Baseball to face No. 1 Angelo St.

After seeing two home series against a pair of northern opponents fall through, the Wayland Baptist baseball team this weekend is hitting the road for the first time this season to take on the No. 1 team in the nation.

Wayland will face Angelo State, ranked No. 1 in NCAA Division II by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, in a three-game series at ASU's Foster Field at 1^st Community Credit Union Stadium.

The Pioneers (6-2), ranked the equivalent of 35th in the NAIA, and Rams (2-1) will square off in three nine-inning games at 3 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday and 1 p.m. Monday.

Angelo State went 19-3 last season, playing an all-Lone Star Conference schedule before the season was halted by COVID-19 in mid-March. This season, the Rams won two of three in a season-opening series on the road against 10^th-ranked UT-Tyler. ASU then had last weekend's series against Arkansas-Fort Smith cancelled by the weather as well as this road series against Oklahoma Christian cancelled by weather.

Wayland, meanwhile, has had three series fall through the last two weekends.

First, the Pioneers' four-game set against Peru State, Neb., was wiped out by weather last weekend. This weekend, Wayland was set to host Sterling College, Kan., in a series at Wilder Field. When weather claimed that series, the Pioneers agreed to host Bethany, Kan., in games Sunday and Monday, but that series also fell through.

Wayland and Angelo State have met only twice previously. In 1999, when Wilder Field first opened, the Pioneers swept the Rams, 10-0 and 14-4.

Both the Pioneers and Rams are led by players nominated for the coveted Golden Spikes Award honoring college baseball's top player. Among the 55 nominees, Wayland's Luis Vargas is the only NAIA player up for the award, while Angelo State's Josh Elvir is one of only two NCAA DII players nominated. A senior outfielder, Elvir led Division II in batting average (.458), RBI (81), slugging percentage (.989) and on-base percentage (.584). Elvir currently holds the DII record for career slugging percentage at 1.000, which also leads both Division I and Division II records.

In ASU's season-opening series against UT-Tyler, Elvir hit .400 with a home run and two RBIs.

Vargas led the NAIA with 20 homers in 30 games last season and has eight blasts in eight games this season to again lead the NAIA. He owns a career .500 batting average (68-of-136), hitting .495 (51-of-103) last season and .515 (17-of-33) so far this season.

Wayland split a season-opening four-game series with No. 25 MidAmerica Nazarene before sweeping a four-game set from Jarvis Christian.