Diamond Lions Set For Series With No. 1 Rattlers

Courtesy University of Arkansas at Fort Smith Athletics Department

You’ll often hear teams talk about how tough their schedules are, but for the UAFS baseball team, it’s a legitimate lament.

A week after opening the season against No. 15 St. Edward’s University, UAFS will play No. 1 St. Mary’s in a three-game Heartland Conference series that will begin with a doubleheader at 1 p.m. on Friday at Wolff Stadium in San Antonio, Texas.

The two teams will finish the series with one nine-inning game on Saturday.

Live statistics will be available.

St. Mary’s (4-0) is ranked No. 1 in the nation and in the South Central Region by D2 Baseball News and No. 2 in the nation by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper. The Rattlers were unanimously picked to win their fourth consecutive Heartland Conference title.

The Rattlers opened the season with a home conference series sweep of Newman University last weekend and beat Oklahoma Christian 3-2 in 11 innings in a home nonconference game on Tuesday.

St. Mary’s is batting .299 as a team with 38 hits – 4 for extra bases. Three Rattlers starters are batting better than .300 led by senior outfielder Billy Richard, who is batting .400 with 2 doubles and 4 RBI.

The Rattlers’ top two pitchers from last season’s conference, conference tournament and region tournament champion team are again off to a dominating start. Senior right-hander Carl O’Neal (1-0) and junior left-hander Rene Solis (1-0) have combined to allow only 1 run, which was unearned, and have struck out a combined 13 batters in 14 2/3 innings.

Senior closer Jonathan Perez (1-0), who earned the win against Oklahoma Christian in relief, has posted the teams’ only save.

The Rattlers pitching staff has allowed only 3 runs of which only 1 was earned.

UAFS is coming off a conference series loss to St. Edward’s last week in Austin, Texas. The Diamond Lions (1-2), who were picked to finish third in the conference, are ranked No. 10 in the South Central Region by D2 Baseball News.

The Diamond Lions are batting .200 as a team with 17 hits – 4 for extra bases. Four Lions are batting .300 or better – senior first baseman Gordon Miller (.500), senior third baseman Adam Baker (.429), senior catcher Ben Smith (.300) and senior outfielder Madison Beard (.300).

As a staff, the UAFS pitchers have a combined 5.14 ERA with 13 walks and 16 strikeouts over 21 innings. Senior right-hander Neil Smith (0-1) has allowed just 1 run – unearned – and 8 hits with 2 walks and 6 strikeouts.