MARSHALL, Texas – Winning five games last week, the East Texas Baptist University are on a six-game winning streak as they will continue their home stretch with three non-conference games this weekend at Woods Field against Southwestern University. SU is a member of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) and is 14-6 overall while ETBU is 17-8.
 
Last week presented ETBU with a five-game week as the Tigers swept both Hendrix College and Belhaven University. ETBU's offense outscored HC 22-11 during the midweek sweep while the Tigers rallied from two four-run deficits against BU to win the series. It was a good week for a pair of strong pitching performance, including Zackery Pierce, who earned his first win against HC in game two with six innings allowing one run on four hits while Adrian Stover finished the sweep of BU with 8.2 innings allowing three runs on five hits.
 
The week was also beneficial for Casey Combs, who batted .529 with nine hits, including three home runs and a triple to go along with seven RBI. With his performance, Combs was named the American Southwest Conference Hitter of the Week becoming the third Tiger this season to win the award along with making the D3baseball.com Team of the Week.
 
Combs has managed to jump in front of the rest of teammates with 39 hits, eight homers, and 28 RBI. He also has stolen 14 bases on the season. On the mound, Stover has a 1.08 ERA. Derrick Findley is 5-1 on the season while leading the staff with 19 strikeouts.
The Tigers proved that in spite of the challenges they faced, they were able to overcome, especially in the series against BU as head coach Jared Hood explains. "In the first couple of games, we didn't help ourselves a whole lot at the beginning," said Coach Hood. "But baseball's one of those games where there's no clock. You got to make all the outs. I knew we had enough time and we had the offensive approach to come back and get it done. The kids did too. There was no panic. Everybody was cool, calm, and collected and we just started stringing things together."
 
Nearly halfway through their eleven-game stretch, the Tigers are set to take on the Pirates of SU. Last season saw ETBU sweep SU down in Georgetown. This season, SU is 14-6 overall after a sweep of Austin College last weekend and a mid-week win over Hardin-Simmons University. Seth Sparks is the spark plug for the Pirates' offense with a team-leading .410 batting average and 32 hits while Daniel Montgomery Jr. has six homers and 26 RBI. Colton Hunter has pitched his way to 42.1 innings allowing a 2.98 ERA with 49 strikeouts while Austin Smith (3.34 ERA) has 54 strikeouts.
 
Game one of this series will be a 7:00 PM on Friday while Saturday will be the typical doubleheader beginning at 1:00 PM.