OKLAHOMA CITY – The Mid-America Christian baseball team will be looking to keep the momentum rolling this weekend as the Evangels will head to Austin, Texas for a four-game non-conference series against Huston-Tillotson. MACU will open the series with a doubleheader on Friday with the first game starting at 1 p.m. before wrapping the series up with a Saturday doubleheader with a noon first pitch.
LAST TIME OUT
Mid-America Christian (6-2) closed out its first road series of the 2020 season with an impressive showing from plate as the Evangels took 3-of-4 from Houston-Victoria last weekend. The Evangels opened the series with an impressive win in the first game of the doubleheader on Friday, Feb. 7 by picking up a 15-9 victory. Making his Evangels debut, junior outfielder and relief pitcher Jaily Paredes led the MACU bats by going a perfect 4-for-4 with a homer, a double, five RBIs and three runs scored while drawing a walk. Paredes also got a save after throwing two innings and giving up just one earned run on three hits, no walks and three strikeouts.
The Evangels struggled defensively in the second game of the doubleheader as MACU committed a season-high four errors in a 5-4 loss. The Jaguars scored the go-ahead run in the eighth inning, but MACU had an opportunity to tie when Joshua Fernandez hit a one-out triple to center. However, the Evangels were unable to push the tying run across in their second defeat of the season. Starter Keisy Portorreal pitched a strong six innings in the no-decision, giving up four unearned runs on two hits and two walks while striking out seven.
MACU bounced back in a big way in the first doubleheader on Saturday. The Evangels scored 19 runs on 20 hits, their best offensive game since defeating St. Gregory's on May 5, 2017 to come away with the 19-10 victory. Mid-America Christian put together a dominant fourth inning, scoring 13 runs and bringing 17 to the plate. Once again, Paredes was solid in the box, slashing 3-for-3 with a walk, an RBI and a four runs scored. Grant Roberts drove in four by going 2-for-4 with a walk and a pair of runs scored.
The Evangels closed out the series in dramatic fashion, rallying from three runs down in the final three innings to pull out a 9-7 win. Paredes helped fuel the comeback with a two-run homer in the top of the seventh to bring MACU to within one at 6-5. In the top of the eight, Edgar Martinez came up with a clutch two-run single to left center to give Evangels a 7-6 edge. In MACU's half of the ninth, Felix Martinez came up with a crucial two-run home run to left to give the Evangels some pivotal insurance runs. Paredes was MACU's leader from the plate, batting 4-for-5 with two RBIs and two runs to go with his homer while Yan Ely Adames drove in three after going 2-for-5 with a pair of doubles and a run. Paredes also recorded his first win in relief, tossing four innings and sacrificing just one run on six hits with no walks and punched out five.
SCOUTING THE RAMS
Huston-Tillotson enters the series with a 4-3-1 record and outside of a 6-6 tie in their last matchup with Arlington Baptist, have won four straight after dropping the first three games of the season. Hosting Arlington Baptist and Central Christian in a four-game series last week, the Rams picked up a pair of 6-5 wins over Central Christian to go along with a 9-0 victory and a 6-6 tie against Arlington Baptist.
Seeing his first action last week, junior outfielder Ulises Nunez already leads the HTU bats, slashing 5-for-10 (.500) with a double and three RBIs to go along with a pair of runs. Senior outfielder Anthony Rios has been the big bat in the Rams lineup so far, batting 3-for-9 (.333) with two homers and five RBIs to go with three runs.
Throwing five different starters this year, so far junior righty Justin Mora has been the most efficient of the starters, giving up just a 2.84 ERA in three appearances and one start, walking six and striking out a team-high 11 in 12.2 innings of work. In his two starts, sophomore righty Jared Gonzales is also giving up just a 3.86 ERA on four hits, eight walks with three strikeouts within seven innings. Junior right Kaelon Woods is HTU's top reliever with a 2.35 ERA on four hits, 11 walks and nine strikeouts in his 7.2 innings of work.
HISTORY WITH THE RAMS
Mid-America Christian will look to shift the series momentum back in its favor as Huston-Tillotson holds a 4-2 edge in the all-time series and have won the last three. The Evangels took 2-of-3 from the Rams in 2016 with 7-6 and 7-3 wins in-between a 10-4 loss. However, the last time MACU played at Huston-Tillotson in 2017, the Rams swept the Evangels in three, 9-3, 6-5 and 15-14.
THINKING HIGHLY OF JAILY
Due to his phenomenal hitting efforts last week against Houston-Victoria, junior outfielder and pitcher Jaily Paredes received the NCCAA Offensive Player of the Week honor. In the four-game series, the Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic native batted .688, going 11-for-16 from the plate with two homers, two doubles, scored nine runs and drove in eight RBIs while notching a 1.910 OPS. Paredes was also fantastic from the pitcher's mound, throwing six innings of relief over two appearances, giving up just two earned runs on nine hits with no walks and struck out eight while picking up a win and a save.
Paredes is the second Evangels player to be honored by the NCCAA in the past two weeks as junior starter Frensly Leito was the recipient of the NCCAA Pitcher of the Week on Feb. 3 after throwing seven no-hit, shutout innings with 12 strikeouts against Bethany College in the season-opener on Jan. 31.
DIFFERENT VENUE, DIFFERENT STORY
While the Evangels bats was ice cold and the MACU pitching was phenomenal in its season-opener against Bethany College at James Curtis Field, it was quite the inverse while playing at Riverside Stadium in Victoria, Texas.
In the season-opening series against Bethany, Mid-America Christian's pitching was on-point, giving up just four runs, three of which were earned in 31 innings for a 0.87 ERA and a .159 opponents' batting average. In the four-game road series at Houston-Victoria, the Evangels pitching struggled, giving up 42 runs, 31 of which earned on a 7.55 ERA and a .316 opponents' batting average in 31 innings.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, the MACU bats were ice cold in the series against the Swedes, scoring just 10 runs on a .188 team batting average with no homers and just two extra-base hits overall. It was a different story against the Jaguars, as the Evangels slugged out a .347 team batting average and scored 51 runs on 25 extra-base hits, eight of which were home runs.
Mid-America Christian will also look to return to the defensive form from their season-opener as well, as the Evangels committed just two errors at home against Bethany as opposed to nine errors at Houston-Victoria.
