Jags set to close regular season at home vs. LSUA

The (RV) UHV baseball team has a chance at more history this weekend.

When the Jaguars (31-13, 18-9) square off with LSU Alexandria (19-19, 16-10) in a three-game Red River Athletic Conference series and Free Ticket Weekend presented by Shaw Realty, they can secure the team's best-ever regular season finish in the RRAC. UHV currently sits in second place with a one-game lead over Texas A&M-Texarkana.

UHV can also tie the program wins record, should they sweep the Generals.

It marks a turnaround of 10 wins compared to the Jaguars' record in 2023 entering the final week of the regular season.

"Up to this point, it hasn't been bad," said head coach Jonathan Stavinoha. "Obviously, when you look back at the whole picture, you'd like to have some games back but I've never been a part of a team where you didn't have that. We were in every single game no matter what. And when we play JagBall, we're a pretty good baseball team. We're looking forward to hopefully finishing off the regular season the right way."

Despite dropping its last series to Louisiana Christian, the Jaguars won the final game of the series, 7-2, thanks to home runs by Juan Martin, Hal Perez and Levi Whitlock. The win set the Jaguars up to where three wins would secure the No. 2 seed for next weeks RRAC Tournament in Sterlington, Louisiana.

Perez's homer tied Kaden Fikac for the team-lead at seven.

But the wins won't come without work for the Jaguars against an LSU Alexandria team which also boasts a win against now No. 4-ranked LSU Shreveport. Last year, the Generals took two of the three regular season games before UHV beat them, 12-2, in seven innings to claim the RRAC Tournament title.

"Alexandria has always been a good team," Stavinoha said. "Kody (Gautreaux), he does a great job coaching them up. They're going to play fast. They're going to play hard. They're going to swing it and grind out good at-bats. We're really going to have to pitch and play good defense. On the other side, offensively, we're going to have to execute in those major spots – get guys on and finish the job by punching those runners in whether it's manufacturing runs or driving it to the gaps."

The Jaguars are confident in their pitching staff, which has been one of the best in the nation most of the season, heading into this weekend's series. They boast the fourth-best staff ERA (3.62) in the nation behind only No. 1 Southeastern, Oakland City and LSU Shreveport.

Julian Garcia became the first UHV pitcher to reach nine wins the season after picking up the victory in the final game against Louisiana Christian last week and ranks second in the RRAC in ERA at 2.40.

Mason Longoria ranks second in the RRAC in strikeouts with 86 while Jacob Baker is tied for the fourth-most saves (3) in the conference.

"I'm very confident in all of our pitchers right now," Stavinoha said. "Everybody that we've thrown out there has done a tremendous job and executed to their abilities. We expect the same going into this weekend and into the conference tournament. When you've got seven or eight guys you have confidence going to, that's a great feeling to have."

The series gets underway with a 7 p.m. first pitch on Friday. Between games of Saturday's 12 p.m. doubleheader, the Jaguars will recognize seniors Whitlock, Langston White, Hayden Leopold, Carson McKenna, Richard Gill, Jr, and Raul Lopez.

Stavinoha is proud of these seniors for buying into his ideas when he took over as head coach a year ago.

"They've been leaders on and off the field and have really bought into what JagBall is," Stavinoha said. "They welcomed me with open arms and I'm always going to be grateful for that and everything they've done. It's been a joy to see what they've accomplished over their time here. But when you try to put together a picture of what a UHV Jaguar baseball player is, you look at these six guys and you couldn't get a clearer picture of what that is and what JagBall means."