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Game Notes

NEWARK, New Jersey -- The University of Texas-Pan American Broncs baseball team (23-14, 10-6 Great West Conference) opens up their final road series of the regular season when they visit the New Jersey Institute of Technology Highlanders (18-19, 9-7 GWC) on Friday at 5:00 p.m. at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium.

What You Need to Know

• The Broncs are 6-3 all-time against the Highlanders and 4-3 in Great West Conference play in a series dating back to 2008. The Broncs and Highlanders split a four-game series in Edinburg last season while the Broncs took 2-of-3 in Newark in 2010.

• With 23 wins, the Broncs have their highest win total since 2006, when the Broncs won 24 games under Wille Gawlik.

• The Broncs need to reach 26 wins prior to the conference tournament to clinch a winning record for the first time since 2000, when the Broncs went 31-19-1.

• Angel Ibanez is the one of the toughest batters to strike out in the NCAA, averaging just one every 21.1 at-bats (seven strikeouts in 148 at-bats). Derek Hagy ranks 32^nd (one every 15 at-bats) and Chris Torres ranks 132^nd (one every 11.1 at-bats).

• Roger Bernal is fifth in the NCAA in hitting with a .424 batting average. He has hits in 32-of-36 games, including 22 multi-hit games. He has had 13 two-hit games, six three-hits games and three four-hit games.

• The Broncs are 13^th in the NCAA in runs per game at 7.2.

• The Broncs are 16^th in the NCAA in on base percentage at .400.

• The Broncs are 17^th in the NCAA with a team batting average of .313.

NCAA Leaderboard

Individual Batting Average

1. Ralph Rhymes, LSU, .503 (80-159)
2. Danny Poma, Hofstra, .443 (81-183)
3. D.J. Peterson, New Mexico, .437 (80-183)
4. Trenton Moses, Southeastern Mo. St., .434 (72-166)
5. Roger Bernal, UTPA, .424 (67-158)
6. Albert Carpen, Chicago State, .423 (55-130)
7. Zach Stephens, Tennessee Tech, .422 (70-166)
8. Alex Yarbrough, Ole Miss, .417 (75-180)
9. Michael Felton, Campbell, .413 (76-184)
10. Andrew Deeds, Morehead State, .410 (71-173)

Last Time Out

Broncs @ Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders (5/1/12)

• The Broncs dropped their final non-conference game of the season, 6-5 to the Islanders.

• The Broncs scored five runs on 10 hits over the final four innings and put the tying run in scoring position with one out in the ninth.

• Riley Goulding had a career-high three hits in four at-bats while scoring a run and driving in a run.

• Shane Klemcke tied his career-highs in hits, runs and RBI with two of each.

• Roger Bernal had his fifth-straight multi-hit game, going 2-for-5.

• The Broncs used seven different pitchers, including Jonathan Sa, Colby McCasland and Zach Zouzalik, who pitched one scoreless inning each. 

Next Up

The Broncs and Highlanders play games two and three of this four-game series with a doubleheader on Saturday at 12:00 p.m. Game one is scheduled to last seven innings while game to is slated to go the full nine.