LITTLE ROCK — Standing in the sweltering Saturday sun, Tommy Raffo cooly shook his head and folded his arms when asked if he told the Arkansas State baseball team it stood no chance of claiming a share of the Sun Belt Conference title.
In the middle of the third inning of a victorious season finale against UALR, word came that Florida Atlantic — who finished a half-game ahead of the Red Wolves in the standings — had called off a game against Florida International due to lightning.
But the fourth-year Arkansas State coach placidly brushed aside questions about disappointment.
“We can only control what we can do,” Raffo said. “What can we do? We can’t dictate what goes on down there. We can only control what we came to the park to do.”
The same mantra holds as the second-seeded Red Wolves (32-21, 19-9) open pool play at 3 p.m. against seventh-seeded Middle Tennessee (29-27, 14-16) at the Sun Belt Conference Tournament at Bowling Green Park in Bowling Green, Ky.
News of the Owls’ cancellation still found its way into the ears of the Red Wolves, who tried to downplay any frustration.
“Everybody was waiting for it to start around noon, but it didn’t,” senior center fielder Michael Faulkner said. “Then we learned they didn’t even tarp the field to even try and play the game. Maybe they did it on purpose, maybe not. We can’t worry about that now.”
The only way to claim any bit of revenge against the Owls — the top seed in the other pool — is for ASU to win its portion of the draw, earn a date Sunday in the title game and potentially end an 18-year postseason drought with its first NCAA Tournament berth under Raffo.
ASU carries timely momentum into the tournament, winning four games in a row that included a weekend road
ASU, UALR players earn All-Sun Belt honors; ASU’s Raffo named Coach of the Year. Page 3C.
sweep of the Trojans and a midweek victory over then No. 25 Ole Miss in Jonesboro.
“We’ve got a lot of confidence going into next week,” said junior left fielder Logan Uxa, who leads the Red Wolves with nine home runs and 40 RBI this season. “It was big to beat a good SEC team in Ole Miss and carry it over to the weekend. We’ve always had confidence. We know we’re pretty good. We can play and we want to carry it over.”
ASU’s bats have loomed large in May, where the Red Wolves have won nine of 11 games. Over that span, Raffo’s team is averaging 7 runs per game with a .291 batting average along with a .403 on-base percentage and a .395 slugging percentage.
Entering this weekend, Middle Tennessee touts only the sixth-best team ERA in the conference at 4.96, while No. 6 seed Troy — which ASU plays Thursday — is one spot behind 5.03. Down the stretch, Faulkner said the Red Wolves have finally found a line-up to generate production.
“The offense is really clicking right now,” Faulkner said. “Coach Raffo really has the offense figured out right now, and he knows where everybody feels comfortable. Guys are starting to know their roles at the right time and can’t be selfish.”
It helps that ASU, which hadn’t finished better than third in the conference since 1996, didn’t have to look over its shoulder in the second-half of conference play and never slipped from second place after making the turn against Florida Atlantic with a 10-5 record.
Behind Arkansas State, third-seed Florida International (31-23, 15-14) and eighthseeded Western Kentucky (26-31, 13-17) are separated by only two games, creating a clump of largely even teams jockeying for seeding over the season’s final weekend.
“We were just playing try to get a higher seed, because come this time of year there’s a lot of things you can’t control like tiebreakers,” Faulkner said. “The only thing you can do is win, come out and not worry about everyone else.”
Which explains the quickly blase attitude about FAU passing on its final game, and ASU turning its attention forward.
“We wanted a regular season title,” Uxa said. “But there’s nothing we can do but keep on carrying on.”
Sports, Pages 25 on 05/23/2012