LITTLE ROCK — SUN BELT
UALR 3, WESTERN KENTUCKY 1
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. - Chance Cleveland struck out 11 batters over seven innings and Sean Bignall had a hand in all three UALR runs as the Trojans claimed a series-opening victory Friday night at Nick Denes Field.
Cleveland gave up 1 run on 4 hits and walked 3 while improving to 6-1. His only allowed run came in the fourth inning, when Western Kentucky had three of its hits.
Casey Dykes drove in Ivan Hartle, who earlier singled, with a double to left field to tie the game at 1-1 and after Scott Wilcox singled and Blake Crabtree walked to load the bases, Cleveland got Adam Lavelle to ground out to first base. Cameron Allen then pitched scoreless eighth and ninth innings for the Trojans.
UALR (16-10, 3-4) took a 1-0 lead in the second inning when Blake Johnson’s single scored Bignall, who had doubled to lead off the inning. In the sixth, John Clark was hit by Taylor Haydel, who relieved starter Justin Hageman to begin the seventh, with the bases loaded to score Bignall and give UALR a 2-1 lead. Bignall had reached on a one-out single, advanced to second base on a balk and to third on a wild pitch. Johnson and Kaleb Jobe walked before Clark was hit by a pitch.
In the seventh, Bignall, who went 3 for 5, singled to score Myles Parma, who reached on an error.
Parma and Chris Burk each had two hits for the Trojans.
Hageman (1-3) lost for Western Kentucky (10-16, 2-5) after giving up 2 runs on 6 hits and striking out 8 in 6 innings.
TROY 7, ARKANSAS STATE 6
TROY, Ala. - Arkansas State took a 6-0 lead into the bottom of the seventh inning, but Troy (13-12, 3-4 Sun Belt Conference) scored twice in the seventh and five times in the eighth to defeat the Red Wolves (15-11, 5-2) at Riddle-Pace Field.
Arkansas State senior Jacob Lee struck out a career-high 10, gave up no runs on 6 hits and had 1 walk in 6 innings. But relievers Bradley Wallace and Brandon Farley couldn’t stop the Trojans. Wallace gave up five runs and Farley the final two.
“Credit Troy. They did a wonderful job of putting together some at-bats,” Arkansas State Coach Tommy Raffo said. “They kept swinging away and had some key hits. We gave away three free bases that scored runs, so out of those seven, three were free bases. They got to seven runs before we did and they earned the win.”
First baseman Logan Pierce got the Trojans going in the bottom of the inning with a two-run home run.
A run-scoring double by catcher Jake Harrell got the scoring started in the eighth, followed by an RBI single by shortstop Tyler Hannah.A two-run double by Pierce down the left-field line tied the score at 6-6, and a sacrifice fly to right field by Boone Shear drove in Pierce to put the Trojans on top 7-6.
The Red Wolves managed to get the tying run to second base in the top of the ninth, but Troy reliever Nathan Hill retired the final two batters he faced to earn his second save of the season.
SOUTHLAND
TEXAS-ARLINGTON 9, CENTRAL ARKANSAS 8 (10)
ARLINGTON, Texas - Philip Incaviglia beat out Central Arkansas’ double play attempt to allow Preston Morrow to score and give host Texas-Arlington a series-opening victory in 10 innings Friday night.
With one out in the 10th, Stewart Hill singled to load the bases. Then, Incaviglia hit a ground ball to UCA second baseman Garrett Brown, who flipped to shortstop Blake Marchal to get Hill for the second out. But Marchal’s throw to first wasn’t in time to get Incaviglia and the Mavericks escaped.
That came after UCA’s Kelley drove in Ethan Harris with a single in the top of the 10th to take an 8-7 lead.
Bryce Biggerstaff got the loss for UCA (11-12, 5-5) after giving up 4 runs on 4 hits over 2 2/3 innings in relief of starter Jeffery Enloe, who gave up 5 runs on 4 hits and struck out 5 over 7 innings.
Harris was 3 for 5 with 2 runs scored and 2 RBI for the Bears, who had 15 hits, while Logan Moon went 3 for 5 with 2 runs scored.
Sports, Pages 22 on 03/31/2012