Jags set to face Union in first game of Opening Round

HATTIESBURG, Miss. – The UHV baseball team rode plenty of momentum last week to its first-ever Red River Athletic Conference championship.

The Jaguars (26-25) won four straight games, including against No. 2-ranked LSU-Shreveport and LSU-Alexandria, to clinch their first NAIA Tournament appearance since 2014. The team earned a five seed in the Hattiesburg Bracket hosted by No. 8-ranked William Carey.

UHV will look to continue its run on Monday at 10 a.m. when it opens play in the Hattiesburg Bracket against fourth-seeded Union (30-17-1) out of Kentucky. The winner will go on to face William Carey at 5 p.m. Monday.

"The team is excited," said head coach Jonathan Stavinoha. "We talked about playing our best baseball toward the end of the regular season and it took off in the conference tournament. We need to keep that energy this week and continue to play Jaguar baseball."

While the Jaguars outscored opponents 37-14 in four games last week, the pitching staff shined to open the postseason.

Starters Mason Longoria, Brady Parker, Julian Garcia and Christian Garcia each went six innings or more in their respective starts. Justin Mireles picked up a pair of wins in relief appearances to earn All-Tournament honors. Christian Garcia, who pitched a complete game effort in the RRAC championship, also had a perfect inning of relief to seal a run-rule win against Louisiana Christian.

"Each of those guys went out and battled their tails off," Stavinoha said. "All five pitchers we used put us in a spot to win against some of the best competition in the country. I love where our pitching staff is at heading into nationals."

UHV's bats also came alive with eight players hitting over .300 last week.

Hal Perez's grand slam kicked off the scoring in the championship game while Westley Schields' first homer of the year punctuated the win against LSU-Shreveport.

Perez, who was named tournament MVP, and Raul Lopez had seven and six RBIs, respectively. Ty Williams led the team with a .500 average and six RBIs in 19 plate appearances.

Along with Perez, Julian DeLeon was named the Hustle Award winner while Hayden Leopold was a Gold Glove recipient. Mireles, Williams and Westley Schields were named to the All-Tournament team.

"We just played selfless baseball," Stavinoha said. "It didn't matter who got a hit or an RBI. The guys just wanted to do the job required of them at the plate in that particular moment. That led to guys getting on and then the guy behind them picking them up. It's exactly what you need in the postseason."

Union's path to the NAIA tournament is similar to UHV's.

The Bulldogs won all four of their games to be crowned the Appalachian Athletic Conference champion.

"They're also playing good baseball at the right time," Stavinoha said. "Every coach is preaching that to their guys right now. But, I'm confident we can have success sticking to our gameplan and playing our brand of baseball."