. 12-ranked Delta State enters the mid-week game at home against Tech with a 19-6 overall record. This past weekend, the Statesmen won their weekend series against Valdosta State, winning the first two games. They would drop the finale, 7-5.
 
Offensively, the Statesmen are hitting .303 as a team (236-for-778) with 204 runs scored, 37 doubles, five triples and 24 home runs.
 
Brett Burrell leads the team in batting average at .439 (36-for-82). Burrell also leads the team in slugging at .793 thanks to six doubles, a triple and seven home runs. His home runs lead the team while his doubles are tied for the team-lead. He also leads the club in runs scored with 28 and RBIs with 33.
 
On the mound, the Statesmen have a 4.20 team ERA and have struck out 203 batters in 197.0 innings of work.
 
This past weekend, the Statesmen had a starting rotation of Drake Fontenot, Dylan Farley and Logan Eldridge against Valdosta State and do not figure to appear in the game with Tech.
 
Outside of those three, the Statesmen have had two other pitchers start a game. Aidan McCrady has made three of those starts and started the most-recent mid-week game for Delta State against UAM. McCrady is 0-0 with a 1.64 ERA and nine strikeouts in 11.0 innings.
 
The Statesmen are led by Rodney Batts, who is in his sixth season as head coach at his alma mater Delta State. At DSU, Batts is 152-103.