This Week in Rattlers Baseball
West Texas A&M at St. Mary's // Lone Star Tournament Week One
May 2-4 // Games 51-53 // San Antonio // Dickson Stadium
Broadcast: FloCollege // Play-by-Play: Rob Shadow
West Texas A&M
Record 28-22
Ranking NR/NR/NR
Head Coach Cory Hall
WT Record 59-43 (2nd Year)
Career Record Same
St. Mary's Rattlers
Record 36-14
Ranking 23/28/RV
Head Coach Frank Kellner
StMU Record 85-68 (3rd Year)
Career Record Same
Polls are NCBWA/ABCA/DII Baseball
By The Numbers
5 St. Mary's has qualified for the Lone Star Conference Tournament for the second-straight year and the fifth time overall. This is the first time the Rattlers have hosted a first-week series at Dickson Stadium.
49 Junior Ashton Beaird (27) and senior Jacob King (22) have combined to be hit by 49 pitches this season. They rank 1-2 in the Lone Star Conference, and third and 13th in the NCAA Division II statistics. The school single season record is 32 HBP by David Nelson in 2001.
7 Senior Kaleb Gauna struck out a season-high seven batters in the regular-season finale against UT Tyler. In his last 10 1/3 innings of work, Gauna has fanned 13 batters, and only allowed three earned runs.
Postseason Play: The St. Mary's Baseball team will host the opening series of the Lone Star Conference Tournament for the first time in school history, hosting West Texas A&M for a best-of-three series beginning on Saturday at 3 p.m. Sunday will be a 1 p.m., as will Monday if the game is necessary.
Lone Star Tournament History: The Rattlers are 4-8 all-time in the Lone Star Conference Tournament, finishing 3-2 at the 2021 tournament, but dropping the opening series in 2022, 2023 and 2025. For a full recap of the Rattlers in the tournament, see pages 6-7 of these notes.
Inside the Series: St. Mary's trails 16-18 in the all-time series with West Texas A&M, but the team is 8-4 against the Buffaloes since Frank Kellner took over as head coach. This is the first time the two teams have met in the LSC Tournament. Earlier this season, the Rattlers won three of four in San Antonio, with junior catcher Dillon Lopez earning both Lone Star and NCBWA South Central Region Hitter of the Week honors after hitting .692 with eight RBI and nine hits.
A Look Back: The Rattlers dropped three of four games to LSC Champion and No. 6 UT Tyler. StMU outhit UTT .252 to .228 for the weekend, but the Rattlers committed seven errors, while the Patriots played error-free baseball for their first-ever conference title.
In the Polls: St. Mary's dropped in all three polls after going 1-3 the final week of the regular season. The Rattlers are ranked 23 in the NCBWA Poll, 28th in the ABCA Coaches Poll, and receiving votes in the D2Baseball poll. The Rattlers reached a high of 14 on March 25 in the NCBWA poll and 15th in the ABCA poll.
Collecting the W's: The 36 wins in the regular season are the most for the St. Mary's Baseball team since the 2015 team won 37 en route to a 41-16 overall record and a spot in the NCAA South Central Regional. The 36 victories also break the school's single-season record for conference wins in a year, surpassing the 35 that both the 2008 (35-14) and 2010 (35-13) teams won.
It's Good to be King: Senior Jacob King extended his hitting streak to a career-best 17 games and has reached base in the last 25 for the Rattlers. The 17 game hitting streak is tied for the fifth-longest in the school's Division II era, and the longest since Jake Mares set the school mark with 25 straight in 2023. King's streak of reaching base in 25 consecutive is tied for the second-longest streak on the team this season with Garrett Brooks and behind Dillon Lopez's streak of 37 straight to begin the year. The Lopez streak is the second-longest to start a season, and tied for the fourth-longest steak ever.
Rewriting the Books: The 2026 edition of the Rattlers appear several times in the single game record books this season.
