Incarnate Word junior Jason Stone was named the Lone Star Conference Co-Hitter of the Week for his impressive hitting performance this weekend against West Texas A&M University.
Stone was a key part of UIW winning 3-of-4 games from WT, hitting 9-for-13 (.692) with 4 RBI and scoring 3 runs against the Buffs. Starting all four games at left field for UIW, Stone drove in the winning run in the bottom of the ninth on Sunday for coach Danny Heep's 500th career win.
All nine of his hits were singles and he also recorded a sacrifice bunt. In addition, he walked once and struck out just one time the entire weekend.
The three wins for the Cardinals (19-16 overall, 14-9 in the LSC) right in the thick of the race for the Lone Star Conference regular season championship and have clinched a spot in the six-team LSC Baseball Championship to be played May 5th-8th in San Angelo, Texas.
UIW is battling with Texas A&M-Kingsville (16-8), Angelo State (16-8) and West Texas (14-10) for the top spot – with this weekend's Lone Star baseball action pitting the Cardinals up against TAMUK for two games at Kingsville and two games at Whataburger Stadium in Corpus Christi, TX.
The overall LSC Champion will be the team(s) with the best winning percentage in regular-season conference games, while the winner of the postseason championship will be recognized as LSC Tournament Champion and receive the league's automatic qualification into the NCAA postseason.
Three more LSC teams - Tarleton State, Abilene Christian, and Cameron – are vying for the remaining two berths into the championship field.
Other teams in the playoff hunt facing each other besides UIW and TAMUK are Angelo State and Abilene Christian (at Angelo State); and Tarleton State is heading to Cameron in a series that could likely eliminate one team from a tournament spot.
Incarnate Word is on the road this evening for a doubleheader against University of Houston-Victoria. They will then get on the road for doubleheaders on Friday and Saturday (both starting at 1 p.m.) against the Hoggies.
