The East Central University baseball team will continue its home stand with a three-game Great American Conference series against Southern Arkansas at Tiger Field, April 4-5.  A single game is scheduled for Friday, April 4 at 2 p.m. and a double-head is set for Saturday, April 5 at 1 p.m.  The Tigers will then face Texas Wesleyan, Tuesday, April 8 at 3 p.m. at Tiger Field.

Game Notes

The Coverage
Fans who can't be at the game can find links to live stats, live video (if available) on ECUTigers.com.  Go to the baseball schedule page.

Scouting Southern Arkansas
The Muleriders are 28-8 overall and 14-7 in the GAC after going 2-1 last weekend against Southeastern Oklahoma State and are ranked No. 4/5 in the national polls.  SAU has a .300 team batting average and allows a .273 mark.  

Jon Phillips and Tyler Cameron lead the Muleriders at the plate.  Phillips has a .382 average, with 25 runs, 50 hits and 23 RBIs.  Cameron adds a .359 average, with 40 runs, 51 hits and 34 RBIs.  

SAU has four pitchers with nine or more wins this season, with Dylan Lynn seeing the most action.  Lynn is 9-9 on the year in 61.1 innings.  He has allowed 69 hits and 22 runs and struck out 54 batters.

Against the Muleriders
Last year the Tigers fell in all three outings against SAU on the road.

The top returner for ECU is senior Ethan Gold, who saw action in just one of the games and recorded two hits and one run.

Ryan Dardenne is the top returner for the Muleriders, with a .455 average, five hits, five runs and three RBIs.  Timothy Buchanan earned a win on the mound in 4.1 innings.  He allowed just one hit and struck out four batters.

Scouting Texas Wesleyan
The Rams are 17-18 overall and 8-7 in the Sooner Athletic Conference after losing their last five games.  TWU will have a chance to get back on the winning track this weekend before facing the Tigers when they battle Oklahoma Baptist in a three-game series.

The Rams are hitting .280 for the season and are allowing just a .258 mark.  TWU has a 302 to 264 lead in hits, but a 176 to 200 deficit in runs scored.

Jake Howeth and Dakota Lee are the top producers at the plate for the Rams.  Howeth has a .380 average, with 21 runs, 41 hits and 23 RBIs.  Lee adds a .358 average on 15 runs, 39 hits and 25 RBIs.

The Rams have three pitchers that have seen over 50 innings of work, with Mitch Mcleod leading the way.  Mcleod has seen 59.0 innings of work allowing 46 hits and 32 runs and striking out 51 batters.

Against the Rams
The Tigers and TWU meet earlier this season at the Rams home field, where ECU earned an 11-4 win.

The Tigers had five players with multi-hit games, with junior Luc Pomales leading the way with a .750 average.  Pomales tallied three hits, scored once and added three RBIs.  Senior Robert Buitrago earned the win in 7.2 innings of work.  He allowed 10 hits and four runs, while striking out seven.

Jose Martinez led the Rams with three hits, one run and two RBIs.  TWU used three pitchers, with Alex Lopez earning the start and throwing 5.1 innings.  He allowed five hits and two runs, while striking out five.

Writing in New Records
The Tigers 10-game winning streak between March 11 and March 25 was the longest in the record books that date back to the 1996 season.  The previous longest streak was seven games during the 2012 season (March 17-March 27) and 1999 (Feb. 27- March 4).

Lavender Coming Up Big
Senior Josh Lavender may have a .293 overall batting average, but he has been coming up big at key moments for the Tigers.  He has a .411 mark with runners on base, .467 average with two outs, .414 mark with runners in scoring position, .545 with runners in scoring position and two outs, and a .875 average with the bases loaded.

Donohoe Earns GAC Player of the Week
Junior Garrett Donohoe was been named the Great American Conference Player of the Week for March 10 after helping the Tigers to a 2-1 record over the weekend against Harding.

Donohoe started the weekend series by hitting .857 in the double-header March 7.  Donohoe hit for the cycle in the games, with two singles, two doubles, a triple and home run, while garnering six RBIs.  The Lake Forest, Calif., native added six put outs and four assisted outs.  He ended the weekend with a .636 batting average, seven hits and six RBIs.

National Strikeout Leader
Junior Icezack Flemming has made an immediate impact for the Tigers on the mound, recording 79 this season.  His total not only puts him at the top of the GAC category, but he is the NCAA's Division II Strikeout leader as of March 30.    The next person on the list has 76.  For his efforts he is currently ranked No. 1 in the GAC in strikeouts (79), No. 1 in complete games (9) and No. 4 in innings pitched (59.1) and No. 2 wins (6).

Taking Down Ranked Teams
The Tigers had a strong road GAC weekend, Feb. 28-March 1, earning a 2-1 record against then-No. 17 Arkansas Tech.  ECU fell in the opening game 2-12, but rebounding to win 9-1 and 7-3 in Saturday's double-header.

Home Run Performance
The Tigers had a strong weekend at the plate against Henderson State, recording five home runs, including a grand slam.  The weekend total surpasses what ECU put together all of the 2013 season (4).

Pomales Pounding Away
Junior Luc Pomales had a strong week for the Tigers, with seven hits, four RBIs and two runs scored against Ouachita Baptist and Texas Wesleyan.  Pomales tallied one home run, a slugging percentage of .667, a .467 hitting percentage, stole a base and was 8-for-8 in the field.

GAC Preseason Poll
ECU will have a lot to prove, as the Tigers were picked to finish 11th (13 points) in the 2014 Great American Conference Preseason Poll, as voted on by the league's head coaches.

Southern Arkansas was a clear top choice with 100 points and 10-of-11 first-place votes.  Arkansas Tech was the only other team to receive a first-place vote, finishing second with 88 points.  Southwestern Oklahoma State was picked third (78 points), Arkansas-Monticello fourth (63), Henderson State fifth (61), Harding sixth (55), Ouachita Baptist seventh (50), Southeastern Oklahoma state eighth (46), Northwestern Oklahoma State ninth (25) and Southern Nazarene 10th (19).

Up Next
The Tigers will wrap up their three-week home stand with games against Southwestern Oklahoma State (April 11-12) and St. Gregory's (April 15).