ARKADELPHIA, Ark. — Henderson State, winners of its last five Great American Conference series, faces one of the hottest teams in the country on Sunday and Monday when the Reddies host No. 11 Arkansas-Monticello at Clyde Berry Field in the final GAC home series of the season.
The Reddies and Weevils will open play with a doubleheader on Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. and finish with a single game on Monday at 1 p.m. Senior Day festivities for Henderson will take place 30 minutes prior to the start of the first game Sunday.
REDDIES REPORT
- Henderson (19-17, 13-10) comes into the weekend having won its last five-straight conference series dating back to the first weekend in March. The Reddies are 12-2 in their last 14 league contests and have catapulted themselves into fifth place in the latest GAC standings with just nine conference games left to play.
- The Reddies have hit the ball very well as a team during this run of success. Since the start of the conference winning streak, HSU is batting .333 as a squad in league contests and have three players who are batting .400 or better against GAC foes:
Caleb Carr (.408),
Josh Aguilar (.424), and
Brandon Pollock (.474).
- The friendly confines of home have also been big for the Reddies during this run. Henderson is 8-1 in GAC games at Clyde Berry Field since March.
- As a team, Henderson has the third-best ERA in the league (4.73) and are one of just five teams in the conference with an ERA under five. The Reddies are also in the top half of the GAC in team batting average, where they rank fifth (.288).
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Brandon Pollock is third in the GAC in on-base percentage (.484), fifth in hits (51), and ninth in batting average (.383). The senior from Gilbert, Arizona, has 14 multi-hit games this season and has had three or more hits in three of Henderson's last six games.
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Kris Priddy has the fourth-lowest ERA of qualified players in the GAC (2.45). The senior from Terrell, Texas, is holding opponents to a .237 batting average against him. He has struck out 35 batters this season and walked just four, giving him 8.75 strikeouts for every walk, which is fifth-best mark in all of NCAA DII.
SCOUTING ARKANSAS-MONTICELLO
- The Weevils (24-9, 18-4) come into the weekend series red-hot, having won 18 of their last 19 games. UAM had an 18-game winning streak snapped on Wednesday by Union University. They jumped from unranked to No. 11 in the latest National Collegiate Baseball Writers of America Poll this week.
- UAM bats .300 as a team, and boasts six players with averages above .300 this year. The top slugger for the Weevils has been John Mauldin, who leads the team with 47 hits, 11 doubles, and nine home runs. Mauldin is batting .353 this year and hit four home runs in a single game last week against Oklahoma Baptist.
- The Weevils have the second-best team ERA in the conference (4.63) and have perhaps the best closer in the GAC in Ojani Chacon. Chacon has a league-leading 1.82 ERA this season in 13 appearances with a 4-0 record and three saves. UAM also has starters Matt Lundh and Hunter Huckabee, who have been reliable on the mound this season with ERA's of 2.38 and 3.44, respectively, and a 10-0 combined record.
- Monticello has had success against Henderson in recent years. The Weevils have won 15 of the last 20 regular season meetings between the two teams and defeated the Reddies in the GAC Tournament title game in both 2016 and 2017.
