Trojans Drop Series to Arkansas State

JONESBORO, Ark. – Seven consecutive innings of scoring by Arkansas State (26-26, 13-16 Sun Belt) led to a 19-2 loss for Little Rock baseball (21-33, 11-18) on Friday night at Tomlinson Stadium.
 
Little Rock's Nik Gifford went 2 for 3 with a run and a walk while extending his reached-base streak to 13 games. Hunter Owens extended his hitting streak to 10 games as he went 2 for 4. Riley Pittman extended his team-leading hitting streak to 15 games as he finished with an RBI and a hit. Christian Reyes had the Trojans' other RBI as he also came away with a hit.
 
Arkansas State was led by Grant Hawkins and Garrett Rucker as each finished the day 4 for 5. Hawkins tallied four runs while Rucker had three runs and two RBIs.
 
The Red Wolves' Peyton Culbertson (5-7) picked up the win as he threw six innings, struck five and allowed just three hits. The Trojans' Ryan LeMoine (2-6) took the loss as he threw 2.1 innings and allowed eight runs (seven earned) on six hits, four walks and two hit-by-pitches.
 
The Red Wolves struck for two runs in the first inning thanks to a sacrifice fly by Alex Howard and an RBI single by Jeremy Brown.
 
After two singles and a sacrifice bunt, A-State came up with another run in the bottom of the second inning on an RBI double to right center by Rucker.
 
Arkansas State rattled off seven more runs in the bottom of the third inning to take a 10-0 lead. J.D. Rainwater reached on a Trojan fielding error and picked up an RBI. A wild pitch scored Brown before a passed ball scored Drew Tipton. After Rucker was hit by a pitch to load the bases, Rainwater scored as Joe Shrimpf was also hit by a pitch. Hawkins then scored after Justin Felix was hit by a pitch. A sacrifice fly to center by Howard brought home Rucker for the Red Wolves' sixth run. After Jake Bakamus walked, Schrimpf scored A-State's final run of the inning on a passed ball.
 
The Red Wolves made it 11-0 in the bottom of the fourth inning. After Hawkins hit a two-out triple, Rucker hit an RBI single through the right side.
 
A leadoff homer by Howard in the bottom of the fifth inning put Arkansas State up 12-0 before an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth put the Red Wolves up by 13. Storms set in on the Jonesboro area and forced a two-hour, 35-minute weather that delay began at 5:08 p.m., and lasted until 7:43 p.m. After the delay, A-State continued the scoring with two more runs on a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch and a bases-loaded walk.
 
An RBI double by Schrimpf, an RBI double by Felix, an RBI single by Brown and an RBI single by Tipton put A-State up 19-0 in the bottom of the seventh.
 
The Trojans broke up the shutout in the top of the seventh with a run on two hits and an A-State error. Ty Gunter got the inning started by reaching on an infield error. With two outs, Owens singled up the middle before Pittman drove in Gunter with an RBI single up the middle.
 
Little Rock got its second run of the game in the top of the ninth. After two one-out walks, Reyes hit an RBI single to second as Gifford scored the game's final run.
 
With tonight's loss, Little Rock will either be the No. 8 or 9 seed going into Tuesday's single-elimination game at the Sun Belt Conference Tournament. The outcome will depend on tomorrow's series finale and Texas State's game at UT Arlington.
 
Little Rock will look to avoid the series sweep in the regular-season finale on Saturday at 1 p.m.