Arkansas State Coach Tommy Raffo was staring at a glaring hole in the middle of the Red Wolves lineup going into this season.
Gone were Logan Uxa and Claude Johnson, who split clean-up duties last year and anchored ASU's lineup the past two seasons.
Raffo's answer turned out to be a first-year player from Crowder College who was lightly recruited out of Greenbrier High School.
Matt Burgess will be penciled into the No. 4 hole in ASU's batting order today when the Red Wolves (30-25) open Sun Belt Tournament play against No. 6 Troy (24-30) in Mobile, Ala. It will mark the 53rd time this season Burgess has achored the lineup from that spot.
Burgess leads the Red Wolves in hitting (.319) and is tied for second in the Sun Belt in RBI (57) with 4 home runs with a .431 slugging percentage. Even better, he has provided Raffo with an easy fix for what was thought to be a weakness at the beginning of the season.
"For him to handle the middle of the order, it can be very difficult for a first-year player," Raffo said. "When you look at some of the other teams around the league, they've got a very good four-hole guy."
Burgess, a first baseman, filled the role almost immediately. He had 3 hits, drove in 3 and scored 3 runs in a victory over Miami of Ohio in the season's second game.
"I just wanted to be an everyday starter and help the team every day," said Burgess, who batted .303 with 3 home runs and 31 RBI in Sun Belt games. "I knew I could play at this level."
The 6-4 sophomore just had to wait an extra year to do it.
Coming out of Greenbrier in 2012, Burgess said he talked with Raffo a bit, but it never got too serious. So he joined a handful of his high school and summer teammates at Crowder, located in Neosho, Mo., about 30 miles north of Bella Vista.
He hit .343 with 3 home runs and 49 RBI while learning that junior college baseball isn't the most glamorous level. Burgess said players practiced all day before heading to night classes during the fall, and during the spring they played doubleheaders every Friday and Saturday.
"It's not exactly an easy lifestyle," said Burgess, who earned his associate's degree from Crowder after one year. "I just grew as a baseball player in every way."
He said the experience toughened him mentally and physically, and when he started fall practice at ASU Raffo watched as he worked his way into the middle-of-the-lineup hitter the coach needed.
"There were good days and bad days in the fall, but we liked what we saw with his attitude and what he was trying to do," Raffo said. "He's got a very calm demeanor, but also very competitive, too."
The Red Wolves need Burgess at his best this week.
No. 2 seed Texas-Arlington and seventh-seeded South Alabama are also on the same side of the bracket at ASU. The Red Wolves won season series against all three of the other teams on the side of the bracket, and the team that emerges from that group will play the winner of the other side of bracket that is headlined by No. 1 seed Louisiana-Lafayette, which is expected to make it to the NCAA Tournament regardless of how it fares in the conference tournament.
Losing 2 of 3 games at UALR in the final regular-season series dropped ASU's Ratings Percentage Index to No. 67, meaning ASU's only chance to reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 20 years is most likely winning the conference tournament.
"There's a lot of finality to the tournament because, really, there's only one team that's a lock," Raffo said. "Does that team win it all? Or does any of the other seven have the opportunity to join them? This is it."
Sun Belt Conference Tournament
WHEN Today-Sunday WHERE Stanky Field, Mobile, Ala. RADIO KNEA-FM, 95.3, in Jonesboro; KNEA-AM, 970, in Jonesboro (ASU games only) WEBSITE sunbeltsports.org
TODAY’S GAMES All times Central
No. 5 Western Kentucky (29-26) vs. No. 4 Texas State (28-26), 9 a.m. No. 8 Louisiana-Monroe (22-34) vs. No. 1 Louisiana-Lafayette (49-7), 12:30 p.m.
No. 6 Troy (24-30) vs. No. 3 Arkansas State (30-25), 4 p.m.
No. 2 Texas-Arlington (30-25) vs. No. 7 South Alabama (22-31), 7:30 p.m.
Sports on 05/21/2014