MARSHALL, Texas – Becoming road warriors from California to Arkansas, the East Texas Baptist University baseball team will begin American Southwest Conference play traveling to Clarksville Ark., to battle the University of Ozarks Eagles. Before moving onto Arkansas, ETBU will host Millsaps College on Wednesday afternoon at 4:00 p.m.
 
ETBU went to Orange, Calif., to take on #20 Chapman University where they managed to end their undefeated season with a 3-0 shutout win in game one. Zach Gartner and Ford Spigener had two hits each while Seth Mikeska had the only run batted in for ETBU. Derrick Findley picked up his first win with seven shutout innings allowing four hits with three strikeouts. CU would respond with two wins the next day by scores of 7-6 in eleven innings and 5-3 in game three.
 
Head coach Jared Hood recapped the experience of competing against a regionally ranked opponent. "The biggest thing we can take away from the series is that we can play with anybody," said Coach Hood. "Findley just absolutely shoved in game one with a 3-0 shutout. The guy they were throwing was arguably the best arm we're going to see all year long. It was a battle and we just found a way to win the ballgame with great pitching and timely hitting. We ran the bases well, played good defense, and ended up winning the ballgame. Game two was one of the best baseball games I've ever been a part as far as the back-and-forth of both teams doing what they can to win the game but it was one of those things where somebody had to lose. Then to turn around and play another nine-inning game, we just let our foot off the gas and they took advantage of it. But the guys continued to fight hard and still had a chance to come back and win. The biggest thing from the trip is we do a lot of things very well within our program but there are things we need to correct."
 
At 3-3 on the season, ETBU is led by Mikeska (10 hits, seven RBI) with a .455 batting average. Casey Combs (.409 BA, nine hits, six RBI, four stolen bases) and Gartner (.421, eight hits, four RBI) are batting over .400 for the season. As it stands for pitching, John Marrs leads with 10.1 innings pitched, 10 strikeouts and is among four pitchers (Alek Arellano, Chad Boudreaux, Cade Purcell) with a 0.00 ERA. Boudreaux has the lone save on the season for the Tigers to this point.
 
ETBU will have a quick game on Wednesday night taking on the Majors of Millsaps College. This will be the first of two meetings with MC this season with the next one being in March. Last season, the Tigers split their series with the Majors taking the win in Jackson, Miss., 7-0 while falling 6-4 at Woods Field. Right now, MC is 1-5 overall following a 10-0 shutout loss to Whitworth University. Brennan Ducote (HR) and Jimmy Fondren (two HR) have five RBI on eight hits amongst the team. Kaul Barret (4.50 ERA) has the lone win for MC with 10.0 IP allowing six runs on 11 hits with five strikeouts.
 
ASC play will start on Friday as the Tigers will be off to Clarksville, Ark., to take on Ozarks. Last year, ETBU split their four games with the Eagles. But it was the last one that ended ETBU's season in the ASC tournament. Coming off a sweep of Westminster University (Mo.), the Eagles are even at 3-3. Chase Edwards leads the team with 14 hits and 10 RBI while Breyden Varner has three homers on the season. Blake Benson will enter the series with 10.0 IP allowing just six hits and 10 strikeouts while David Beck (nine IP) leads all pitchers on the Eagles with 12 strikeouts.
 
Wednesday's contest with MC will start at 4:00 PM while the series against UO begins at 2:00 PM on Friday. Then, it will be a 12:00 PM and 2:00 PM doubleheader Saturday.