The University of Arkansas at Little Rock snapped a two-year losing streak to its in-state neighbor Tuesday night in convincing fashion.
UALR (26-20) won 12-6 over the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (20-22) at Gary Hogan Field in Little Rock, which last lost to the Trojans in 2016.
The outcome of the nonconference game was mostly arbitrary, and both teams threw under-used pitchers in order to ready their bullpens for each of their conference tournaments.
UAPB left-handed senior starter Austin Softley (1-1, 8.53), who earned the loss, had started just one game prior to Tuesday night, and he entered the game with 16 innings as a reliever.
UALR scored five runs against Softley before he recorded an out in the bottom of the first, and he finished the game with 3 innings, 5 hits, 4 earned runs, 3 walks and 3 strikeouts.
"You just want to see, with an arm like him, can he go out there and give you some innings next week in the tournament?" said UAPB Coach Carlos James, whose Golden Lions will enter the Southwestern Athletic Conference Tournament on May 16 as the No. 3 seed from the West Division.
UAPB concludes its regular season at the University of Central Arkansas at 6 p.m. today.
UALR right-handed freshman Hayden Arnold started the game, and he and junior righty Mason Leeming (1-0, 8.00) both pitched two innings and combined to give up 3 hits and an unearned run with 2 walks and 5 strikeouts.
More than half of their pitches were strikes (43 strikes, 27 balls), which was what UALR Coach Chris Curry wanted to see.
"That's all we asked them to do," said Curry, whose Trojans are first in the Sun Belt Conference's West Division. "I don't care about the base hits. I don't care about any of that. I just wanted to see if they could come in and shove it over the plate against a Pine Bluff team that can swing the bat. And that's what they did."
Going into the ninth inning, the Golden Lions scored two runs, and they were produced by a groundout and a sacrifice fly.
By then, UALR commanded a 12-2 lead.
An error and a hit batter produced the first two Trojans runs, then junior third baseman Nick Perez hit a three-run double to left center to extend the lead 5-0.
Perez went 3 for 4 with a game-high 3 RBI.
Junior center fielder Marcus Ragan hit his second single of the game before the first inning ended, which drove in another run to give the Trojans a 6-0 lead.
UAPB's attempts to manufacture runs failed.
Freshman shortstop Jarficur Parker led the game off with a single to short right field, then stole second base. But he and junior first baseman Nick Kreutzer, who walked, were stranded after the other three batters struck out.
Golden Lions junior second baseman Ryan Mallison singled in the third, then was thrown out while attempting to steal second.
The Trojans' lead continued to widen.
Junior first baseman Riley Pittman hit a solo home run in the fifth to go up 8-2, and junior designated hitter Troy Alexander hit an RBI single in the sixth to cap the Trojans' scoring.
UAPB's Mallison hit an RBI single in the bottom of the ninth, and senior left fielder JP Soriano hit a three-run double to set the final score.
UALR will begin a three-game series at No. 19 Coastal Carolina at 1 p.m. Friday.
CENTRAL ARKANSAS 14,
ARKANSAS STATE 3
Left fielder Hunter Strong went 4 for 5 with 6 RBI and 2 runs scored Tuesday to lead the University of Central Arkansas (29-18) over Arkansas State University (17-27) at Bear Stadium in Conway. ASU took a quick lead in the first inning on a two-run home run by Kyle MacDonald, his team-leading 11th of the season. Strong hit an RBI single on the first pitch he saw in the bottom of the first inning, cutting the lead to 2-1. Josh Somdecerff followed with a tworun home run of his own, his seventh of the season, to give UCA a 3-2 lead. Jeremy Brown hit a solo home run, his fourth of the season, to tie the game at 3-3 in the top of the third inning, but the Bears took control of the game in the fifth. Strong hit a two-run double to left field and Coby Potvin scored on a fielding error by center fielder Drew Tipton to give the Bears a 6-3 lead. Rigo Aguilar added a two-single up the middle and he later scored on an error by third baseman Jacob Jablonski for a 9-3 lead.
Strong hit an RBI double in the sixth inning, increasing the lead to 10-3, before UCA put the game out of reach in the seventh on a bases-loaded walk, an RBI fielder’s choice from Potvin and a two-run double from Strong.
Strong was the only player to have multiple hits for UCA, which finished with nine. MacDonald was the only ASU player with multiple hits, going 3 for 3 with 1 runs scored and 2 RBI.
MacDonald’s 11 home runs are the most for an ASU player since 2007, when both Ryan Hudgins and Josh Yates hit 11. Ross Rogers earned the victory in relief, allowing 2 hits with 7 strikeouts over the final 6 innings. Korey Wasson took the loss after allowing 3 earned runs on 3 walks to the only batters he faced in the fifth inning.
Sports on 05/09/2018