Some teammates noticed how close Matt Burgess had been to breaking out all weekend at Gary Hogan Field.
"I thought he was due for sure," Arkansas State's Tanner Ring said.
Burgess, ASU's first baseman and No. 5 hitter, was feeling the frustration, too.
At a glance
SUN BELT TOURNAMENT
at San Marcos, Texas
WEDNESDAY’S GAMES
All times Central
(3) UALR vs. (6) Georgia Southern, 9 a.m.
(7) Texas Arlington vs. (2) South Alabama, 12:30 p.m.
4) Troy vs. (5) Texas State, 4 p.m.
(8) Arkansas State vs. (1) Louisiana-Lafayette, 7:30 p.m.
"I was popping up a few that I felt like I should have driven," said the senior, who was 0-for-8 in the series entering Saturday's finale at UALR.
On his final at bat of the series, Burgess made sure he didn't miss.
An at-bat after Ring drew a bases-loaded walk to tie the game, Burgess, hitting right-handed for the first time all weekend, sent a 1-0 fastball from Cole Townsend over the wall in left field for a grand slam to spark ASU to a 15-11 victory in both team's regular-season finale.
The comeback victory came a day after it rallied from an 8-3 deficit by scoring nine runs in the final two innings in a 12-10 victory. Saturday's victory came with an even bigger ninth inning from the Red Wolves (27-27, 13-17). Trailing 10-7, ASU twice got down to its final strike while scoring eight runs in the final inning, including Burgess' bases-loaded blast, its first home run in the three-game series.
UALR (26-26, 17-13) tried to come back when it scored one in the bottom of the ninth and loaded the bases, but Tyler Zuber struck Hunter Owens out looking to end another wild three-game series between the in-state rivals that included 62 runs and 88 hits over three games.
"I think in this park, anything goes," ASU Coach Tommy Raffo said.
The game itself had no bearing on Sun Belt tournament seedlings. Before the first pitch was thrown UALR was locked into the No. 3 seed and ASU into the eighth when the tournament begins Wednesday in San Marcos, Texas. Times aren't yet known, but UALR will play Georgia Southern and ASU will play No. 1 Louisiana-Lafayette in the first round.
Still, UALR Coach Chris Curry was displeased again with his pitching, which allowed 18 hits Saturday. UALR had its worst showings in the ninth innings of both games, when it gave up 14 runs on 11 hits, walked 5 batters and hit 2 others.
Starter Joe Corbett gave up 7 runs on 12 hits over 52/3 innings Saturday, but still left with an 8-7 lead. Reed Willenborg then pitched two scoreless innings before the ninth, which he entered trying to hold a 10-7 lead.
Jeremy Brown led off with a single, before Jake Bakamus struck out and Willenborg walked Daltan Lovell. That brought on Townsend, who hadn't yet pitched in the series. He gave up an RBI single to Tony Ortiz, another single to Ty White and a sacrifice fly to Joe Schrimpf to make it 10-9. Then, he got two strikes on Rucker before walking the bases loaded, and two strikes on Ring before walking a run in to make it 10-10.
Burgess followed with the grand slam.
"Obviously, we have major issues in the bullpen late in the game that we need to get corrected, mainly locating the ball over the plate and into the bottom of the zone," Curry said. "... It is inexcusable in Division I baseball to come in and not be able to throw the ball over the plate."
The struggles of the bullpen spoiled another positive game from UALR's offense.
Ty Gunter's three-run home run in the first inning was his third in as many games and gave UALR a 4-0 lead. Then Ryan Scott's RBI double in the second made it 5-0 and chased freshman starter Zachary Patterson.
"You have to continue to compete," Raffo said about Patterson. "It doesn't matter what the score, or what you're feeling now, the older guys are a little bit better at that."
UALR added three more in the fifth on Kyle Kirk's RBI groundout, and RBI singles from Hunter Owens and Hayden Martin made it 8-2.
The Trojans missed chances to extend the lead when they stranded a runner on second in the fourth, a runner on first up 8-3 in the fifth and runners on second and third up 8-7 in the seventh. But Curry wouldn't put any of the blame on an offense that has carried his team all season.
"When you're given a three-run lead in the [top] of the ninth and your offense gets almost 20 hits and 11 runs, that's all you can ask for out of those guys," he said. "Our offense is not our issue. We need to locate better strikes later in the game."
ASU AB R H BI UALR AB R H BI
White, rf 6 2 3 0 Martin, 2b 4 1 2 2
Shrmpf, 2b-c 5 1 2 1 Scott, rf-lf 4 1 2 1
Rucker, cf 4 2 1 1 Thomas, dh 6 0 0 0
Ring, dh 5 3 3 3 Gifford, 1b 6 2 4 1
Burgess, 1b 6 1 3 5 Knight, c 3 1 1 0
Brown, ss/2b 2 2 1 1 Reyes, pr 0 1 0 0
Bakamus, 3b 5 0 0 0 Davis, c 0 0 0 0
Lovell, c 3 1 1 0 Gunter, lf 4 3 3 3
Sldmrdge, ss 1 1 1 1 Meyn, rf 1 0 0 0
Ortiz, lf 5 2 3 1 Baker, ss 4 0 2 0
Kirk, 3b 5 0 2 2
Owens, cf 5 2 1 1
TOTALS 42 15 18 13 TOTALS 42 11 17 10
ASU 002 014 008 -- 15 18 1
UALR 413 000 021 -- 11 17 1
E -- Seldomridge, Gifford. DP -- UALR 2. LOB -- ASU 12, UALR 16. 2B -- Rucker, Ring, Seldomridge, Ortiz, Scott, Gifford, Baker. HR -- Burgess (6), Gunter (3). S -- Gunter, Baker. SF -- Schrimpf. SB -- Gifford, Owens.
ASU IP H R ER BB SO
Patterson 11/3 5 5 5 1 2
Grantham 22/3 4 3 3 2 2
Ayers 3 4 0 0 1 3
Haake W, 2-0 1 2 2 2 2 0
Zuber 1 2 1 1 2 1
UALR IP H R ER BB SO
Corbett 52/3 12 7 6 4 3
Willenborg 22/3 2 2 2 2 1
Townsend L, 0-2 1/3 3 6 6 3 0
Slayton 1/3 1 0 0 0 0
HBP -- by Corbett (Brown), by Patterson (Owens), by Haake (Baker). WP -- Patterson, Willenborg. Umpires -- Home: Griffith. First: Minard. Second: Brammer. Third: Arthur. Time -- 3:40. Attendance -- 857.
Sports on 05/22/2016