Diamond Devils Renew Rivalry With Arkansas-Pine Bluff
PINE BLUFF, Ark. – The Mississippi Valley State University baseball program will take on the Golden Lions of UAPB for a three-game weekend series in the teams’ first meeting in nine seasons.
What You Need to Know
Time and Dates: Friday, March 4 (2 p.m.) | Saturday, March 5 (1 p.m.) | Sunday, March 6 (1 p.m.)
Records: Mississippi Valley State (2-5, 0-0 SWAC) | Arkansas-Pine Bluff (0-5, 0-0 SWAC)
Location: Pine Bluff, Arkansas – Torii Hunter Baseball Complex
Series History: N/A
Last Meeting: April 16, 2013 | Arkansas-Pine Bluff 24, Mississippi Valley State 5 | Greenville, Mississippi (Legion Field)
Winning Streak: N/A
Mississippi Valley State Overview
At this last job, Stanley Stubbs turned around Rust College and took them the Small Black College World Series by way of fundamental baseball and speed. He has brought the same mentality two hours south to Itta Bena as Valley ranks tenth in the country with an average of three stolen bases per game and is top-45 for on-base percentage at .414, the best mark in the Southwestern Athletic Conference.
Former Bearcat Maury Weaver followed his coach to the Delta and personifies his style of play, swiping the fourth-most bases in the NCAA with nine over seven contests with the second-best average of 1.29 per game, trailing only Texas Southern’s Johnathon Thomas (1.80).
MVSU has taken 21 bases in 24 attempts (87.5%) with Weaver fronting the runners followed by Narvin Booker and Darrien Chapman (3), Antonio Walker and Johnathan Yandrich (2) then Davon Mims and Jan Tolentino (1).
Chapman is currently the batting average leader for the men from The Delta, hitting .417 with a tied for team-best six RBIs as Narvin Booker has also driven in six.
Scouting The Opponent: Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions
Pine Bluff comes into the weekend winless on the campaign, dropping all three games at the annual Andre Dawson Classic to New Orleans, Prairie View, and Grambling with its other two losses coming to the defending World Series Champions (Mississippi State) and Stephen F. Austin.
The Lions have played clean and unselfish baseball up to this point, leading the league with a .976 fielding percentage and five sacrifice flies to rank top-35 nationally.
Dylan Jutze has been finding holes in the defense with ease, topping the conference in batting average (.500, top-25 in NCAA) and on-base percentage (.571) to go along with the runner-up slot for slugging percentage (.700).
Your financial support, whether it be through purchasing season tickets, making an annual donation or committing to a major gift, directly benefits Valley’s student-athletes in the classroom and in sports.
