Jags welcoming Huston-Tillotson for homecoming

UHV baseball coach Jonathan Stavinoha has been to the university's homecoming before.

Last year as an assistant coach at Texas A&M-Texarkana, the two teams met during the celebration.

This year, he's set to experience from the opposite dugout for the first time as the Jaguars host Huston-Tillotson for a three-game series starting 6:30 p.m. Friday.

"We're excited," Stavinoha said. "Hopefully we have a big crowd out there. With all the events going on this week, it feels really cool leading into that finale and centerpiece at Riverside Stadium. It should be fun."

The series will culminate with a 12 p.m. doubleheader Saturday. Between games, UHV will hold its homecoming ceremonies.

The Jaguars (15-18, 9-6) swept Texas College in conference play before falling 11-9 in a back-and-forth non-conference tilt with NCAA Division III DePauw University (Ind.) on Sunday.

In the series with Texas College, UHV set a new program record with 25 runs scored in a 25-3 win in Game 1 before winning 17-1 in Game 2. The Game 2 win was the eighth time the Jaguars scored 10 runs or more.

Five different players homered for the Jaguars last week, including the first of the year for Cobey Wasicek and Edrick Morillo. Kaden Fikac, Ty Williams and Zach Lee also hit home runs.

Wyatt Lambert picked up his first career win on the mound while Allen Hernandez was credited with his second win at UHV.

"Some of our starters have been playing well," Stavinoha said. "So, some of those guys in those other spots haven't seen as much playing time. It was good to get them out on the field and get some confidence, not only for them, but us as a coaching staff knowing we'll be able to rely on them when their number's called."

Lee's two-run home run against DePauw was his fourth of the season and capped off a 4-for-8 week in which the El Campo native had four RBIs, a double and a triple.

"Zach made an adjustment after the LSU-Shreveport series," Stavinoha said. "It's really paid off. He had three hits the other night and hit well against Texas College, and had some great Abs. Hopefully that leads into this coming weekend."

It will also be a homecoming for Huston-Tillotson head coach and UHV alum Chase Almendarez, a 2018 graduate.

Almendarez earned Academic All-American honors by Google Cloud in 2018. He appeared in 78 games between two seasons at UHV and boasted a career .427 slugging percentage and .976 fielding percentage.

The Round Rock native is in his second season with the Rams, who enter the series with a 9-20 record overall and 5-10 in the RRAC.