Central Arkansas had a comfortable lead entering the ninth inning of its Southland Conference Tournament opener against Nicholls State.
Bo Stitch helped the Bears survive.
Stitch relieved UCA starter Connor Gilmore with runners on second and third and no outs in the ninth inning, and although Nicholls State scored four runs, Stitch got Seth Stevens to ground out with runners on first and third to preserve UCA's 7-6 victory Wednesday at Constellation Field in Sugar Land, Texas.
Gilmore held No. 3 seed Nicholls State (34-18-1) to 4 runs, 3 earned, on 10 hits and struck out 4 in 8 innings. Then Gilmore gave up a single to Justin Smith and a double to Alex Tucker to lead off the ninth with UCA leading 7-2. That brought on Stitch, who gave up a single to Christian Correa that scored two runs, a single to Justin Holt, induced a groundout, then gave up another two-run single before getting Stevens to end the game.
The sixth-seeded Bears (28-22) will play No. 7 Houston Baptist, which beat Northwestern (La.) State 4-1 on Wednesday, at 4 p.m. today.
"Gilmore just did an outstanding job, just a phenomenal job today," Coach Allen Gum said. "He came out and he just controlled the game. They found some holes and some things happened late, but what we did early helped us at the end and we just held tight."
The Bears took control when they scored in four of the last six innings.
Tied at 1-1 entering the fourth, Brad Dillenberger reached and scored on two separate errors to give UCA a 2-1 lead. In the sixth, Logan Preston had an RBI triple to make it 3-1 and then hit an RBI double in the eighth to make it 4-1. Preston scored when Wesley Hoover was hit by a pitch to make it 5-2 heading into the ninth.
In the ninth, Ty Tice's triple scored Dillenberger and Tice scored on a wild pitch to make it 7-2.
Tyler Langley, Dillenberger, Tice, Preston and Matt Anderson each had two hits for the Bears, who had 11 as a team. Tice went 2 for 5 with 3 runs and 1 RBI.
SUN BELT CONFERENCE
ASU squanders chances
Arkansas State took an early lead over the tournament's top seed but couldn't hang onto it or get it back Wednesday in Troy, Ala.
Adam Ballew went 3 for 4 with an RBI double and Jared Gates held ASU to two runs as No. 1 seed South Alabama beat ASU 6-2 in the first round at Riddle-Pace Field. The loss sent ASU into the losers bracket, where the eighth-seeded Red Wolves will play No. 4 seed Georgia Southern at 9 a.m. today in an elimination game.
ASU (25-29) took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third inning when Zach George's groundout scored a run. But South Alabama answered with one run off ASU starter David Owen in the bottom of the third, added three in the fourth and two in the fifth as the Jaguars (35-19) went ahead 6-1.
Cole Gleason and Ryan Raspino had RBI singles in the fourth, and Davis Knapp drove in another run on a groundout. In the fifth, Ballew hit an RBI double and scored on Daniel Martinez' groundout.
Owen didn't allow another run while giving up 6 runs, 5 earned, on 8 hits in 6 1/3 innings, and Colton Kibler pitched 1 2/3 shutout innings. But the Red Wolves couldn't break through against Jaguars starter Gates or two relievers.
ASU didn't threaten in the fourth or fifth innings but squandered chances in the sixth and seventh innings. The Red Wolves left the bases loaded in the sixth, then loaded the bases with no outs again in the seventh. Jeremy Brown scored when Joe Schrimpf grounded into a double play and Austin Baker ended the inning when he flew out as ASU trailed 6-2.
Matt Burgess and Collin Massanelli walked but neither scored in the eighth, and George walked and Schrimpf was hit by a pitch but neither scored in the ninth. The Red Wolves were 2 for 17 with runners on, 0 for 12 with runners in scoring position and stranded 11 Wednesday.
George went 0 for 3 but walked twice to extend his on-base streak to 70 games.
Sports on 05/21/2015