CANYON, Texas – The #22 West Texas A&M Buffaloes open up their Lone Star Conference schedule on Thursday and Friday at Wilder Park as they welcome the rival Greyhounds of Eastern New Mexico to the Buffalo Sports Complex starting on Thursday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. in Canyon.
EASTERN NEW MEXICO
The Greyhounds enter the weekend with an overall record of 0-3 as they were swept by the St. Edward's Hilltoppers last weekend in Austin by a combined score of 33-8. ENMU has made the decision to play an all-road schedule this season to limitations by the State of New Mexico due to COVID-19.
Riley Price is now in his second season at the helm of the Eastern New Mexico Baseball program, holding an overall record of 3-22 during his time in Portales after being named the fourth head coach in program history in 2019. Price led the Hounds to a 3-19 record in 2019 and matched the 2018 squad's conference win total despite playing a shortened schedule.
Daniel Hunt leads the way offensively for the Hounds as the junior from Tucson, Arizona is hitting .667 on the season with four hits in his six at-bats to score two runs for a slugging percentage of .667 to go along with four walks for an on-base clip of .800. Cooper Hamilton holds a 0.00 ERA for ENMU over his first 4.1 innings of work this season, striking out three Hilltoppers in his game three relief appearane with an opposing batting average of .077.
WT HEAD COACH MATT VANDERBURG
Matt Vanderburg has built West Texas A&M Baseball into a regional and national contender as the Norman, Oklahoma native enters his 13th season at the helm of the Buffs. He holds an overall record of 378-224 (.628) during his time in Canyon while registering a career record of 477-291 (.621) in his 16 seasons in collegiate baseball.
TICKET INFORMATION/PROTOCOLS
Fans will be asked to practice social distancing and wear a mask upon entry into the Buffalo Sports Park. All seats at Wilder Park will be considered general admission to allow for social distancing, we ask that masks be worn while not eating or drinking.
Buffalo Baseball Season Tickets are available now for only $75, fans cans purchase a single-game ticket for $10 with a limit of 100 being sold per day. It is recommended that purchases be made online. If you are having issues, reach out to the WT Ticket Office (806) 651-1400.
There will be no tickets sold at the gate, all tickets must be pre-purchased, online purchases will be available until 30 minutes after first pitch. These tickets will be E-Tickets, which can be scanned from your phone, or printed out at home. Please be sure to select the "Print At Home/Mobile Delivery" option as there will not be Will Call available.
THE COACHING STAFF
Cory Hall enters his 11th year at WT as the Buffs' Pitching Coach, serving the last five as the program's Associate Head Coach. Hall has had four different pitchers drafted in the MLB Draft during his time in Canyon with multiple other professional players learning under one of the top pitching minds in collegiate baseball. Assistant Coach
Shawn Neale returns for his fifth season in Canyon as the Buffs finished the 2020 season hitting .298 as a team with 76 extra-base hits and an on-base percentage of .403. WT also welcomes the program's all-time saves leader
Dominic Yearego to the coaching staff for his first season in the dugout.
2021 SCHEDULE
The 2021 schedule is highlighted by 22 regular season home games at Wilder Park with a maximum of 40 Division II contests, 36 of those coming in Lone Star Conference action with three-game series against all 12 member institutions.
LOCAL TALENT STAYING HOME
The Buffs have made it a point to recruit local talent as they currently have 11 student-athletes that graduated high school within a 100-mile radius of campus. The local players are:
Clay Artho (Canyon),
Noah Bartlett (Randall),
Garrett Cobb (Canyon),
Ben Crist (Texico),
Cade Engle (Pampa),
Kix Ferrel (Memphis),
Caleb Flores (Amarillo),
Kason Haggard (Canyon),
Reese Patterson (Canyon),
Chris Rodriguez (Friona) and
Elijah Velasquez (Randall).
SENIOR LEADERSHIP
Eleven different seniors made the difficult decision following the shortened 2020 campaign to return to West Texas A&M for their final season as
Carter Brown,
Todd Danzeisen,
Chandler Dean,
Zach Dixon,
Cade Engle,
Mathieu Gauthier,
Keone Givens,
Cooper Harris,
Justin Martinez,
Kyle Moos and
Reese Patterson return for WT. Those 11 will be joined by senior transfers
Jonah Gonzales (San Francisco State),
Justin Robinson (Arkansas-Pine Bluff),
Jake Suddreth (Florida State) and
Jordon Wyke (Regis) as WT's senior class of 2021.
LSC DIGITAL NETWORK
Fans will be able to purchase a $10 daily pass that will give them access to all football, volleyball and basketball contests on the network that day as well as access to previously aired games from the current season for 24 hours. In addition to live and archived streaming options, viewers will have the option to purchase and download games from the 2020-21 season for $10 each.
Fans can watch games and purchase passes online at www.lonestarconferencenetwork.com on computer and mobile devices. Viewers can also tune in to games on the LSC Digital Network via OTT apps available on Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV and Roku by searching for "LSC Digital Network".
