Lobo Baseball Series 2 Preview: Dallas Baptist

by Zach

After their season-opening sweep of Binghamton last weekend, the Lobos (3-0) take the show on the road to face a very talented and familiar face this weekend when they head to Dallas to take on the Patriots of Dallas Baptist University (3-1). This is an important series for both teams, as it could be the difference in seed lines for the NCAA Tournament. A good thing for the Lobos this year is that they will have a lot of opportunities to pick up great wins, which will be useful if they need an at-large bid, but it would be great to start getting these wins in the second week of the season, rather than needing to pick them up later. It will be important for the Lobos to get great starting pitching this weekend, since it is probably the only area in the matchup where they have a decided edge right now. This should be a fun series to watch, and quite frankly, I hope we get to see this become an annual series for years to come.

DBU Patriots:

After dropping their opener to Louisiana Monroe, the Patriots came back to win the last two games of that series and win a midweek game against Rice. They actually ended up winning those three games by a combined score of 31-8. The Patriots are led by 10th year Head Coach Dan Heefner, who has built DBU into a national program. Much like Coach Birmingham, Heefner’s teams are always great offensively, and this year should be no different. Last season, the Patriots went 44-19, winning both the regular season and tournament championships in the Missouri Valley Conference, which earned them a spot in the postseason. In fact, they ended up in the same Lubbock Regional as the Lobos. The Patriots ended the Lobos’ season last year and made it to the championship before falling to Texas Tech 5-3.

Key Players:

Hitters: Matt Duce (.444), Garrett Wolforth (.385), Logan Sapenek (.364), Jameson Hannah (.333) and Austin Listi (.294) lead the Patriots offensive attack, and will make it difficult for any opponents pitching staff.

Pitchers: The Patriots are a bullpen-dependent team that isn’t afraid to go to their relief core early in a game. Trevor Conn is probably their best weekend starter this season, and the bullpen is anchored by Seth Elledge, who is the bullpen piece that has huge strikeout potential.

Last Season’s Meetings:

Last season, the two teams faced each other five times, with the Patriots having a 4-1 edge, including a three-game sweep in Albuquerque. The Lobos want to change their fortunes this year, especially after the Patriots ended their season last year in Lubbock. In those five games, the Lobos one win was a 12-6 decision, while the Patriots had one decisive win (33-8), and won all three of the toss-up games (2-5, 12-11, and 5-3).

Players of the Week:

We will breakdown the top performances for the Lobos each week, and will break it down to hitters and pitchers, assigning 3 points to the first-place performers, 2 to second place, and 1 to third.

Hitters:

  1. Jack Zoellner (3): What a week for Zoellner, as he had a three-home run game and finished the week 6 for 12 (.500, with the 3 home runs, 5 runs scored, and 8 runs batted in.
  2. Danny Collier (2): Welcome back to the lineup Danny Collier! He was 4 for 10 (.400) with a triple, a home run, 4 runs scored, and 4 runs batted in.
  3. Carl Stajduhar (1): Stajduhar had a great start to the season, going 5 for 14 (.357) with a home run, 4 runs scored and 3 runs batted in.

Pitchers:

  1. Johnathon Tripp (3): In four innings out of the bullpen in the opener, J Tripp made a quick work out of Binghamton, allowing only one hit while striking out 6.
  2. Carson Schneider (2): In his first start of season, Schneider pitched five innings of scoreless ball, allowing only 4 hits while striking out 4.
  3. Tie- Drew Gillespie (1) and Luis Gonzalez (1): In his college debut weekend, Gillespie was great in his 1 2/3 innings, striking out 4 of the 5 batters he faced. As for Gonzalez, he pitched 5+ innings of one-run ball in his first start of the year, allowing 4 hits and 2 walks while striking out 4.

News and Notes:

  • Danny Collier hit his first career home run against Binghamton, and while I don’t expect Collier to lead the team in home runs, he is looking to drive the ball a lot more than he did in the past.
  • After his great pitching performance against Binghamton, Johnathon Tripp will get the start on Sunday against DBU, replacing CF/P Luis Gonzalez. I would expect us to see this rotation going forward unless there is an injury. Gonzalez will shift to a midweek starter and focus on defense and offense during the weekend series.
  • In the first three games of the season, we saw all three catchers on the roster get a start. This weekend, we may see the shift to 2 catchers with Junior Daniel Herrera and Sophomore Andrew Pratt getting the innings behind the plate.
  • Production was great from the two freshmen second basemen, Justin Watari and Beau Capanna, as they both had a .500 on-base percentage and combined to score 5 runs and 3 stolen bases.
  • The Bullpen is starting to come into focus and I think it is easy to see that a Drew Gillespie and Christian Tripp back end of the bullpen could be great.

Probable Starting Pitching Matchups:

Friday: RHP Tyler Stevens (0-0, 7.20 ERA) vs. LHP Jordan Martinson (0-0, 6.75 ERA)

Saturday: LHP Carson Schneider (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs.  RHP Trevor Conn (1-0, 0.00 ERA)

Sunday: RHP Johnathon Tripp (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. RHP MD Johnson (0-0, 9.00 ERA)

Series Prediction:

I am extremely excited for this series, as it could give the Lobos a measuring stick early in the season to how good they could be. Both teams match up evenly and we could see a lot of runs this series. To me, this series will come down to which team gets the best starts from their starting pitchers, which could benefit the Lobos. I have the odds of the Lobos sweeping the series at 10%, winning 2 of 3 at 35%, winning 1 of 3 at 40%, and getting swept at 15%. I have the Lobos winning the series 2 out of 3 with 1 low-scoring game and two high-scoring games in the series.

Series Info:

Who: New Mexico Lobos (3-0) at Dallas Baptist Patriots (3-1)

When: Friday (5:30 PM), Saturday (1 PM) and Sunday (12 PM). February 24, 25 and 26th

Where: Horner Ballpark, Dallas, Texas

Stream: DBUPatriots.com (Subscription may be required)

Radio: 101.7 The TEAM