CONWAY -- Central Arkansas didn't hit the ball well Wednesday night, but the Bears didn't have to while notching a victory over UALR at Bear Stadium.
UCA drew 15 walks -- its most in a game since 1991 -- and scored four runs without getting a hit in a 6-1 victory in the second of three games between the teams this season.
"Coach [Allen] Gum talks about being stubbornly aggressive and aggressively stubborn," said center fielder Tyler Langley, who reached base four different ways while scoring three runs. "If the pitch is there we hit it, but if not, we'll watch it."
UCA (14-17) did plenty of watching Wednesday while being held to four hits.
Every UCA starter walked at least once, while Langley and Cody Davenport walked twice and Logan Preston walked four times. Langley, UCA's senior leadoff hitter, reached on an error, a single, a walk and a hit-by-pitch.
It's the type of approach Gum prefers for a team that entered Wednesday's game hitting .240 as a team, 12th in the 13-team Southland Conference.
"We had a good approach," Gum said. "There's a fine line with that, because that means we take some good pitches, but the type of team we have to be, we have to do that to be good offensively. That's a good offense if you can score six runs with four hits."
UCA led 2-0 when it scored two runs without a hit in the fourth. Matt Anderson, who later left the game with an ankle injury, walked and scored on a sacrifice fly, and Langley walked and scored on a balk. In the sixth, Langley was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning. UALR's Will Hazen then got two outs before walking Anderson, Logan Preston and Justin McCarty. Zach Ours relieved Hazen, and he walked in another run to put UCA up 6-1.
UALR starter Cole Townsend walked two batters, Reed Willenborg walked four, Hazen walked five, Ours walked three and Jacob Rateliff walked one for the Trojans (15-17).
"We didn't give ourselves a chance to win from the outset," UALR Coach Chris Curry said. "It's a team that is very Jekyll and Hyde right now. When they believe they're in it, then they'll get out and battle you. When things don't go their way a little bit, especially early, then they don't respond very well."
UCA's Tyler Gray held UALR scoreless over four innings while striking out two. The Trojans got their only run in the fifth when Zach Baker singled, moved to second on Ty Gunter's walk, then scored on Hunter Owens' single. That put runners on first and second for left-handed hitting Ryan Scott, the nation's second-best hitter at .472.
Gum brought in left-hander Chris Durham, who got Scott to fly out to center field to end the threat. Durham earned the victory after holding UALR to 3 hits while striking out 5 over 41/3 innings.
"That was a big moment because he is a difference-maker," Gum said of Scott's fly out. "He hit it hard, but he just hit it right at us."
Curry thought the bigger moment came earlier in the fifth. With Baker on second and Gunter on first, Jonathan Davis popped up a bunt that was caught by UCA right-handed pitcher Hunter Neal for the first out.
"I thought there was a here-we-go-again mentality," Curry said.
UALR AB R H BI UCA AB R H BI
Owens, cf 4 0 2 1 Langley, cf 1 3 0 0
Scott, lf 4 0 1 0 Townsend, dh 2 0 1 1
Thomas, rf 4 0 2 0 Montalvo, lf 3 0 0 1
Gifford, 1b 4 0 0 0 Anderson, 2b 4 1 1 1
Kirk, 3b 3 0 0 0 Rea, 2b 0 0 0 0
Reyes, ph 1 0 0 0 Preston, 3b 1 0 0 0
Baker, ss 4 1 2 0 McCarty, 1b 4 0 0 0
Gunter, dh 1 0 0 0 Davenport, rf 2 0 0 1
Meyn, ph 2 0 1 0 Haun, rf 0 0 0 0
Davis, c 2 0 0 0 Hancock, c 4 1 1 0
Knight, c 2 0 0 0 Balisterri, ss 2 1 1 0
Martin, 2b 3 0 1 0
TOTALS 34 1 9 1 TOTALS 23 6 4 4
UALR 000 010 000 -- 1 9 1
UCA 110 202 00x -- 6 4 0
E -- Kirk. DP -- UALR 1, UCA 1. LOB -- UALR 7, UCA 14. 2B -- Anderson, Hancock. S -- Langley, Townsend, Balisterri. SF -- Montalvo. SB -- Preston. CS -- Baker.
UALR IP H R ER BB SO
Townsend L, 0-1 2 3 2 1 2 1
Willenborg 2 0 2 2 4 2
Hazen 12/3 1 2 2 5 0
Ours 1 0 0 0 3 1
Rateliff 11/3 0 0 0 1 2
UCA IP H R ER BB SO
Gray 4 4 0 0 0 2
Neal 2/3 2 1 1 1 0
Durham 41/3 3 0 0 0 5
HBP -- by Hazen (Langley). Umpires -- Home: Patillo. First: Schiller. Third: Powell. Time -- 2:56. Attendance -- 412.
Sports on 04/14/2016