Stat Rank Total Opponent Date
RBI T8 22 at Sul Ross Feb. 1
Home Runs T6 6 at Sul Ross Feb. 1
Walks 3 16 Okla. Christian Feb. 7
T4 14 at Sul Ross Jan. 31
Hit by Pitch 1 9 at Sul Ross Jan. 31
T2 7 at St. Edward's Mar. 21
T2 7 at St. Edward's Mar. 22
T7 6 at UTPB Apr. 18
Sac Flies T1 4 at ENMU Apr. 3
Sac Bunts T1 6 Cameron Apr. 10
Stolen Bases 3 8 West Texas A&M Mar. 29
DP Turned 1 6 Angelo State Apr. 1
The Mendoza Line: Senior closer Edward Mendoza has walked only six batters in 28.2 innings this season. The 1.88 walks per nine innings is the fifth-best total in school history. Frank Flores owns the school record with 1.40 per nine innings from 2008. Mendoza's seven saves also rank seventh on the StMU single-season lists. The team has 14 saves, which is the third-most, trailing only the record of 20 by the 2012 team and the 16 from the 2011 squad.
Getting the K's: Junior Matthew Janecek is averaging 11.39 strikeouts per nine innings, which is good for fifth on the St. Mary's single season lists. The record is 13.39 by J.P. Duran from 2002, and Janecek's average is the best since Connor Schmidt averaged 11.54 per nine innings in 2022.
Tie Goes to the Runner: Senior Jacob King became the latest to tie the school record for stolen bases in a game, swiping three in the finale at UT Permian Basin. He is the 11th different Rattler to steal three bases, joining Ashton Beaird and Tristan Moreno on the active roster.
Helping Hand: Freshman Blake Allen collected eight assists against Cameron in the first game of the doubleheader on Friday, tying for the third most in a game in St. Mary's history. He was one off the record of nine held by Derek Hamilton (5/2/2015) and Johnny Hernandez (5/20/2021), and he is the 11th player to have eight in a game.
Going the Distance: Junior Gabe Cook became the second Rattler this season to throw a complete game, defeating Cameron 3-1 in Saturday's first game. Cook allowed only one run on three hits, with no walks and five strikeouts in the first complete game of his career.
Cooking With Gas: Gabe Cook currently ranks 16th in all of Division II in WHIP at 1.04 and leads the Lone Star Conference. Cook is also 40th in Division II in hits allowed per nine innings at 7.01, which ranks second in the Lone Star, and his strikeout-to-walk ratio is 3.14 for fifth-best in the league.
Career Numbers: Garrett Brooks is closing in on the top 10 in career RBI at St. Mary's. Brooks currently has 150 RBI to his name, while Rodney Williams (1993-96) and Donnie Perez (2016-19) are tied for ninth on the chart with 153. Brooks already ranks 10th in career home runs with 26. Fellow senior Jacob King ranks 5th with 35 career hit by pitch. Junior Dillon Lopez is now seventh in runners thrown out with 26, and his 19 this season is tied for the fifth-most in a single season with Joseph Contreras (2000).
Eliminating The Freebies: Three times this year, StMU pitchers have done something that hadn't happened in over four seasons, not giving up a free base during a game. The Rattlers currently lead the Lone Star in strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.06).
It's An Honor: The Rattlers have had four honored by the Lone Star Conference this season, as Garrett Brooks (Feb. 3), Ashton Beaird (March 23), Gabe Cook (March 23) and Dillon Lopez (March 30) have all been named Athletes of the Week. Brooks, Cook and Lopez were also named the NCBWA South Central Region Athlete of the Week.
Closing In: Junior Gabe Cook struck out the 100th batter of his career with his final K against UT Tyler. Matthew Janecek needs nine to reach the same milestone... Garrett Brooks is 18 hits shy of 200 for his StMU career... Jacob King needs 12 RBI for 100.
Triple Play: St. Mary's is one of 16 teams in the nation to have turned a triple play this season. In the eighth inning of game two against Sul Ross State and runners on first and second base, Raithen Malone snagged a line drive, threw to Blake Allen at second, and he tossed the ball to Garrett Brooks at first, catching both runners off the bags.
