No. 13 A&M-Victoria baseball opens RRAC Championship Rounds vs. OLLU on Saturday

The Texas A&M University-Victoria baseball team is setting its sights on more hardware.

The Jaguars, who won the Red River Athletic Conference regular season title, is set for the championship rounds of the RRAC Tournament which starts off with a clash against Our Lady of the Lake University at 1 p.m. on Saturday at LSU Shreveport's Pilot Field.

The game was pushed back from it's originally-scheduled Friday slot due to expected heavy rain in northern Louisiana.

A&M-Victoria advanced to the championship rounds after a sweep of Jarvis Christian in the opening round. The Jaguars (35-13) scored in double-digits in both games to move one step closer to a sweep of the regular season and postseason conference titles.

After Saturday's game, the Jaguars will face either A&M-Texarkana or LSU Shreveport on Sunday.

Runs galore

With wins of 10-0 and 11-4 last week, A&M-Victoria has now scored in double digits 19 times this season.

After last weekend, the Jaguars rank 20th nationally in batting average (.327), 13th in doubles (106) and 25th in runs (415). A&M-Victoria boasts seven batters over the .300 line for batting average with Antonio Benitez's .404 clip leading the way.

Benitez has led the Jaguars in most statistical categories this season with 74 hits, a .509 on-base percentage, five triples and a single-season record 39 stolen bases this season.

But it's been the bats of Garrett Smith and Beck Zimmerman cashing in on Benitez's success at the top of the lineup. Smith leads the team with 58 RBIs while Zimmerman is second with 51.

Connor Kaiser and Jackson Purcell have added 44 and 40 RBIs, respectively, while Jose Montanez has driven in 36 runs.

Player of the Week

Kaiser earned the final RRAC Player of the Week honor this week after a dominant series at the plate.

The graduate senior from College Station became the eighth Jaguar honored in the weekly awards, going 5-for-8 with seven RBIs in a postseason sweep of Jarvis Christian.

He had a career-high five RBIs in Friday's 10-0 win over the Bulldogs before following it up with a three-hit performance.

On the season, Kaiser is batting .329 with 44 RBIs and 48 runs scored. He has produced 11 doubles, two triples and has stolen 10 bases while reaching base at a .458 clip.

Centuries

Blane Zeplin became the third Jaguar in the last two seasons to eclipse the 100-strikeout mark in a season.

The senior from Victoria struck out eight Bulldogs in Game 2 last week and now boasts 106 strikeouts, which ranks third in the NAIA. His 2.59 ERA ranks third among RRAC pitchers.

He and Jonathan Jones are top two in the conference in wins with 10 and 11, respectively. Jones' mark of 11 wins leads the nation and is tied for the single-season record set last year by Mason Longoria.

It's the first time in program history the Jaguars have had two pitchers eclipsed double-digit wins in the same season.

Follow along

All games at the championship rounds will be streamed for free on the LSU Shreveport Athletics YouTube channel. Live stats will be provided on the A&M-Victoria athletics website.