KINGSVILLE, Texas – With home-field advantage assured in the first round of the Lone Star Conference Tournament and riding a win streak following a sweep in their final home series of the regular season, the Texas A&M-Kingsville baseball team will attempt to stay sharp in their final three-game set before the start of postseason play, which pits them against the Cameron Aggies in a series that will stretch from Friday through Sunday at McCord Field in Lawton, Okla. Each game will begin at 1 p.m.
The Javelinas enter the weekend knowing they can finish no lower than fourth in the LSC standings, thanks to a three-game lead and a head-to-head tiebreaker over the St. Mary's Rattlers, who are locked in at No. 5. Still within striking distance is another team the Javs own a tiebreaker against, the Oklahoma Christian Eagles, who are currently the third-seed and are a game-and-a-half ahead of the Blue and Gold with only three road games remaining on each squad's schedule.
TAMUK's recent momentum comes thanks to a sweep of Eastern New Mexico in the team's final home series of the regular season, a three-game set during which the Hogs only permitted four earned runs. The Javelina bullpen was at its best against the Greyhounds, with 11 relievers pitching to the tune of a 0.55 ERA in a combined 16 1/3 innings. The series' most impressive performance out of the 'pen came from junior Amado Almanzar (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic), who got the win on Saturday after three hitless innings that included six strikeouts.
The hottest bat in the Javelina lineup of late has been swung by freshman Garrett Thompson. The kid from New Braunfels went 6-for-13 against ENMU and is hitting .424 over his last 10 games. During that stretch, Thompson has seen his average rise from .241 to .339 and he's also been wreaking havoc on the basepaths. In game two of TAMUK's series with the Greyhounds, Thompson set a Javelina season-high with three steals and he's currently the team-leader in that statistic with 11.
For the Aggies, these will be the final three games in what has been a challenging campaign for second-year coach Kyle Williams and his student-athletes. Cameron owns a 7-29 overall record to go with a 7-23 LSC mark. They did find success in their most recent series, however, traveling to Laredo, Texas and taking two of three from the Texas A&M International Dustdevils, CU's first road series win of the season.
One of the heroes for the Aggies in their last series was junior Jordan Harrison-Dudley, who smashed two homers and drove in four runs against TAMIU. Harrison-Dudley is riding a 10-game hit streak and his 11 doubles put in the top 10 in the LSC. Another dangerous presence in the CU lineup is freshman Jayce Clem, who is in the top 10 in the conference, in homers, total bases and slugging percentage. At the beginning of April, Clem put together a stretch of four games in which he homered five times and drove in nine runs and he also crafted a 19-game hit streak earlier in 2021.
Fans will be able to follow each contest in Lawton via links to live video and up-to-the minute stats on Javelinaathletics.com, where a recap will also be available each day after the final pitch.
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