LSC POLLS: Hounds picked for ninth place in baseball, 11th in softball

RICHARDSON, Texas – Eastern New Mexico University’s baseball squad was picked for ninth place out of 13 teams while softball was ticketed for 11th out of 15 in Lone Star Conference preseason polls released recently by the league office.

Defending NCAA Division II champion Angelo State was tabbed to win its third consecutive LSC baseball title in a poll of league coaches, sports information directors and media members.

The Rams (56-9, 40-8 LSC last spring) collected 38 of 39 first-place votes and finished with 503 points to 450 for Texas-Tyler, which garnered the other first-place tally. ENMU (23-28, 21-26 LSC) finished with 188 points, ahead of Texas A&M International (162), Oklahoma Christian (127), Cameron (96) and Arkansas-Fort Smith (72).

Behind ASU and Tyler were St. Edward’s (396), Lubbock Christian (388), West Texas A&M (379), Texas A&M-Kingsville (313), St. Mary’s (257) and Texas-Permian Basin (217).

Junior outfielder Jacob Guerrero and senior right-hander Braxton Pearson, both from Angelo State, were named the league’s preseason player and pitcher of the year, respectively. Guerrero batted .420 with a league-leading 97 hits, seven home runs and 57 RBIs in 2023, while Pearson went 8-2 with one save, a 2.64 earned run average, 11 walks and 48 strikeouts over 58 innings.

The league selected 25 “players to watch” from the various schools, including junior outfielder Tucker Gideon and junior right-hander Gavin Perry from ENMU.

The Hounds open their season with a four-game set against Angelo beginning on Friday at Greyhound Field. Each team plays a single round-robin, four-game series against each league foe.

The LSC postseason tournament will include the top eight teams, with opening-round, best-of-3 series at the sites of the higher seeds May 3-5 and a four-team, double-elimination tournament at the site of the highest remaining seed set for May 9-11.

In softball, reigning regular-season and LSC tournament champion Texas-Tyler was picked to repeat. The Patriots (62-6, 39-2), national semifinalists in 2023, earned 591 points and 25 of 41 first-place votes, followed by West Texas A&M (50-8, 37-5), which had 576 points and 11 first-place tallies.

Rounding it out were Oklahoma Christian (519), Lubbock Christian (500), Cameron (412), Texas A&M-Kingsville (386), Angelo State (383) St. Mary’s (353), St. Edward’s (288), Texas Woman’s (254), ENMU (216), Texas A&M International (175), Midwestern State (127), Western New Mexico (72) and Texas-Permian Basin (68).

Oklahoma Christian received three first-place votes, while Texas A&M-Kingsville garnered two.

Tyler senior shortstop Courtney Plocheck, who batted .400 with a league-best 86 hits a year ago, was chosen the preseason player of the year. The preseason pitcher of the year is TWU senior right-hander Alyssa LeBlanc, who topped the LSC with 294 strikeouts, including a league-record 23 against Angelo State, while leading conference hitters with an .851 slugging percentage.

There were 30 players to watch, including senior outfielder Mikenzey Patterson and sophomore right-hander Melissa Rodriguez for ENMU.

The league will play a single round-robin of three-game series beginning Feb. 16, followed by a postseason tournament May 2-4 at the home of the regular-season champion.

The Hounds (26-30, 17-25), who advanced to the LSC postseason tournament last spring for the first time since 2002, open the campaign with five games this weekend against Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference opponents in a South Central Region crossover event hosted by Western New Mexico in Los Lunas.