The stakes surrounding the final regular-season series between UALR and Arkansas State are pretty simple.
Whichever team wins two games earns a spot in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament. Whoever loses the series is going to need some help.
Not that either team is counting on what happens with Middle Tennessee this weekend.
All three teams enter their final regular-season series tied for seventh place in the league standings. Two will advance to the conference tournament that begins May 22 in Lafayette, La.
“History typically shows that help doesn’t really come,” ASU Coach Tommy Raffo said. “You play the series straight up, and you try to win a series like you have for nine series this year.”
The Red Wolves (25-27, 11-16) and Trojans (26-25, 11-16) open their three-game series at 6:30 tonight at Tomlinson Stadium in Jonesboro.
ASU holds a tiebreaker over Middle Tennessee, while Middle Tennessee holds the tiebreaker over UALR.
If ASU is swept, it will need Western Kentucky to sweep Middle Tennessee to earn a spot in the tournament. If ASU wins one game against UALR, the Red Wolves need Middle Tennessee to lose at least two games to make the field.
UALR is eliminated if it is swept by ASU. If the Trojans win one game, they will need Western Kentucky to sweep Middle Tennessee to advance.
“We’re kind of embracing the opportunity and we’re excited,” UALR Coach Scott Norwood said. “We can’t wait to get on the bus and go play.”
The Trojans have won eight of their past 11 games to move into contention for a spot in the league tournament, but recent history suggests ASU has an edge this weekend. The Red Wolves swept the Trojans in a three game series in March - they won all three games by a combined seven runs - and have won 12 consecutive games against their in-state rival.
UALR’s last victory against ASU came March 20, 2011, and the Red Wolves’ sweep of the Trojans in Little Rock at the end of last season cost the Trojans a spot in the conference tournament.
Norwood insists UALR is a different team this year, even a different team than it was nine weeks ago when ASU won three games in three days in Little Rock. UALR was swept by South Alabama the week after the ASU series, but since then it is 11-10 against conference opponents and recently settled on a solid weekend rotation.
Starters Chance Cleveland, Blake Huffman and Travis McDonald, who entered the rotation three weeks ago, have earned the past three Sun Belt pitcher of the week awards.
“For awhile it was looking pretty bleak,” Norwood said of his team’s chances of making it to the conference tournament. “We’ve been a lot more consistent, so hopefully it’ll be the same this weekend.”
Raffo didn’t put too much stock into his team’s recent success against UALR, saying the nine weeks that have passed since the last time the teams met provides a “new chapter.”
ASU beat Troy 15-14 on Sunday, but it had lost eight consecutive games before that, six of which were conference games that left the Red Wolves on the brink of missing the league tournament for the first time since 2009, Raffo’s first season in Jonesboro.
“Granted, the league was better, probably the best it’s been in five years, and we’ve been up and down,” Raffo said. “But you are what you are, and we are exactly what we are.”Today’s game
UALR AT ARKANSAS STATE
WHEN 6:30 p.m. today, 6:30 p.m. Friday, 4 p.m. Saturday WHERE Tomlinson Stadium, Jonesboro RECORDS UALR 26-25, 11-16 Sun Belt Conference; Arkansas State 25-27, 11-16 COACHES UALR: Scott Norwood (410-286 in 13th season overall; 120-147 in fifth season at UALR); Arkansas State: Tommy Raffo (139-139-1 in fifth season overall and at ASU) RADIO KNEA-AM, 970, in Jonesboro;
KNEA-FM, 95.3, in Jonesboro TV Comcast channel 23 (Saturday’s game only) INTERNET ualrtrojans.com, astateredwolves.com
PROBABLE STARTING PITCHERS TODAY UALR: RHP Chance Cleveland (5-8, 3.39 ERA); ASU: RHP Daniel Wright (5-4, 3.38) SATURDAY UALR: LHP Travis McDonald (2-2, 3.43 ERA); ASU: RHP Bradley Wallace (4-2, 4.17) SUNDAY UALR: RHP Blake Huffman (6-4, 4.04 ERA); ASU: RHP Cody Woodhouse (0-1, 3.40)
Sports, Pages 23 on 05/16/2013