SUN BELT
UALR 4, ARKANSAS STATE 3
UALR salvaged the third game of the regular season’s final series against Arkansas State at Tomlinson Stadium in Jonesboro and also gave Chris Curry the best first-year record for a coach in program history, finishing with 12 Sun Belt victories. The victory total was one above last year’s total as well.
The Trojans (16-33, 12-17 Sun Belt) opened the game with a Petr Silva single, followed by a walk to Ryan Scott. One out later, Kuyle Kirk walked to load the bases, then Arkansas State pitcher Derek Birginske walked his third batter of the inning, Justin Steelmon, to score Silva. The Red Wolves (25-28, 12-17) got the run back in the bottom of the inning on a RBI groundout by Ty White, but the Red Wolves left the bases loaded.
In the third inning, Collin Massanelli singled to left with two outs, scoring Austin Baker.
With one out in the top of the fourth, Steelmon reached on an infield single to second. Drew Merten singled to right, then both runners advanced on a wild pitch by Colton Lee. Hayden Martin grounded out to score Steelmon before Brandon Gil walked on four pitches. Sam Vogel singled to right center to score Merten, giving the Trojans a 3-2 lead. UALR increased the lead to 4-2 in the fifth when Scott led off with a single to left. Tanner Rockewell followed with a single to center, moving Scott to third, from where he scored on an RBI groundout.
Arkansas State closed the margin to 4-3 in the sixth when Joe Scrhimpf singled to score Tanner Ring, who had reached on a pinch-hit double.
In the seventh inning, Massanelli walked but was stranded when Silva tracked down a shot to the left-center gap by Stuart Levy for ASU.
Zach George walked in the eighth to extend his on-base streak to 70 games and was moved to second on a Scrhimpf single, but both runners were stranded.
SOUTHLAND
MCNEESE STATE 7,
CENTRAL ARKANSAS 1
McNeese State’s pitching staff shut down the UCA offense Saturday to take the Southland Conference series finale and avoid the sweep at Bear Stadium in Conway.
McNeese starter Ethan Stremmel (5-4) held the Bears to 3 hits and 1 run in 5 innings. The bullpen behind him — Cole Prejean, Cory LaPeze and Collin Kober
— was even more effective, allowing 1 hit and striking out 8 over the final 4 innings.
The Bears (27-22, 16-14), who had beaten the Cowboys (32-23, 18-12) seven consecutive times, including the first two games of the series, scored their only run in the fifth inning when Matt Anderson walked, advanced to second on a wild pitch, went to third on a groundout and scored on Tyler Langley’s single to right field.
UCA loaded the bases with two outs in the ninth against Kober but could not bring in a run.
The Cowboys finished with 12 hits, including two each from Billy Sommers, Connor Crane and James Cantu. UCA starter Riley Echols (3-4), the first of five UCA pitchers, took the loss. Freshman Ty Tice had two hits for the Bears, who won four of their final six regular-season games.