SAN MARCOS, Texas – The Texas State baseball team is set to wrap up the regular season with a road trip to UT Arlington this weekend. The Bobcats (25-26-1, 13-14 SBC) will face the Mavericks (21-30, 11-16 SBC) May 17-19 in Arlington, Texas.
Texas State leads the all-time series 64-43. Since joining the Sun Belt in 2014, the Bobcats are 10-6 over their rivals.
The maroon and gold has won seven of the last nine matchups, which includes series triumphs in each of the last three seasons.
A LOOK AT TEXAS STATE
•   Texas State is currently 25-26-1 this season and 13-14 in the SBC after claiming a series from Louisiana this past weekend and dropping a midweek contest at No. 15 Texas.
•   The two victories over the Ragin' Cajuns marked the first series triumph over UL since 2004 and the second in school history.
•   The maroon and gold posted a 14-5-1 record through the first 20 games of the season and are 11-21 since.
•   True freshman
Dalton Shuffield leads TXST in batting average (.316), while senior
Derek Scheible is the team leader in RBIs (37), runs scored (40) and home runs (12). Junior
Jonathan Ortega leads Texas State with 61 hits.
•   The Bobcats have won three of their nine SBC weekend series this season (Appalachian State, Georgia State, Louisiana).
A LOOK AT UTA
•   The Mavericks own a 21-30 record this season and are 11-16 in Sun Belt action.
•   They have dropped each of their last seven games, 11 of their last 12 and 13 of their last 15. They have suffered setbacks in each of their last four weekend league battles.
•   UTA currently sits in eighth place in the conference and could finish anywhere from seventh to 12th in the final standings heading into the final weekend.
•   Zac Cook (.313) and Omar Salinas (.301) are both hitting above .300, while Noah Vaughan (.270) leads the Mavericks in home runs (12) and RBIs (31).
WHERE THEY STAND
•   TXST is currently 13-14 in league play and sits in seventh in the SBC standings.
•   If the season were to end today, the Bobcats would be one of four teams to play an opening-round, single-elimination game on May 22. They would be the No. 7 seed and would face current No. 10 seed Georgia State for the right to advance to the main double-elimination bracket.
•   This weekend's opponent, UTA, is currently in eighth place and would play in the tournament's opening round.
•   The top six currently includes Coastal Carolina, Louisiana, South Alabama, Troy, Georgia Southern, and Little Rock.
•   The teams slated to compete in the two opening-round games are TXST, UTA, ULM and Georgia State. Arkansas State and Appalachian State are presently on the outside looking in.
TEXAS STATE SELECTED TO COMPETE IN 2019 SHRINERS CLASSIC
•   The Texas State baseball team is set to join a loaded field for the 2019 Shriners Hospital for Children College Classic, the Houston Astros announced March 5.
•   The tournament will be contested March 1-3, 2019, at Minute Maid Park and feature an all-Texas field of Baylor, Houston, Rice, TCU, Texas A&M and Texas State.
•   The 19th annual event will feature nine games between the six programs.
•   The official times and dates of each game will be announced at a later time.
THE 2018 CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT
•   The Sun Belt Conference will conduct its baseball regular season with divisional play for the second-straight year.
•   Two divisions are comprised of six teams each, and divisional champions will be awarded at the end of the year based on the winning percentage against all teams, regardless of division.
•   The 2018 Sun Belt Conference Baseball Championship will be seeded with the division winners as the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds, with the No. 1 seed being awarded to the divisional winner with the best conference winning percentage.
•   Ten teams will qualify for the postseason event. The first round games will include the No. 8 seed vs. No. 9 seed and the No. 7 seed vs. the No. 10 seed, with both contests conducted as single-elimination games.
•   The remainder of the tournament will be played under a double-elimation format.
•   The 2018 Sun Belt Conference Baseball Championship is set for May 22-27 at Russo Park on the campus of Louisiana.
-- TXSTATEBOBCATS.COM --
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