CANYON, Texas – The West Texas A&M Buffaloes head to Pueblo, Colorado for their only two non-conference matchups of the season starting on Saturday afternoon against the Montana State-Billings Yellowjackets, first pitch of the contest is set for 12:00 p.m. CT at Rawlings Field.
A LOOK AT THE YELLOWJACKETS
Montana State-Billings enters the weekend with an overall record of 3-3. The Yellowjackets picked up a pair of wins at Cal State-Los Angeles to open the season followed by a series loss at Cal State-San Marcos. MSUB will also face off with Colorado State-Pueblo in a three-game series this weekend at Rawlings Field.
Hayden Foltz leads the way offensively for the Yellowjackets as the senior outfielder from Pocatello, Idaho is hitting .391 on the season with four doubles and a homerun to drive in five RBI for a .696 slugging percentrage to go along with four walks and three strikeouts for an on-base percentage of .500. Cy Miller is 1-0 on the mound for the Yelowjackets, as the lefty from Helena, Montana has registered a 1.17 ERA with five walks and eight strikeouts during his 7.2 innings of work with an opposing batting average of .179.
MSUB HEAD COACH DEREK WADDOUPS
Derek Waddoups enters his fourth season as Montana State University Billings head baseball coach in 2023. n the spring of 2022, Waddoups guided the Yellowjackets to the GNAC Championships tournament with a third-place finish in the league standings at 26-27 overall and 16-16 in conference play. Waddoups came to Billings after a 12-year stint as assistant baseball coach at Salt Lake City Community College
SERIES HISTORY
Saturday afternoon marks the first ever meeting on the diamond between West Texas A&M and Montana State-Billings.
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 15th season at the helm of the Buffs. He holds an overall record of 455-252 (.645) during his time in Canyon while registering a career record of 554-323 (.632) in his 18 seasons in collegiate baseball.
THE COACHING STAFF
Cory Hall is now in his 13th year at West Texas A&M as the Buffs' Pitching Coach, serving the last seven as the program's Associate Head Coach. Hall has had four different pitchers drafted in the Major League Baseball 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 was named WT's Recruiting Coordinator in 2022 as the Toronto native returns for his seventh season in Canyon.
2023 LSC PRESEASON POLL
Defending South Central Regional Champion Angelo State picked up 23 of the possible 32 first place votes to sit atop of the poll with 407 points followed by WT (eight first place, 388), Texas A&M-Kingsville (one first place, 315), Lubbock Christian (298), St. Edward's (296), UT Tyler (291), Oklahoma Christian (206), St. Mary's (203), Texas A&M International (160), UAFS (131), Eastern New Mexico (88), Cameron (82) and UT Permian Basin (47).
Adam Becker from West Texas A&M claimed Preseason Player of the Year accolades while Wesley Gafford from St. Edward's was named the league's Preseason Pitcher of the Year.
Becker made an immediate impact on the diamond for the Buffs as the Lone Star Conference Player of the Year finished his junior campaign hitting .402 with 22 doubles, two triples and 22 homeruns to drive in an incredible 92 RBI for a slugging percentage of .803 to go along with 27 walks for an on-base clip of .462. Becker was named First Team All-South Central Region by the D2CCA, NCBWA and ABCA/Rawlings.
NCBWA PRESEASON ALL-SOUTH CENTRAL REGION
Adam Becker,
Ryan Johnson,
Eddy Savoie and
Nick Marshall were named to the squad while
Will Fuenning was selected for the Honorable Mention Team. The Buffs were selected third in the preseason regional poll. The poll and all-region team was voted on by a committee of eight voters with four representing each conference (Lone Star and RMAC).
THIS IS LSC BASEBALL
The LSC Championship will feature a two-week tournament comprised of the top eight teams with the opening round at on-campus sites May 5-7. The winners of each opening round series will advance to a double-elimination tournament played May 11-13. The winner of the postseason tournament will be recognized as the LSC Tournament Champion and receive the conference's automatic qualifier to the NCAA postseason.
LSC DIGITAL NETWORK
The LSC Digital Network is in its fourth season showcasing the academic and athletic events of the league and its 18 member institutions. Volleyball, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's basketball, baseball and softball broadcasts will be available via conference-wide pay-per-view passes.
The LSC Digital Network will offer season passes for football, volleyball, soccer, basketball, baseball and softball, giving fans access to all regular-season contests for that sport. In addition, viewers will continue to have the option to purchase a $10 day pass that provides access to all broadcasts aired that day and access to all archived content for 24 hours.
