West Texas A&M (26-16, 24-16) vs. Texas A&M International (12-30, 11-29)
Game 1	Thursday, April 17th at 2:00 p.m.
Game 2 & 3	Friday, April 18th at 1:00 p.m.
Game 3	Saturday, April 19th at 1:00 p.m.
Location	Laredo, Texas | Jorge Haynes Field
Live Statistics	Sidearm
Live Video (FloCollege)	Game 1 | Game 2 & 3 | Game 4
Other Links	Game Notes

CANYON, Texas – The Buffaloes of West Texas A&M look to get back to their winning ways as they make the long road trip to Laredo, Texas for a four-game Lone Star Conference series with the Texas A&M International Dustdevils beginning on Thursday afternoon at Haynes Field. Friday will see a doubleheader beginning at 1:00 p.m. followed by the finale on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. to close out Easter Weekend.
 
A LOOK AT THE DUSTDEVILS
Texas A&M International enters the week 12-30 overall with a 11-29 mark in Lone Star Conference action to sit 11th in the league standings. The Dustdevils took the opening game from St. Edward's (14-6) last weekend before dropping the final three games of the series in Austin by a combined score of 40-29.
 
Abiam Medina leads the way at the plate for the Dustdevils as the senior infielder from Puerto Rico is hitting .346 on the year with 11 doubles and six homeruns to drive in 36 RBI for a slugging percentage of .536 to go along with 13 walks and 21 strikeouts for an on-base clip of .438. Texas A&M International is hitting .281 as a team with 65 doubles, 12 triples and 31 homers to drive in 253 RBI along with 189 walks and 249 strikeouts while stealing 49 bases.
 
Potential game two starter Mario Garcia leads the Dustdevils with 10 games started and 45 strikeouts as the junior righty from Zapata, Texas is 0-2 on the season with an 8.67 ERA as he has allowed 50 runs (44 earned) on 47 hits with 42 walks in his 45.2 innings of work for an opposing batting average of .266. TAMIU holds a 9.06 ERA as a pitching staff, allowing 389 runs on 436 hits with 227 walks and 267 strikeouts in 320.0 frames.
 
DUSTDEVILS IN 2024
Texas A&M International finished the 2024 campaign with an overall record of 24-28 with a 24-24 mark in the LSC to qualify for the LSC Championships, falling to top-seeded Angelo State in three games in San Angelo to end their season. Philip Middleton spent four years as the skipper at TAMIU before accepting the Associate Head Coaching position at Stephen F. Austin this past summer.
 
TAMIU HEAD COACH RUBEN RODRIGUEZ
Ruben Rodriguez is in his first season at the helm of the Texas A&M International baseball program after serving the previous two seasons at the top assistant in Laredo. Rodriguez spent four seasons as an assistant coach at Tarleton State from 2018-21. The El Paso native began his playing career at Paris Junior College followed by stops at Southwestern Oklahoma State and Tarleton State.
 
SERIES HISTORY
Thursday afternoon will mark the 21st meeting on the diamond between the Buffs and the Dustdevils as WT holds the 19-1 series advantage dating back to 2014. West Texas A&M is 7-0 all-time at Jorge Haynes Field with their last trip to South Texas coming in 2023. Last year's series in Canyon saw the Buffs outscore the Dustdevils, 44-23 in a WT sweep.
 
WT HEAD COACH CORY HALL
West Texas A&M didn't have to look far to find the new head coach for Buffalo Baseball as longtime Associate Head Coach Cory Hall was promoted to the skipper of the Buffs announced on June 28th. Hall has spent 14 seasons as the top assistant and pitching coach for the Buffs, having four different pitchers (Austin Moore, Josh Payne, Marshall Kasowski, Joe Corbett) 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.
 
WT COACHING STAFF
Shawn Neale was named WT's Recruiting Coordinator in 2022 as the Toronto native returns for his ninth season in Canyon, the Buffs ranked 13th nationally in batting average (.334) last season while sitting 16th in hits (623) and 24th in on-base percentage (.432). 
 
WT alumni Cooper Harris returns to Canyon as the new pitching coach for the Buffs following two seasons at LSC foe Cameron. Nollan Koon enters his first season in the dugout for the Buffaloes as a graduate assistant coach in December of 2024. Koon returns to the Texas Panhandle following time as a hitting coach at Northeastern State.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
The Buffs rank 20th in the nation in team batting average (.329) while sitting 27th in doubles (87), 21st in on-base percentage (.435), 19th in runs (360), 17th in slugging percentage (.536) and 8th in triples (18). Defensively the Buffs are 17th nationally in fielding percentage (.974). Tai Phetluangsy's eight saves on the season ranks the senior 8th in the nation.
 
THIS IS LSC BASEBALL
Throughout the year, all 13 LSC teams will play a single round-robin schedule with a four-game weekend series against each league opponent. 
 
The LSC Baseball Championship will feature a two-week tournament comprised of the top seven teams. The opening round is best-of-three series and will be held May 2-4 at the sites of the No. 2 (vs. No. 7), 3 (vs. 6) and 4 (vs. 5) seeds. The league's top seed from the regular season will receive an opening-round bye and host the double-elimination championship round on May 8-10.
 
AROUND THE LSC
Only two weekends remain in the Lone Star Conference baseball regular season.
 
Angelo State (35-7 overall, 33-7 LSC) maintained a one-game lead in the standings over UT Tyler (33-9, 32-8 LSC) as both teams recorded a conference series sweep last weekend. The Rams took four games from West Texas A&M and the Patriots did the same against Sul Ross State.
 
SEU (31-15, 30-14 LSC) is in third place, while Eastern New Mexico, Lubbock Christian, St. Mary's and West Texas A&M are all tied fourth place with 24-16 conference records. Texas A&M-Kingsville is just two games out of one of the top seven spots that will result in an LSC tournament berth.
 
This week's conference games are scheduled for Thursday (April 17), Friday (April 18) and Saturday (April 19). The final week will return to the Friday (April 25), Saturday (April 26) and Sunday (April 27) format.
 
ASU is leading the conference in hitting (.378), UT Tyler leads in pitching (3.59 ERA) and WT is tops in fielding percentage (.976). LCU has hit a league-high 65 home run, led by McCool's 23. In addition to homers, McCool is leading the LSC in RBI (62), slugging percentage (.963) and OPS (1.483). UT Tyler's Drew Schmidt owns the league's top batting average at .444 and is tied for the most triples (five) with ENMU's Kyle Kiernan. UT Permian Basin's Kaleb Scull has 21 doubles and SEU's Travis Chestnut has 35 stolen bases.
 
ASU's Dax Dathe (7-1) is the first in the league to reach seven wins on the mound. St. Edward's Kobe Jaramillo has an LSC-best 78 strikeouts. UT Tyler's Rawley Hector (5-1) has the LSC's top ERA (2.13) over 55 innings of work. SEU's Parker Tennill has 10 saves to also lead the conference.