KINGSVILLE, Texas – The Texas A&M-Kingsville baseball team hosts Tarleton State this Friday, Saturday and Sunday in a crucial four-game series at Nolan Ryan Field. The series begins on Friday with a single game at 6 p.m.

The Javelinas enter the weekend with a 17-11 record and are 10-6 in the Lone Star Conference in second place and stand three games behind leader West Texas A&M. Tarleton is 16-10 on the year and third in the LSC at 7-7. Both teams are ranked in this week's South Central Region Poll with the Hoggies sixth and the Texans eighth.

Kingsville, which won 3-1 over Texas A&M International on Tuesday, enters the weekend hitting .280 as a team. Ryan Guedry leads the team and is third in the LSC with a .372 average, while Derrick Walls is second at .360. Walls is second in the conference with a .471 on-base percentage and in walks with 19, He is third in hits (36) and steals (11), while fifth with 22 runs.

The pitching staff has been impressive as of late not allowing more than two earned runs in their last five outings lowering the Javelinas' ERA to 2.97 on the season.  Denver Diefenbach is tied for second in the LSC with five wins and has two complete games, while Matt Rhodes has three wins. Dallas Ponder is third with 43 strikeouts. With four saves in the team's last four victories, Ryan Scott is tied for third in the LSC.  

The Texans lead the Lone Star Conference with 16 home runs. The offense is led by Rustin Thomas who leads the LSC with six home runs and is second with a .384 average. Noel Nevarez is third in the LSC with four home runs and second with 19 RBI. On the mound, TSU has a team ERA of 3.76 and has seven saves led by league leader Ethan Lenz with six. Jacob French leads the staff with five wins, while three others have three victories each.

Live stats for the weekend series are available at http://www.sidearmstats.com/tamuk/baseball/. Friday's will be live streamed at tamuk.tv.