CANYON, Texas – The No. 8 West Texas A&M baseball team dips out of Lone Star Conference play this week as it returns a trip to No. 17 Lubbock Christian Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at Hays Field and City Bank Clubhouse.

Fans can access links to live stats and streaming of the game at www.gobuffsgo.com on the baseball schedule page.  Check back to the site following the game for a recap of the contest.

WT enters winners of six-straight, including a sweep of UT Permian Basin last weekend in the 2017 LSC home-opening series.  The Buffs are a school-best 25-5 on the year and 7-1 in Lone Star Conference play.  LCU is 23-9 overall and 7-2 in Heartland Conference play and saw its seven-game winning streak come to an end with a 6-3 loss at Texas A&M-International in the finale of a three-game series in Laredo over the weekend. 

The Buffs dominated UTPB over the weekend as the team hit .330 for the series on 37 of 112, while scoring 23 runs with six doubles, one triple, one home run and drove in 17.  The Buffs slugged .429 and reached base at a .408 clip, while going 6-for-9 in stolen bases with 13 walks and just nine strikeouts.  Seven players hit .300 or better for the series as the offense returned to early season form after a pair of tough hitting weekends. 

Senior Troy LaBrie paced the team hitting .545 with six hits, four runs scored, two doubles and four driven in, as he slugged a team-high .727 and reached base at a .571 clip.  Junior Adam Adkins hit the team's first home run since Mar. 19, Sunday in the opener of a doubleheader, as it was the 20^th round-tripper for the Buffs this season.  WT had gone six-straight games without a home run prior.  WT fanned just nine times in the series after striking out 71 times in the last two series', including a season-high 45 times in the 3-1 series win at Eastern New Mexico the week before the UTPB series.

On the mound, WT held UTPB to just .167 hitting on 19 of 114, allowing seven runs – four earned, with three doubles, one triple and the Falcons drove in five.  WT junior Marshall Kasowski was magnificent once again as he pitched his sixth game of 10 or more strikeouts in the 9-3 series-opening win Friday.  He went six innings, allowing three hits, no runs, walked none and fanned 12.  He now has 96 strikeouts for the season to lead the nation and the 96 K's ranks third all-time in school history for strikeouts in a season.  Sophomore Dominic Yearego went 2-0 on Sunday with a pair of relief wins to improve to 5-0 on the year.  He pitched 6.2 innings, allowing one hit with a combined ten strikeouts. 

LCU leads the all-time series 38-15, won the last meeting 3-2 in Canyon on Feb. 21.  LCU has won the last two games in the series as the teams have split the last six meetings dating back to 2015.  WT is 5-19 in Lubbock and last won there, 21-17 on Apr. 7, 2015.   

WT head coach Matt Vanderburg is 3-7 against LCU, while Chaps' head coach Nathan Blackwood is 12-4 against WT.  Vanderburg is in his ninth season of coaching at WT and is the all-time winningest coach in program history at 266-178.  He is 365-245 all-time in 12 seasons of coaching.  Blackwood is 574-225 in his 14^th season of coaching at LCU.

The previous meeting had outstanding pitching performances by both teams as the game had a combined 36 strikeouts with a school-record 22 from WT and 14 from LCU.  Kasowski fanned a then-career-best 16 Chaps in the losing effort as LCU scored a single run in the fourth to break a 2-2 tie for the final run of the game.  An early error by the Buffs proved costly leading to two unearned runs.  Junior Jimmy Cubillos paced the Buffs going two for three from the dish, while LaBrie drove home one of the two runs for the Buffs and junior Luis Amaro had the other RBI.  Three different Chaps had two hits each.  Kasowski took his first loss of the season, while Daniel Crooks went six innings, allowing six hits, two earned runs, walked one and fanned ten for the win.