JACKSON, Ten. – The Ouachita Tiger baseball team will open up the 2020 season in Jackson, Tennessee, against the Union Bulldogs. This will be the fifth straight opening day meeting between Ouachita and Union.
History
Since February 6, 2016, the Tigers have met the Bulldogs in 11 games, but only recorded one win on February 4, 2018 in a 9-8 thriller.
Scouting Union
First-year head coach Jim Pitt, who replaced five-year head coach Lee Driggers, coaches Union University. Driggers recorded a 93-151 record with the Bulldogs. Last year, Union finished as the twelfth place team in the Gulf South Conference with a 8-22 conference record, 16-32 overall. The Bulldogs went 8-10 against non-conference opponents, two games shy of .500.
The Bulldogs return their third best hitter in senior Josh Frantz, who averaged .283 with 45 hits in 45 games played. Senior Dacoda Stone started all 43 of the games he played in, finishing with a .247 average, 41 hits, and was successful in 5 out of 6 stolen base attempts. Senior Josh Bozoian recorded the fourth best average on the team at .261, with 10 doubles, 2 home runs, and 37 hits in 41 games.
Seniors Brandon Maxwell and Ryan Mets tied for the most starts for Union with 12. Maxwell finished with the second lowest ERA on the team at 3.56 with a 1-8 record, as well as the most hits given up with 85. He also finished with 27 strikeouts in 73.1 innings. Mets ended the 2019 season with a 5.33 ERA, a 3-3 record, 50 strikeouts, and 71 hits allowed in 72.2 innings. The final returning starter for Union is senior Logan Portis, who ended the season with a 6.47 ERA, a 2-7 record in 10 games started, 64 hits given up, and the team leader in strikeouts with 52 in 57 innings pitched.
Scouting Ouachita
Head Coach
Luke Howard returns for his second season at the helm for the Tigers. He finished with a 20-28 record in his first season. Ouachita finished ninth in the Great American Conference last year with a 13-20 record.
Senior left-handed pitcher
Brandon Matros earned second-team pitcher honors in 2019. He finished with a 4.16 ERA and 3-2 record in 11 games started. Matros finished with 42 strikeouts in 62.2 innings of pitching and was named pitcher of the week for a complete-game 3-1 win against Southwestern Oklahoma State University last year. He also recorded the only complete-game shutout of any Ouachita pitcher in 2019, which came in a seven-inning, 10-0 victory over Southern Nazarene University.
Junior third baseman
Tyler Riebock earned a First-Team All-GAC honor in 2019 and returns as the offensive leader for the Tigers in most categories from last year: average (.315), slugging (.649), hits (53), doubles (14), triples (3), home runs (11), runs (41), and on-base percentage (.437).
For more information about the Ouachita baseball team, go to:
https://obutigers.com/sports/baseball
